Tag Archives: Block

‘Camp Death’ tonight at Pocket Sandwich

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Keep that Halloween feeling

Pocket Sandwich Theatre keeps the frights going along with the laughs in their latest popcorn-tossing show Camp Death. No block parties to struggle through this time. Just sit back and enjoy as Pocket Sandwich spoofs on Friday the 13th and other ’80s horror flicks. And stock up on the popcorn. It’s just as fun to toss at your friends as it is the onstage villains.

DEETS: Pocket Sandwich Theatre, 5400 E. Mockingbird Lane, Ste. 119. 7:30 p.m. $10–$18. PocketSandwich.com.

—  Rich Lopez

Lots to do this Halloween night

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This Halloween is full of treats

So many treats tonight, and so little time. Saturday is all about decisions and it’s like you can’t make a wrong one. If you’re handy and have a couple of 5-Hour energy drinks, you could fit in a haunted house, The Women’s Chorus of Dallas masquerade ball and of course, what’s Halloween without the block party? The best part is, this is just a sampling of all that’s going on tonight. Keep your eyes open for more Halloween events and parties. Or just pick up this week’s issue. Happy trick-or-treating.

DEETS: Oak Lawn Halloween 2011, 3900 Cedar Springs Road. 7 p.m. PartyAtTheBlock.com.

Masquerade 2011. Sammons Center for the Arts, 3630 Harry Hines Blvd. 7 p.m. $25. TWCD.org.

Screams Theme Park, 2511 FM 66, Waxahachie. 7:30 p.m. $25. ScreamsParks.com.

—  Rich Lopez

TCU LGBT alumni group forms

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Organizer says school has been helpful, supportive in forming group for gay graduates

DAVID TAFFET  |  Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

There are some schools that are — or have been — affiliated with religious institutions that  not only wouldn’t welcome an LGBT alumni group, they would block such a group outright.

But when Doug Thompson, a graduate of Fort Worth’s Texas Christian University, associated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), approached his alma mater’s alumni association about forming an LGBT affiliate, he said, the response was, “Absolutely. No problem.”

TCU’s new LGBT alumni group will hold its first large meeting on Saturday, Oct. 22, after the TCU homecoming game. Thompson acknowledged that sports isn’t the main concern of many LGBT alumni, but homecoming is still a time when many alumni return to visit the campus.

Thompson said when he asked the alumni association whether the LGBT group would need approval by the school’s administration, he was told the administration would back it. The group was approved in April.

Unlike Baylor University, which sued to keep its LGBT alumni from using the school name to organize a group, Thompson said there has been no objection from the TCU campus.

“We just want to get people involved however they want to be involved,” Kristi Hoban, associate vice chancellor alumni of relations, said. “We just reach out, whether it’s a class or the business school or a special interest group.”

She said that black alumni were not participating until the Black Alumni Alliance formed about 11 years ago. Now, she said, they’re active leaders in class reunions, homecoming and department alumni events, adding that she hopes to see the same thing happen with the LGBT network.

Finding LGBT alumni hasn’t been easy, Thompson said, as students aren’t asked about their sexual orientation before they graduate.

But Thompson said about 120 alumni have already responded, mostly to calls on social media sites. And now that the school has a Gay Straight Alliance, he said, finding future alumni will be easier.

“Our goal will be to support gay and lesbian students and start a scholarship,” Thompson said. “And we’ll form activities around things gay alumni have an interest in.”

He mentioned support for the Trinity Shakespeare Festival on campus as a direction for the group.

Thompson said that having an LGBT alumni group will help the school provide a better environment for its LGBT students.

Two years ago, TCU proposed setting aside dorm space for LGBT students. A week after the announcement, when only eight students had signed up for the housing, the school scrapped those plans.

“That got totally blown out of proportion,” Hoban said.

She said the intention was never segregated housing but really just an LGBT campus group.
Thompson said the school would have avoided the bad publicity if it had the alumni group to guide them.

