The Art of Living Foundation, Dallas chapter, will honor several local HIV/AIDS advocates tonight during the group’s annual Heroes of Humanity Reception and Award Ceremony at the Dallas Sheraton, 400 N. Olive St.

The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 6:30 p.m. Among those receiving awards will be the Rev. Steven Pace, executive director of AIDS Interfaith Network; Cora Giddens, HIV/ Healthy Relationships program coordinator at UT Southwestern Medical Center of Dallas; Susan Wineski of the Legacy Counseling Center; Cheryl L. Edwards, CEO of A Sister’s Gift; and Janel Jones, chairwoman of A Sister’s Gift.

For more information or to register, go to the Heroes of Humanity Web site.

I’m getting crucified in the comments below and also over at The Dallas Morning News’ City Hall blog for comments I made concerning Mayor Tom Leppert’s recent decision to join First Baptist Church of Dallas. I say good, bring it on, but I do want to clarify one small thing: You see, I don’t really give a shit where Leppert goes to church, and these people are right, to some degree it’s his business. My point is only that in my humble opinion, it’s a politically motivated decision as Leppert continues to position himself to run for Senate. In the Southern Baptist Convention, First Baptist Church of Dallas is like Mecca. So when Leppert is out there on the Senate campaign trail, he can just tell people in small-town Texas that he’s friends with Pastor Robert Jeffress, who happens to be a complete bigot, and they’ll be more inclined to vote for him. Again, I say good, and good riddance for Dallas if he steps down to run. But it’s worth noting that until now, Leppert has painted himself as a supporter of the LGBT community. In light of his decision to join First Baptist, I’m beginning to think that this was all just lip service designed to help him get elected or re-elected in a city where the gay vote matters. And now that he wants to get elected statewide, we’re expendable. I’m also starting to wonder whether Leppert really was responsible for those anti-gay robo calls against Ed Oakley in 2007. I’ve requested an interview with the mayor about his decision to join First Baptist, but I haven’t heard anything back. Go figure.

I’ll have more on last night’s rally on Cedar Springs in tomorrow’s Voice, but for now I wanted to share this video of Queer LiberAction’s Blake Wilkinson and Rick Vanderslice confronting National Equality March organizer Mark Reed and his partner, Dante Walkup, during the rally. Wilkinson is apparently still smarting about Reed’s decision to cancel a plane ticket he’d given Wilkinson to attend the march over comments criticizing the event that were posted on QL’s Web site. During the confrontation, Wilkinson and Vanderslice get in Reed’s face and call him  a “piece of shit”  and a “slimy motherfucker.” Reed responds by calling Wilkinson “a fuckin’ liar.” I was paying attention to the rally and missed the whole thing, but Laura McFerrin captured it all on video and passed it along this morning. It’s definitely worth three minutes of your time.

Agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission didn’t target the Rainbow Lounge because it was a gay bar and didn’t use excessive force against three patrons who were arrested during the raid, including one who was seriously injured, according to a report that will be released by the state agency later today.

The agents, Christopher Aller and Jason Chapman, were fired along with their supervisor in August based on the findings of TABC’s first investigation into the June 28 raid, which dealt with policy violations. However, TABC’s second and final investigation clears Aller and Chapman of allegations that they targeted the bar and used excessive force against patrons Chad Gibson, Jose Macias and George Armstrong. Gibson was hospitalized for a week following the raid with a head injury.

“Although the evidence did not show that our agents targeted the bar or used excessive force, it does not take away from the fact that the agents violated several policies that night,” TABC Administrator Alan Steen said. “I want to take another opportunity to say that this is not how we treat people, and we have been looking at this from every angle to find ways to make sure it does not happen again.”

I’m told that TABC’s full 74-page use of force report, which I haven’t seen, will be available later today online, and we’ll post the link as soon as it’s available. You can read the full press release about the report, which was sent out first thing this morning, after the jump. For more coverage, see Friday’s Dallas Voice.

Read the rest of this entry »

KXAS Channel 5, the local NBC affiliate, has posted a story on its Web site, citing unnamed Fort Worth city officials, saying that the Fort Worth Police Department’s investigation into the June 28 raid on the Rainbow Lounge found that officers did not use excessive force that night.

The sources also said that no officers will be fired over the incident although at least one may face some sort of disciplinary action.

Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead has scheduled a press conference to announce the results of the investigation tomorrow (Thursday) at 10 a.m. at the Rainbow Lounge.

TABC will also be releasing the findings in its investigation into its agents’ possible use of excessive force tomorrow morning.

We have had a couple folks contact us here at the Voice this morning saying that they had heard 1) that Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead’s press conference at 10 a.m. Thursday (tomorrow) at Rainbow Lounge — to announce the results of his department’s investigation into the Rainbow Lounge raid — has been canceled; and that 2) the actual report will not be released to the public.

I called the FWPD to check and they tell me the press conference is still on. As for whether Chief Halstead will just summarize the report’s findings or release the full report publicly, I don’t know yet.

Thanks to the big boss for sending this along. Mediaweek TV begins a new series of Webisodes that delve into the quality of the LGBT perspective of today’s television landscape. Good stuff.

Atlas Sound won’t be making any this weekend in North Texas

If you had made plans to head out to Denton this Saturday to catch the Atlas Sound — aka Bradford Cox aka the gay lead singer of Deerhunter — and Broadcast show at Hailey’s, you’ll want to consider different plans. Event promoters Spune just mentioned on their Facebook, the show has been canceled.

Atlas Sound / Broadcast Cancelled: Due to scheduling/travel problems that are impossible to change, Atlas Sound and Broadcast have to cancel this show. We’re very sorry, as are they. We’re disappointed and sorry to bring you this news, but we do thank you for understanding these things happen. Ticket refunds are available at point of purchase. Thanks for your support of Spune, Hailey’s and the events in our area.

This sucks because Atlas Sound has some shoegazing rock worth listening to outside Deerhunter. We’re hoping for a reschedule.

I’ve heard a lot of people complain that straight people are taking over the gay Halloween block party on Cedar Springs, but apparently there’s an even bigger threat: the Hare Krishnas. Instant Tea-bagger Mark Giesh passed along a link this morning to a story about the block party from ISKCON News Weekly, which is the official news agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. And get this, according to IKSCON, Dallas is the No. 2 gay capital in the U.S. behind only San Francisco! It says so right there in the first paragraph. Anyhow, ISKCON goes on to report that about 100 Hare Krishna devotees from Dallas’ temple attended the block party, which their priest later described as not “quite as debauched as the media made it out to be.” As you can see from the above video, posted on the ISKCON Web site, the Hare Krishnas received a pretty good response as they moved through the crowd singing and dancing. And if you were among those who danced along with them, there’s some really good news at the end:

At 2:30am, police finally approached the devotees and asked them to stop. “The festival is supposed to end at 2am,” they said. “But if you don’t stop your chanting, nobody will leave.” At a temple lecture the next day, Giriraj Swami remarked on how everyone had gotten Krishna’s mercy through His holy names.

Mishra Bhagavan Dasa agreed, citing a talk ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada had given in New York in 1976. “He said that once someone dances in a Harinama, Krishna takes note of it and makes sure that person soon goes back home, back to Godhead.”

… The Variants! Yes, Zeus Comics’ online Web series arrives just a tad late for Halloween with a very funny zombie-filled spoof of freebie lurkers. It’s called “Passholes.” Check it out: