Participants toss items to spectators during last year’s Houston Pride parade.

After Pride Houston announced at a parade participation meeting that condoms could not be distributed at Pride, the Houston Department of Health and Human Services threatened to withdraw.

Pride Houston claimed in an email that a city ordinance prevented them from allowing condom distribution:

“Recent changes in city ordinances have constituted a change in the 2013 celebration rules. They are as follows: Parade entries are not allowed to throw/distribute contraceptives from their entry (i.e., float, vehicle or walking individuals).”

But letters from the health department and Legacy Community Health Services, a Houston AIDS agency, asked the parade committee to reconsider and pointed out that there is no such city ordinance.

The committee issued several clarifications during the week. One said condoms needed to be distributed in packs with educational material and could only be distributed to people over 18.

Another was condoms could be distributed at the festival after the parade but not at the parade.

Another noted that nothing could be thrown from floats, according to a city ordinance. But beads are regularly thrown.

Finally, the committee agreed that condoms could be distributed by walking participants in the parade but not thrown from floats. The health department may also distribute condoms at the festival. No age limit was mentioned in the latest clarification.

“My take is they got some bad information on what the ordinances are,” said Daniel Williams, a Houston LGBT activist.

Williams works for Equality Texas but was speaking as a Houston LGBT activist. He pointed out Pride Houston is a volunteer organization.

“Now that they have better information, they changed the rules to comply with the information they have,” he said.

The Houston parade takes place along Westheimer Road in the city’s Montrose neighborhood on June 29.

Called “For Members Only: Eyes on the Guise,” the online auction — which you can get to here — continues until next Thursday, June 27. Even if you don’t bid on anything (though some start as low as $800!), it’s worth a peak. But you’d probably come up with an excuse in advance for your boss about why you’re scrolling through rough-trade photos. (“It’s art, ma’am! I’m an art patron!”)

The dating auction website WhatsYourPrice.com has released its ranking of the 10 cities in the U.S. with the most expensive gay first dates. The site reports 32 percent growth in gay memberships during June ,which is LGBT Pride Month. The average accepted first-date price for gays during Pride Month is $105.20, compared to $80 for the entire site.

“Our website’s recent LBGT growth proves that gay men and women are willing to invest in a first date if the opportunity is worthwhile,” said Brandon Wade, the CEO and Founder of WhatsYourPrice.com. “With an average first-date offer of $105.20, the gay community clearly values every worthy chance at falling in love.”

Below are WhatsYourPrice.com’s Top 10 cities with the most expensive average gay Pride dates.

1.) St. Louis, MO: $142.88
2.) Santa Monica, CA: $137.31
3.) Salt Lake City, UT: $135.79
4.) San Diego, CA: $131.67
5.) Boston, MA: $130.94
6.) Atlanta, GA: $126.52
7.) San Francisco, CA: $125.40
8.) Minneapolis, MN: $120.33
9.) Miami, FL: $119.14
10.) Dallas, TX: $112.53

It was shocking to see that over the Father’s Day 2013 weekend, Robberson published a piece titled “Mark Regnerus: Defending my Research on Same-Sex Parenting.”

The scientific community is way past having documented that Regnerus’s New Family Structure Study — funded by the virulently anti-gay, NOM- and Catholic Church-linked Witherspoon Institute — is an academic hoax, the defamatory anti-gay nature of its findings determined before data collection had even been done.

In fact, documents had via Freedom of Information Act requests to Regnerus’ UT revealed that in August 2011 — before study data collection had occurred — Regnerus and Witherspoon’s Brad Wilcox traveled to Colorado for a full day meeting about promoting the study in the media with Focus on the Family’s Glenn Stanton. Then, in September 2010, Regnerus e-mailed Wilcox telling him that he wanted to know more about Witherspoon President Luis Tellez’s and Maggie’s “hopes for what emerges from this project.” (Regnerus refuses to answer questions about just who his “Maggie” is, increasing suspicions that it is NOM’s notorious anti-gay liar Maggie Gallagher).

The worst part of the lack of integrity involved in the Regnerus hoax is found in its having being published by editor James Wright, of the University of Central Florida, in Elsevier’s journal Social Science Research on the false pretense that it had received valid peer review prior to publication. Michael Schwartz, chair of sociology at Stony Brook University, is on record calling for the Regnerus paper to be retracted and for Wright to be removed from his position for his documented editorial misconduct in publishing Regnerus. Gary Gates of UCLA’s Williams Institute submitted an essay to Wright about his publication of Regnerus titled An Illegitimate Review Process. Wright refused to publish Gates’ essay.

Even were it not for the documented misconduct involved, on the purely scientific side every major professional group that has evaluated the Regnerus paper has concluded that the paper has nothing to say about same-sex parents — and yet Robberson chose to regurgitate, in publication, the known fraudulent claim that Regnerus did “research on same-sex parenting.”

