This just in from AP:

About 40 young LGBT rights advocates are chanting outside Fresno City Hall over Prop 8. The protesters are calling on Fresno Mayor Alan Autry to apologize for speaking at a rally in support of the ballot initiative that amends the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

A smaller group of high school and college students are blocking the main entryway into the building, but employees can walk around the human chain to get inside.

This makes sixth day in a row that protesters have taken to the streets to vent their rage over the passage of Prop 8, which was approved by a narrow margin in the Tuesday, Nov. 4 election.

Dallas Voice contributor Lawrence Ferber talks to David Sedaris for Passport travel magazine.

Ferber asks, If you could own any hotel room in the world, which would it be?

Sedaris says: “Actually, the biggest suite I ever had was at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas. My room was so big that my legs got tired going from one end to the other. The minibar was a full-size refrigerator and there was a billiards room [plus] a private terrace that was bigger than my entire apartment in Paris.”

Photo of the Adolphus Hotel by Bryan Amann.

After 20 years at its present location, the Resource Center of Dallas’ food pantry is being forced to move at the end of the year. Rafael McDonnell, a spokesman for RCD, said center officials recently got word that the landlord wants to remodel the building that houses the food pantry (on Cedar Springs Road behind Crossroads Market). If you’ll remember, this same landlord was in the news last year when it appeared as though Crossroads itself might be forced to close. After the jump is the letter RCD is distributing to food pantry clients beginning today. The letter states that RCD plans to continue offering services at the current location through the holidays. The full text of the letter is after the jump. For more on this developing story, see Friday’s Dallas Voice.

UPDATE: Here is an excerpt from a press release that was just sent out.

“Right now, we plan to offer our pantry services at the current location through the holiday season, and will be moving elsewhere in January,” said Mike McKay, executive director of Resource Center of Dallas. “We are working to find a new location for the pantry that will be as convenient as possible to our clients. This includes access to public transportation,” he added.

The timing is especially challenging for the Center. At this time of year, the pantry traditionally experiences a dramatic increase in the demand for food and services due to the holiday season with individual HIV/AIDS client numbers swelling to over 1,500 a week. “The cost of this move is a huge, unbudgeted expense at a time of year when the demand for our services is increasing and our existing resources are already stretched thin,” McKay said.

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A group called Join The Impact is organizing protests across the country Saturday, Nov. 15, of last week’s decision by California voters to pass Proposition 8, a consitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. We’ve gotten word this morning from several sources that the Dallas protest will be at City Hall, 1500 Marilla St., beginning at 12:30 p.m. An organizational meeting is scheduled for tonight at 8 at Crossroads Market, 3930 Cedar Springs Road. Here are the Dallas contacts listed on the Join the Impact Web site: nikkos_71@yahoo.com or bill@breadwinnerscafe.com or ns0186@unt.edu.

We’ll keep you posted with any new information. Here’s a link to the Join the Impact Web site. Also, I understand the folks who organized yesterday’s protest at First Baptist Church of Dallas are planning another one next week, but this may be merged with the event at City Hall. Again, stay tuned to your Instant Tea!

From Sunday’s First Baptist demonstration. Images by Bryan Amann.

If you judge a protest by how much media attention it generates, Sunday morning’s gay-rights demonstration outside First Baptist Church of Dallas was surely a success. While many of you were still shaking off your hangovers, about 100 people reportedly showed up to protest a sermon by First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress titled, “Why Gay Is Not O.K.”

It all began last Thursday night, when I received an e-mail from Sam Fulcher with a photo attached of the marquee outside the church announcing Jeffress’ sermon. Above and after the jump are some great photos of the protest taken by Terry Thompson, controller for Dallas Voice (Terry’s favorite is the one above, which shows an African-American First Baptist congregant covering her nose to imply that the protesters stink, while her young daughter looks back toward a sign saying, “Civil unions could be the next Jim Crow”). I’m told we’ll have a DVtv segment up momentarily, so keep checking back on the main page, www.dallasvoice.com. In the meantime, here are some links to other media coverage of the protest. Many of these reports also have extensive comment threads. The Dallas Morning News, NBC 5, Fox 4, Dallas Observer, D Magazine. There’s also an interesting comments thread on my original post.

More photos of the protest after the jump.

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Last year, I interviewed fascinating Jesus freak Shirley Phelps Roper, above. Canadian college paper The Ubyssey recently interviewed Nate Phelps, Shirley’s brother.

Now an atheist, Nate tells a heartbreaking story of abuse.

The Dallas Reunion 30 was two hoots and a holler. The SouthFork Ranch was bathed in spotlights, and we arrived just as Larry Hagman’s helicopter touched down on the front lawn.

Somehow I scored a red wristband, which meant I got to sit in the first-class section next to a stage in the backyard. People paid $1,000 per ticket to sit in that section, and many red-wristband attendees were not happy. Although the BBQ spread was excellent, the event didn’t add up to much.

Everybody got to tour the house, which looks like a Hobby Lobby spree, circa 1986, gone wild: burgandy porcelain toilets, black-and-rose wallpaper, gilded angels all over the place.

The highlight was when the cast did a Q&A on the back porch. I guess die-hard “Dallas” geeks enjoyed it. But the most memorable question came from some guy who said he was from New York. He had the balls to ask Hagman, “How much does a liver transplant cost?”

People were absolutely stunned.

The evening started to get cold. I left before the fireworks and Billy Joe Shaver started jamming.

More than a few times, I overheard people complaining at how much they shelled out for the ho-hum event.

Here are some more photos: Read the rest of this entry »

I just got word that NBC Channel 5 will have a story on the planned protest tonight on the 10 p.m. broadcast. Check it out.

8:30. I jst checked the Black Tie Dinner and MCC of Greater Dallas Web sites and they are back to normal. The Persian CATS have been overcome. At least for the time being.