The LGBT alumni group will get together after the homecoming game against New Mexico on Saturday, Oct. 22. They will meet at Tommy’s Hamburgers’ Camp Bowie Boulevard location from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

…………………

OUT, PROUD ATHLETE

Pryor.Victor

Victor Pryor

Perhaps one of the best known Texas Christian University grads that will be attending the new LGBT alumni group’s meeting this weekend is Vincent Pryor, a TCU Horned Frogs football star from 1994.

That year, before the final game of the season against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, Pryor came out to his teammates. Rather than shunning him, Pryor’s coach told him he was proud of his honesty

“My teammates and my coaches overwhelmingly supported and accepted me,” Pryor writes on his website, VincentPryor.com. “All of the fears and concerns I had about being kicked off the team, or losing my scholarship, or embarrassing my school — none of that happened.  And the best part of it was that I became a better athlete after I came out.”

That day, Pryor had the biggest game of his college career, tallying a record 4.5 sacks — a record that still stands today. His performance helped TCU win the conference title and a berth in a post-season bowl game.

Today, Pryor works in sales and lives in Chicago with his partner of 12 years, who was a classmate at TCU. To watch his just-
released an “It Gets Better” video, below.

—  Kevin Thomas

UPDATE: Suspect arrested in D.C. shooting

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Police in Washington, D.C., have charged Darryl Willard with “assault with intent to kill while armed,” in connection with the shooting early Monday of a transgender woman in southeast D.C.

Washington, D.C. police are investigating the death of this unidentified person who was found wearing facial make-up and carrying a pair of light-colored heels

According to the Washington Post, after being shot at about 1:50 a.m. in the 2300 block of Savannah Street SE, the victim walked to the Seventh District Police Headquarters to report the crime. The Post reports that the victim knew her attacker and gave his name to police. Willard later turned himself in to authorities.

The victim, who is not named in the newspaper’s article, was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover from her injuries.

In the meantime, police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of a man whose body was found early Saturday, according to reports by the Associated Press. Police said that when the man’s body was found, he had makeup on his face and had with him a pair of light-colored high-heel shoes. The man appears to be Hispanic or Middle Eastern and between the ages of 25 and 30.

Police said they have no information on whether the dead man was gay or transgender, and that his body showed no signs of trauma.

The Monday shooting was the fourth time in less than two months that a transgender woman has been shot or shot at in the D.C. area. On July 20, Lashai Mclean died after being shot by a man who approached her as she walked with a friend in the city’s Northeast section. The man asked Mclean a question and then pulled a gun and shot her before she could answer, according to the friend, who was uninjured.

Eleven days later and just blocks away from the site of Mclean’s murder, a suspect approached another trans woman, asked for change and then pulled a gun and shot at her before she could answer. The shot missed and the woman was uninjured.

And in August, a D.C. police officer on medical leave was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon after he stood on the hood of a car and fired into the car containing two men and two trans women. One of the men was injured slightly in the attack.

—  admin

‘Bedpost Confessions’ tonight at The Kessler

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‘Bedpost Confessions’ moves sex talk from the closet into Oak Cliff

What would you do if your friend admitted to  being a prostitute? Or if your sister talked about having sex outside of her marriage with a 21-year-old virgin? Sexual talk outside of the bedroom can still be taboo, even in today’s desensitized world of fast hookups and Showtime melodramas. Bring up intercourse (or something far more intense), and most people will cringe or shy away.

Tonight, it all comes out. The Austin-based stage show Bedpost Confessions features performers talking up their sexual adventures out loud all in good fun. Trying to break away from the taboo of talking about sex, co-founder Sadie Smythe and company bring their show to Dallas. Local writer and Dallas Voice contributor Jenny Block, pictured, gets in on the action which makes perfect sense. As the author of Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage, she’ll have ideal material for the night.

Her thoughts on tonight’s show.

