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I was out of commission Thursday afternoon, recovering from a migraine, so I am late in posting this. But I wanted people to read what Fort Worth Police Chief had to say yesterday in this letter I got in my e-mail:

In appreciation for the time you spent talking with me Tuesday night, I wanted you to see a letter that is being posted on our City’s website.

Also, I am sending out a press release today that basically says the FWPD is NOT going to assist the TABC with “bar inspections” until a few things are accomplished:

1-I want to meet in person with the TABC director to discuss our roles in these efforts…I want to make them more ’service’ based instead of enforcement.

2-a number of witnesses have come forward and that is a good thing. I want a complete internal investigation completed and discuss the findings with the community and evaluate what changes can take place…

3-I am working closely with our own HR department to assess the availability of multi-culturalism training. I don’t have the funds but will find them ASAP if a good program can assist our department.

4-Since I am new to this region (6 months), I want to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs and ensure they are the right thing for our community. They are very effective if done right…time will assist me with making that decision.

Thanks again to both of you. I hold true to my promise to meet with a group of leaders to discuss how we can work together to make positive changes.

Have a safe and happy 4th!

Jeff

(Jeffrey W. Halstead, Fort Worth police chief).

I just found this video posted yesterday by depfox. As a cop himself, he stands by good cops but speaks his mind about the officers involved in the Fort Worth fiasco.

Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead has suspended operations between his department and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission pending investigations into last weekend’s raid of the Rainbow Lounge. Read the full story in The Star-Telegram by going here.

Between Halstead’s move and the TABC’s decision to assign two agents to desk duty, it’s looking more and more like TABC is going to take the brunt of the blame for this one, which doesn’t surprise me. Less than a year ago, the city of Dallas was forced to rein in TABC agents because they were conducting bar inspections in an inappropriate fashion here. The Dallas Tavern Guild, an association of gay and lesbian bars, was involved in putting a stop to these practices. I’m not suggesting that the Fort Worth Police Department is blameless in this, but perhaps the LGBT community needs to start calling for reform at TABC as well, including diversity training and a liaison officer. Better yet, perhaps we need to vote Republican Gov. Rick Perry the hell out of office next year. Read this excerpt from Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy the other day:

This kind of bar inspection has been around only since 2005. Before then, agents mostly checked IDs and arrested bartenders for overserving customers.

But since then, Gov. Rick Perry’s political appointees have told agents to discourage drunken driving by arresting everyone who’s drunk in bars.

Supposedly, agents conduct sobriety tests first and let drinkers go if they have a driver. City police don’t even have those rules.

From descriptions, the Rainbow inspection sounds like exactly the kind of bar raid Texas lawmakers complained about in a 2005 Austin hearing.

“You’ve got some fine officers,” Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, told beverage commission officials. “But there seems to be a cultural problem, and I refer to some of your guys as cowboys.”

Whitmire, a strong supporter of law enforcement, described commission agents as “cowboys showing up wanting to show everybody how tough they are.”

A letter I received, written to the DNC from the perspective of a gay man, shooting Obama’s rhetoric back at him:

I truly “support” Democrats being elected in 2010 and 2012. I am a “fierce advocate” of the Democratic Party after all. I know that I have promised you my support over the past few decades and have done my best to follow through.
Even now I am “working towards” a financial donation to the Party. I do have to ask for your “patience” though, because as a gay man, my family and I are still second class citizens and are having to funnel our resources towards causes that protect and honor our basic civil rights. “We have a lot on our plate.”
We are “proceeding” towards lifting the denial of funds to the DNC and are “developing a strategy” that will get us there by the end of Obama’s time at the White House. As a matter of fact, my family has planned several “meetings” to discuss these very important donations and will be sending out a press release shortly to announce our “cocktail party” celebrating Democracy.
Thanks for understanding. And hang in there!

RuPaul gives it up for free.

Just read a MySpace bulletin from RuPaul hawking his newest release “Jealous of my Boogie.” I got excited when he mentioned the words “17 tracks” and “free” in the same sentence. Turns out it’s 17 tracks off the single. The single, I said! “Jealous of My Boogie – The RuMixes” which dropped on Tuesday is really a small collection centered around nine remixes of the song. Mixes of “Cover Girl,” the “Drag Race” theme song and a selection of ring tones are also on the playlist.

