Rally draws more than 100 from as far as Tyler, Fort Worth
- Activist Aaron Rathbun waves one of many Rainbow flags that could be seen flying during Sunday’s Stonewall commemoration in downtown Dallas. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
DAVID TAFFET | Staff Writer taffet@dallasvoice.com
The LGBT community marked the 41st anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion and the first anniversary of the Rainbow Lounge raid with a rally, march and candlelight vigil on Sunday evening, June 27 in Downtown Dallas.
A crowd of about 150 gathered outside the Dallas County Records Building at 6:30 p.m. Elizabeth Pax energized the crowd before a march through downtown.
Event organizer Daniel Cates said he was inspired by the words of gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, who encouraged the LGBT community to march down Main Street. From Historical Plaza in front of the Records building, marchers proceeded down Commerce Street, turned the corner at Neiman Marcus and returned to the square walking hand-in-hand while chanting along Main Street.
The march took about 30 minutes and was led by a group representing each letter in LGBT. They carried a banner that said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Another banner read, “Full federal equality now.”
Signs said things like, “Adam & Steve. Madam & Eve. It’s all good” and “Wake Up America. Being homophobic kills. Equality now.”
Several signs remembered Milk.
“Harvey Milk. American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, winning the seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors,” one sign read.
Shannon Kern, a straight ally, served as emcee of the rally that followed the march.
“Burst down those closet doors because you are perfect the way you are,” Kern said.
Jesse Garcia of Dallas gay LULAC council told the crowd to vote and encouraged straight allies to do the same. He challenged the group to reach out to fellow minorities who understand that the fight is for civil rights, and to stick together and not bow to forces that want the community to turn against itself.
When Rafael McDonnell from Resource Center Dallas spoke, he began by asking how many were attending their first gay-rights rally. About a quarter of the crowd cheered.
Get Equal Now activist Michael Robinson reminded the crowd of last week’s DART non-discrimination victory.
“Lock me up and set me free,” said activist Chastity Kirven. She was referring to her arrest at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office while protesting inaction on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
Kirven led the group in several chants including “One struggle, one fight,” driving home the evening’s theme of unity.
Referring to the handful of anti-gay counterprotesters from a Mansfield church who’ve become a fixture at local LGBT events, Kirven questioned their morality.
“When they want to look into your bedroom, who’s the pervert?” Kirven shouted.
Renee Baker spoke on behalf of the transgender community and, as a Youth First Texas board member, on behalf of young people.
“I’m doing this for our youth,” she said. “They’re taking the brunt of this because they’re still in the public schools.”
Nonnie Ouch, president of the Gay Straight Alliance at Texas Tech University, also mentioned the counterprotesters.
“Let’s not be like our enemy who cowers behind his theology,” she said.
Cates responded to the Mansfield group’s signs saying homosexuality is a choice that does not deserve “special rights.”
“I’ll tell you what’s a choice. Religion is a choice and it’s protected by the constitution,” Cates said.
Cates finished his remarks by thanking the Republican Party of Texas for defining their hatred of gays and lesbians so heinously in its platform that it’s being ridiculed in the national media.
The Rev. Steve Sprinkle of Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth spoke about the response to last June’s Rainbow Lounge raid. He said the event united Dallas and Fort Worth into one LGBT community to produce an appropriate response.
He said while the goal of police was to harass and humiliate, the LGBT community showed it won’t be intimidated.
A candlelight vigil followed to remember those no longer with us.
Spencer Young, from the cast of the Tyler production of “The Laramie Project,” which right-wingers tried to cancel, remembered Nicholas West during the vigil.
West was 23 when he was kidnapped from a Tyler park and murdered on Dec. 30, 1993. Young compared that murder to Matthew Shepard’s five years later. As he told the story, the clock in the tower above Old Red eerily tolled the hour.
Pax ended the evening by leading the crowd in rounds of “We Shall Overcome.”
Thanks David for writing this article – very good work!
I was there and it was an incredible event! It was really nice to have a *real* Pride in the spirit and form of the original — getting back to basics. A real meaningful event rather than just a party of drinking, big corporate sponsors trying to control every last detail, and sponsors trying to make a buck off the LGBT community.
I only wish more members of the LGBT community would have come
AWESOME COVERAGE, DAVID!!!! Thank you for the dynamic piece, representing our true cause! This is much appreciated as we don’t always get this privilege with other reporters or media. Bravo!!!
Harvey Milk didn’t ask us to “march,” he asked us to do something positive:
““I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects … I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.”
– Harvey Milk, 1978
Actually Andrew- Harvey Milk called for us to march on Washington- a dream he did not live to see happen. So he very specifically DID call for us to march. Thanks
Harvey Milk advocated a “National March on Washington” (not 100 people in Dallas) and we’ve had five “marches on Washington.” They don’t make a difference.
Harvey Milk’s legacy is about “coming out and “being visible,” not making cute signs and marching around with lyrical “demands.” One-on-one conversations with neighbors, friends, co-workers and even strangers actually works. Parading around isn’t effective.
Andrew –
Everyone has to start some where, and if marching with 100 proud people helps you to feel safe and proud, perhaps that strength will bleed into their personal life. It’s okay if that doesn’t work for you. We’ll forgive you. But please don’t stifle that for others with negativity on an online message board. Go spend that time having one-on-one conversations with your neighbors and friends.