“It’s just sex. It’s supposed to be this happy, fun, sometimes even spiritual experience. It’s all gotten so twisted and tangled when really it should be so simple. Consenting adults doing something that our bodies were built to do. But somewhere along the line, people got confused. Outwardly we are this over-sexed society. But behind closed doors we don’t talk to our kids, we don’t communicate with our partners, and we’re lost when it comes to all things sex. The funny thing is, the fix is an easy one. We have to talk to one another and to our kids and to our partners. We have to strangle the taboo. We could have solved all of the world’s ills by now if we stopped worrying so much about such a natural thing and started putting our brain power to better use.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! Block will also be signing copies of her book after the show. Along with Block, Smythe and the other performers, the audience gets to play as they are encouraged to write their sexual confessions to be read aloud. Don’t worry, it’s all anonymous. Read the original article here.

DEETS:


—  Rich Lopez

Free Polyphonic Spree tonight at DMA

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Turn this museum out

If you’ve yet to make it out to one of the Dallas Museum of Art’s Late Nights, might we suggest to do so tonight? For two reasons. Tonight is the annual Summer Block Party in the Arts District so the DMA, the Nasher and the Crow Collection are all having festivities in and out. So it’s already a bash.

Second, um, the Polyphonic Spree will be playing at the DMA’s Ross Ave. Plaza. Pretty much the only band that makes symphonic rock cool, the Dallas-based collective was formed by Tim DeLaughter, formerly of local band Tripping Daisy. With over 20 members and a section of horns, strings, percussion and pretty much everytghing else, the Spree is joyous in that hippies ’60s kinda way but still keeping a fresh approach to music. Pretty much, it’s awesomeness.

DEETS: Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St. 9 p.m. $10. DM-Art.org.

—  Rich Lopez

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo on the Strip

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Fiesta on the street

Sure Cindo de Mayo has turned into a drinking-based American celebration, but we’re gonna drop some history here on you.From the completely reliable source of Wikipedia, May 5 is the “date observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride, and to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War.” What’s that? Still wondering where your margarita is? Well, hit up the Strip tonight as it gets a touch of Latin flair for the holiday. From Sue Ellen’s to TMC: The Mining Company, the celebration highlights the block tonight.

DEETS: Blockwide Fiesta at Sue Ellen’s, TMC: The Mining Company, S4 and JR.’s Bar & Grill. Cedar Springs Road and Throckmorton Street. 8 p.m. PartyAtTheBlock.com.

 

—  Rich Lopez

Wyoming GOP Plans To Block Recognition Of Gay Marriages From Other States

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GOP lawmakers in Wyoming plan to introduce legislation banning the recognition of same-sex marriages from other states. Such a move failed in 2009, but the plan is to put the issue to voters.

State law defines marriage as a legal union between a man and woman, but Wyoming also recognizes marriages performed in other states. Rep. Owen Petersen of Mountain View says that raises questions about what happens when gay couples from other states move to Wyoming. Petersen and Sen. Curt Meier of LaGrange say they plan to co-sponsor a resolution that would let voters decide whether to amend the state constitution to clarify.

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—  admin

Senate Republicans Block Defense Bill; “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal Stalled

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Today, our military readiness and national security were set back as Senator John McCain successfully led a Republican filibuster of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), to which the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is attached. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has committed to bringing the bill back up following the election.

“This filibuster was election year politics at its worst,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “It’s a shame that during a time of war, senators wouldn’t even allow debate on the bill that provides a pay raise for our troops.”

In its continuing efforts to end the ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members, HRC today released a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder calling on him not to appeal a recent court decision ruling DADT unconstitutional. Additionally, HRC is calling on its members and supporters to petition Holder to decline to appeal the case.

“We still have a fighting chance to repeal DADT through congressional action but in the meantime, the best interests of our men and women in uniform – as well as the country – are served by doing everything we can do to get rid of this discriminatory law,” added Solmonese.  “We expect the Justice Department to recognize the overwhelming evidence that proves DADT is unconstitutional.”