If you head here though and sign up for an absolutely no strings free account, then all 17 tracks are available to you. Just remember, it’s a free listen, not a free download. Or do what I did – not sign up and still get to hear one mix of “Jealous” and then wax nostalgic with a “Supermodel” listen too.

The mix here is faithful to the single. For being a kitschy pop culture icon, Ru comes out with some substantial dance music that thrives because of its old school funk roots. Try not to hear a bit of The Gap Band in his chorus. Plus, his vocals are some of the few that benefit from the already tired Auto-Tune (think Cher’s “Believe”) trick.

Whether you need multiple mixes or just the one, “Jealous” should be a good jump start for the day.

About 100 people attended a vigil for Chad Gibson outside the Rainbow Lounge in Fort Worth last night, according to The Dallas Morning News. We couldn’t make it because we were busy holding vigil over the final pages of the print edition, but above is a photo sent to us by local activist Chastity Kirven. Read our full coverage of the Rainbow Lounge raid in this week’s Voice, which hits the streets today (Thursday, July 2) instead of Friday due to the upcoming holiday.

I’ve watched a grand total of about 10 minutes of “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” a self-indulgent crap-trap of poor (and poorly staged) “reality TV cliches. On it, Gene brags about his Playmate wife and his virtual contempt for anyone who doesn’t live the rock star existence. It might as well be called “Lifestyles of the Nouveau Riche and Nauseating.” Point is, Gene is hardly one to talk about public image.
So I was pretty frickin’ irritated to read an interview with Gene where he gives career advice to Adam Lambert — and basically disses him for coming out:

He’s enormously talented, best talent ‘American Idol’ has had, but I think he killed his career because now the conversation is not about his talent but about his sexual preference [Gene's word; emphasis mine]. He’s done. You’re forcing people to deal with issues they may not be interested in. Life is unfair, and the masses don’t all live in L.A. They live in Wisconsin and Nebraska, and you’re on crack if you think the same rules apply there. My advice is still the same, shut the f*** up, just sing and let people say whatever they want. But I do wish him the best because he’s got all the talent in the world. If only the world was not homophobic, but it is. I would be the first one to vote for equal rights for gay women and men, and get the church and the state to stop telling everybody how to lead their lives, but do I think he’s killed his career? Oh, in an instant. I hope I’m completely wrong. I hope he becomes the next Beatles and proves me wrong.

Now, let me get this straight — a word Gene would probably love. Lambert is THE MOST TALENTED SINGER EVER on “American Idol”… but his career is DEFINITELY OVER because he came out…. because middle America isn’t ready, in 2009, for a gay pop singer. This coming form a man who hasn’t had a top 100 hit since the Carter Administration… and got it by playing dress-up, wearing makeup and spitting blood. I guess Nebraska was ready for THAT 30 years ago, but not Adam today.
Forget K.D. Lang. Forget Melissa Etheridge. Or Tammy Baldwin (from Wisconsin, by the way, Gene). No, Gene Simmons, spokesman for family values, doesn’t thing Adam Lambert can get arrested in an airport Courtyard by Marriott because he came out.
Then Gene feeds us the usual bullshit — “It’s not ME who’s a bigot, it’s everyone else!” Please, Gene. You wouldn’t know a hit if you wrote one (which you haven’t since I was in grammar school), yet you offer career advice based on image? When you’re relevant again, let’s talk. I won’t wait up.

I just had a phone conversation with a source close to Chad Gibson’s family. I was told that yes, the bleeding has stopped, but that he has been having severe headaches today.

And just a note about Instant Tea poster “Pro Police”: I don’t know who this person is, or what his/her source of information is. I do know that people are not kept in the hospital in ICU for four days for a simple concussion. And I am pretty sure that the doctors at JPS Hospital are in a much better position to determine the extent of Chad Gibson’s injury.

Between 1,200 and 1,400 people participated in Sunday’s Million Gay March, according to Laura Martin, LGBT community liaison officer for the Dallas Police Department.

I finally caught up with Martin this morning to confirm the estimate. My independent estimate was a minimum of 1,000.

Martin said she was positioned in a patrol car with another officer near Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road during the march.

“She and I each counted as people passed, and we each came up with between 1,200 and 1,400,” Martin said. “That’s going to be a pretty accurate estimate, I believe. That’s the official police estimate.”

Asked about those who’ve suggested that only 300 people attended the March, Martin said, “Without a doubt, that’s not accurate.”