Here is what the American Sociological Association has to say in its Prop 8 and DOMA cases amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court: “by conflating children raised by same-sex parents with individuals who reportedly had a parent who had ‘a romantic relationship with someone of the same sex,’ and referring to such individuals as children of ‘lesbian mothers’ or ‘gay fathers,’ the Regnerus study obscures the fact that it did not specifically examine children raised by two same-sex parents. Accordingly, it cannot speak to the impact of same-sex parenting on child outcomes.”

Robberson in his article presents Regnerus as though Regnerus had no connection to the political uses being made of his hoax study, when in fact, Regnerus filed a Supreme Court amicus brief alleging that on the basis of his study, the U.S. government should continue to discriminate against DOMA plaintiff Edith Windsor, who has no children.

Laurie Essig of Middlebury College e-mailed Robberson with her concerns about his counterfactual presentation of Regnerus and the study. Robberson blew her off by trying to assert that the lies he published are not lies. The documentation shows otherwise, it is in my possession and also is not hard to find on the Internet.

Robberson refused to comment for my piece. Shame on him and on the Dallas News for publishing their article in defense of Regnerus’s gay-bashing junk science on Father’s Day weekend.

Scott Rose is a New York City-based novelist, investigative reporter and freelance writer. He can be reached at  newyorkcitywriter@earthlink.net

With Man of Steel leaping over box office records (I kinda liked it), I was delighted to stumble upon this bit of superhero fanboy art. Someone has taken it upon himself to take post-punk/New Wave icons — including queer icon Morrissey, pictured — and re-imagine them as classic comic book heroes. Sure, Morrissey doesn’t have Henry Cavill’s pecs, but can Cavill burrow under your skin with plaintive lyrics of doomed romantic pointlessness? … I didn’t think so.

You can see all the pieces of cover art here.

A mock-up of the rainbow-colored ‘B-G’ sculpture.

Dallas’ “B-G” letters are coming to Oak Lawn repainted in rainbow colors, according to Scott Barretto.

Barretto’s Social House Media agency and ilume developer Luke Crossland are paying for the colorful paint job and the sculpture will be placed outside Crossland’s building at Knight Street and Cedar Springs Road in front of the old Monica’s.

Barretto said painting should take about six days but the letters in rainbow colors should be ready in time for some June Pride Month photography.

The letters are part of a marketing campaign conducted by the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau to promote tourism to the city. The idea is for people to be photographed standing between the “B” and “G” to make the “I.” The letters have been placed in various places around the city, but not in Oak Lawn.

“When they launched the new BIG branding for Dallas, it became quite clear to me that there was a missing element to the launch, which included the installation of the ‘B-G’ sculptures around the city at major consumer traffic spots,” Barretto wrote to us. “With the sculpture campaign now over (and just a few remaining sculptures left up for display), I approached my contacts within the CVB and pitched them on the idea of installing a special version of the ‘B-G’ sculpture repainted in the colors of the Pride flag and placed in Oak Lawn.”

Many people posed with the letters at Main Street Garden where they were specially installed for Razzle Dazzle Dallas.

Several weeks ago, our cover featured Jenna Skyy as the I in the “B-G” sculpture.

Originally we hoped to photograph Jenna in the letters on the roof of the NYLO Hotel in The Cedars with the skyline of Dallas in the background. But the hotel wanted to collect a fee of several hundred dollars for a professional photo shoot.

Although Jenna was quite flattered about being called a professional, we hightailed it out of there and we trekked downtown where we had passed a set of the letters facing the Omni Hotel. When that location didn’t work because of bad reflection from the building, we found another set in Pioneer Plaza. Jenna changed into her Balenciaga gown in the middle of the park and posed for about 100 shots.

Jenna lives at ilume so when her alter ego Joe Hoselton heard about placing the letters right downstairs from his apartment, he laughed and said, “Of course they are.”

Jenna trekked through downtown Dallas to help us get the perfect ‘BIG’ cover.

]]> http://www.dallasvoice.com/rainbow-bg-coming-oak-lawn-10150735.html/feed 0 http://www.dallasvoice.com/dallas-county-commissioners-pass-first-ever-lgbt-pride-month-resolution-10150716.html http://www.dallasvoice.com/dallas-county-commissioners-pass-first-ever-lgbt-pride-month-resolution-10150716.html#comments Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:00:12 +0000 Anna Waugh http://www.dallasvoice.com/?p=150716

LGBT advocates who attended Tuesday’s Dallas County Commissioners Court meeting gather on the steps of the administration building after the Pride resolution passes. (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)

Dallas County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday declaring June LGBT Pride Month.

The resolution is the first of its kind for the county. The Dallas City Council has issued proclamations the past three years recognizing June as LGBT Pride Month.

Commissioner Theresa Daniel presented the resolution, reading it to the room before it passed. Commissioner Mike Cantrell, the only Republican on the five-member court, was absent from the meeting.

“On this special occasion, we must bear in mind that while we have overcome difficult obstacles, tolerance and acceptance is something we must all practice and teach future generations,” the resolution reads in part. (Read the full version here)

After its passage, activist Omar Narvaez then addressed the court with several LGBT supporters standing behind him. He spoke about the importance of the LGBT community having showing its Pride during June.