Human Rights Campaign | HRC Back Story

—  John Wright

Breaking: Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach sues to block DADT discharge

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This is big news, and something we can discuss in tonight’s PHB/Servicemembers United liveblog. (NYT):

On Wednesday, Colonel Fehrenbach’s lawyers filed papers in Idaho federal court requesting a temporary order blocking his discharge. The petition contends that a discharge would violate Colonel Fehrenbach’s rights, cause him irreparable harm and fail to meet standards established in a 2008 federal court ruling on don’t ask, don’t tell.

For advocates of abolishing the ban against gay men, lesbians and bisexuals serving openly, Colonel Fehrenbach’s case has become something of a line in the sand. Though President Obama has called for ending the ban and Congress has begun moving in that direction, gay service members continue to face investigations and discharge, albeit at a lower rate than in past years.

Lawyers for Colonel Fehrenbach assert that his case is among the most egregious applications of the policy in their experience. The Air Force investigation into his sexuality began with a complaint from a civilian that was eventually dismissed by the Idaho police and the local prosecutor as unfounded, according to court papers. Colonel Fehrenbach has never publicly said that he is gay.

However, during an interview with an Idaho law enforcement official, he acknowledged having consensual sex with his accuser. Colonel Fehrenbach’s lawyers say he did not realize Air Force investigators were observing that interview; his admission led the Air Force to open its “don’t ask” investigation.

Under new regulations issued by Defense Secretary Robert Gates this year, “don’t ask” investigations must be based on information from credible sources. Colonel Fehrenbach’s lawyers argue that the credibility of his accuser is clearly undermined by the dismissal of the sexual assault case.

His lawyers also assert that his case underscores the ways the ban hurts military readiness, the very thing it is supposed to protect. They say that Colonel Fehrenbach’s performance reviews were consistently glowing, including his most recent one, which says he was a “proven leader” who “raised morale” in his unit, according to papers filed by his lawyers.

Joe Sudbay at Americablog has the legal filing.

You may recall that last year, at the LGBT cocktail reception on June 29, 2009, while so many of our “leaders” were enjoying their cocktails and reveling in their A-list status, Fehrenbach actually had a very important and substantive conversation with President Obama about his situation. According to Victor, who appeared that same night on Rachel Maddow’s show:
[Obama] looked me right in the eye and he said, “We’re going to get this done.” And then he continued to say, you know, everyone seems to be onboard. We’ve got about 75 percent of the public that supports this. He said, but we have a generational issue. And so, there is some convincing to do, that there is a generational gap it seems and some of the senior leadership.

Well over a year later, it hasn’t been done. And, Victor’s lawyers know that his discharge is imminent.

In March 2010, Fehrenbach received the Winchell Courage Award at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Annual Dinner and he gave a moving speech about his experience to date. It is below the fold.

Fehrenbach:

First let me say that I am truly humbled, honored, and grateful for this recognition tonight.  

I am especially honored that it was presented by Pat and Wally Kutteles.  I don’t have words to describe what this means to me.  I only hope that I can do honor to Barry’s memory and live up to his legacy.  This fight is for him and the thousands of others who did not have a voice.  Thank you so much!  

Congressman Murphy, thank you – not only for your inspiring words tonight – but more importantly, for your military service and your leadership in Congress.  It’s so important that we have a combat veteran lead this fight, because YOU know first-hand that this is not only about equal rights, but also national security.  Thank you, sir.
Of all the awards  and decorations that I’ve received throughout my career, THIS has the most meaning to me, because it was the most hard-fought…NOT by me, but by the thousands of brave, honorable service members who have came before me, laying the groundwork and giving me the inspiration to speak out.  

No ONE person truly deserves this honor, because no ONE person has earned it alone.  No one has courage ALONE.

I want to thank pioneers like Colonel Margaret Cammermeyer, Commander Zoe Dunning, Sergeant Darren Manzella, and my hero, Major Margaret Witt, to name a few – for giving me HOPE.

I want to thank Aubrey Sarvis and the hundreds of SLDN volunteers who have served over the years, and especially now.  Some of us have been called “the voice,” but SLDN has always been “the heart and the soul” of this fight.  For years, you faced the tough challenges, did the hard work, got your hands dirty, trying to make life better for thousands of brave, patriotic Americans.  And you do all of this with no fanfare, and too often, very little thanks.  I have received thousands of messages from all over the world, thanking ME for speaking out.  But really, ALL of those messages were for YOU!  Without SLDN, I would have never had a voice and I would have never had the courage.  

I want to give another special thanks to Rachel Maddow.  Not only did she give me a voice, but she was perhaps the only person in the national media who kept this issue on the front burner-on ANY burner-for years.  She publicly pressed policy makers to keep their promises and she made sure this struggle was consistently in the public consciousness.  Rachel:  Thanks so much for your leadership, your voice, your dedication, and most of all, your friendship!

At the end of the day, I don’t think anything I have done was due to courage on MY part.  I simply did the right thing-did what my mama taught me, as they say-and I felt I had an obligation and duty to speak out.  People have courage, because of the love, strength, and faith of those around them.  No one has courage ALONE.  

Few people know this, but for a year, while I was going through this struggle very privately, only five of my closest friends knew what was going on in my life.  The day I was informed of my possible discharge, still in utter shock, I called Mike Almy.  He went through this pain 3 years earlier.  After a long, panicked conversation, he advised me to go to SLDN’s website and read everything I could, and then call them as soon as I could.  He told me that SLDN could help.  And so I have to thank Mike for, really, EVERYTHING since then.  The next week, I called my four other best friends-Mike, Jenny, Jimbo, and Nick-told them my story and asked for advice.  I told them I just wanted a quick, quiet, fair, honorable discharge….I wanted to make this ALL go away, get a job, and move on with life.  They all agreed.  After days of soul searching, I had a change of heart.  I thought that perhaps I could tell my story, and make a positive impact and help others.  When I mentioned this to my five close friends, they ALL admitted that’s what they wanted me to say from the first day.  From that point, every time a major issue or decision came up, I called them for their advice.  They helped me make the ultimate decision to go public last spring.  Just saying thank you to these five can never be enough.  This honor is for them-it is for THEIR courage.

My last, and most important, thanks goes to my family:  to my mom-the greatest, strongest person I’ve ever known, to my 7 brothers and sisters, and to my 17 nieces and nephews.  Without THEIR courage, strength, and love, none of this would have ever happened.  Because, you see-very few people know this as well-but every single one of them got a vote.

Last May, when I contacted Kevin and Emily at SLDN and told them I had made the decision to go public, they were excited and made all the arrangements in just a few short days.  I was scheduled to appear on The Rachel Maddow Show on Tuesday, but there was a catch:  it was Friday, and I hadn’t even COME OUT to my family yet, let alone told them I was getting thrown out of the military, let alone that I was going on national TV to talk about it.  

Now, I drop bombs for a living, but these were three really big bombs!  

So I told Kevin and Emily that I would tell my family over the weekend, and if any ONE person in my family had any ONE reason to say NO, the deal would be off.  I was not about to drag any member of my family through all of this.  One by one, they ALL agreed, not only SHOULD I do this, but I HAD to do this-it was a duty….an obligation.  
After this support structure was set up on Monday, I told my mom.  She simply said that we were ALL in this together, and that she loved me, was proud of me, and supported me.  This honor is for her and for them-it is for THEIR courage. No one has courage ALONE.  

To all of the amazing people I’ve acknowledge tonight, I owe a tremendous debt that cannot be measured, nor fully repaid.  I can only MAKE one simple promise:  to pay it forward-to help others the way you’ve helped me.  And I can KEEP another simple promise, in the words of my Commander-in-Chief:  ”WE WILL GET THIS DONE!”

     Thank you for this incredible honor.  God bless you, and God bless America!

Pam’s House Blend – Front Page

—  John Wright