“It’s so appropriate that our symbol for the LGBT community is a rainbow because we are every single part, we are every fabric of that rainbow,” he said. “We are African-American, we’re Latino, we are white, we are Asian, we are Native American.”

Narvaez said he was proud of Dallas County for being the first in the state to have both an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policy and domestic partner benefits, and now it’s the first to have passed a resolution declaring it LGBT Pride Month.

Commissioner Dr. Elba Garcia then thanked the activists who attended and recognized gay former Dallas Councilman John Loza for being in attendance. Both Garcia and Loza worked on the city of Dallas’ LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance in 2002 while serving on the City Council together.

County Judge Clay Jenkins thanked those in attendance for their work and patience when the county added transgender protections to its nondiscrimination policy in 2011 after it was left out of the policy, and for working with commissioners last year when domestic partner voucher program passed. He said those things have made the county better and other counties should follow Dallas’ lead, adding that half of Fortune 500 companies already have a similar policy and benefits.

“Dallas County is the most progressive county out of 254 because they follow the lead of half of the Fortune 500 companies,” Jenkins said. “It’s time for the rest of the state to treat our GLBT brothers and sisters like fully equal partners in our society.”

Daniel summed up the discussion before other resolutions were considered by the court.

“Very simply put: discrimination any place is wrong,” Daniel said. “Thank you very much for all of us doing our part to make this a better place for everybody.”

Watch video below.

Vonciel Hill

Along with Mayor Mike Rawlings, Dallas City Councilwoman Vonciel Hill was absent last week when the council debated a resolution in support of marriage equality and LGBT job protections. Hill must feel like she missed an opportunity to join certain other council members in showing off their anti-gay bigotry, because this week she made up for it by emailing Fox 4 to complain about a billboard in South Dallas, above, encouraging people to get tested for HIV. From Fox 4:

Councilwoman Vonciel Hill wrote that the billboard has several messages: presenting African American men who are homosexuals as acceptable, engaging in such conduct presents health risks, feel free to continue what you are doing but protect your health.

It’s a little disturbing that Fox 4 would even consider this a story in 2013 — not 1983 — but reporter Shaun Rabb does a good job of getting Dallas County HHS Director Zachary Thompson and AIDS Arms Executive Director John Carlo to  thoroughly refute Hill’s arguments.

We’d only like to add that Hill’s email seems to have several messages: she hates gay people, she wants gay people to die from AIDS, and she wants African-American women to continue contracting HIV at alarmingly high rates.

Now, why on earth would anyone castigate her for that?

Watch Fox 4′s report below.

Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

State Rep. Jason Villalba

State Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, is the guest at the Dallas Log Cabin Republicans’ June meeting on Tuesday.

Villalba, who just finished his first session in office, received a D-minus on Equality Texas’ Legislative scorecard. He received a total of 40 points for votes in the House.

Villalba received point for opposing Fort Worth Republican Matt Krause’s discriminatory amendment to SB 215 that would have allowed university clubs to ignore “all-comers” policies regarding membership. But he lost points for voting against HB 2240, which was endorsed by Equality Texas and would have studied the reasons surrounding homeless youth in the state.

Villalba made headlines during the session with HB 1009, a bill he authored, that passed, allowing schools to employ an armed school marshal to protect campuses.

The meeting is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Texas Land & Cattle Steakhouse, 3130 Lemmon Ave.

Rep. Marc Veasey, left

While one North Texas congressman participated in a photo shoot supporting marriage equality last week, another recently attended a reception for an LGBT group — by mistake.

“This morning, I participated in a NOH8 Campaign photo shoot with over 60 members of Congress,” Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, wrote on his Facebook page on June 13. “As a member of the House LGBT Equality Caucus, I am proud to stand in support of marriage equality and equal rights for all Americans.”

He posted the photo above from tho shoot.

“Stay tuned for the official portrait,” he said.

The NoH8 Campaign began in California after Proposition 8 passed rescinding same-sex marriage in the state. Created by Adam Bouska, photos feature subjects with duct tape over their mouths, symbolizing being silenced by Prop 8, and “NOH8″ painted on one cheek.

Rep. Ralph Hall, center, at Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund reception.

Meanwhile, one of the most anti-gay members of Congress showed up at an LGBT reception, surprising everyone there.

Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall, walked into a Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund reception June 6, according to the Houston Chronicle, and had a drink and chatted with guests — before he realized he was in the wrong place. He intended to attend a reception for a fellow Republican.

Hall, who is staunchly anti-gay, continues to support the Defense of Marriage Act.

“He seems to be lost,” tweeted Victory Fund Vice President of Communications Denis Dison.

When Hall inquired about the congressman he was there to support, he realized he was in the wrong place, thanked the sponsor, put down his glass and left.

“Many of those in attendance probably were surprised to see me walk in, but were not surprised to see me leave quickly,” Hall said.

At 90, Hall is the oldest current member of Congress.

The photo of Hall at the reception is courtesy of Dison.