Tag Archives: DART

Gay photographer held up at gunpoint near DART’s Uptown Station, refuses to give up camera

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Gay photographer Stephen Masker says he was taking photos of DARTs Uptown Station (near CityPlace) on Monday when three or four men approached in a van and demanded his camera at gunpoint. Masker refused to hand over the camera, and the men eventually fled, according to WFAA:

“I said, ‘What? Like, what are you talking about?’” Masker recalled. “He repeated himself and said, ‘Give me your camera.’ I said, ‘I’m not giving you my camera.’”

Masker said the men tried again, and once more he resisted before the men took off in a tan or gold mini-van.

“It was absolutely terrifying,” Masker said. “It was unreal.”

Highland Park police say a few minutes before, suspects matching the same description held up another man in an alley near Hillcrest and Princeton, taking his phone.

Masker said if he had to do it all again, he would not do it the same way.

“I would’ve given them the camera if it was a do-over,” he said. “If it ever happens again, I’ll give away whatever’s on me.”

Watch WFAA’s report below:

Continue reading “Gay photographer held up at gunpoint near DART’s Uptown Station, refuses to give up camera” »

—  John Wright

Local Briefs

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CCGLA surveys candidates, sets meet-and-greet events

As municipal elections approach, the Collin County Gay & Lesbian Alliance has sent an online survey to city council, school board and mayoral candidates in Allen, Frisco, Plano and McKinney, and “meet-and-greet” sessions for candidates are planned in Frisco, Plano and McKinney in April.

The organization will also create and distribute a voters’ guide.

The Plano “meet-and-greet” will be held on Friday, April 8, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at a private residence. For more information, go online to CCGLA.org.

Results of CCGLA’s candidate surveys will be posted on the CCGLA website prior to each event. The events are informal, non-partisan, and all candidates are invited.

Oak Cliff Earth Day to feature vendors, info booths and more

Oak Cliff Earth Day, which has become the largest all-volunteer-run Earth Day since it started five years ago, will be held on Sunday, April 17, from noon to 5 p.m. at Lake Cliff Park, located at the intersection of Colorado Street and Zang Boulevard in Oak Cliff.

There is no charge to attend the event, which will include art, food, plants and other environmentally-friendly products available for purchase.

There will also be educational booths on topics such as how to save energy and clean up the environment, along with locally-grown honey, animals to adopt and native plants for gardens.

Parking at the park is limited, however, free parking is available at Methodist Hospital, in Lot 10 only, located at 1400 S. Beckley Ave. across from the hospital entrance on Beckley Ave. Methodist Hospital is providing a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the event.

Participants are also encouraged to take DART to the event or walk or ride a bicycle. There are a number of bike racks, funded by Oak Cliff Earth Day, at the park.

Mayoral candidates to speak Sunday on animal issues in Dallas

Dallas’ mayoral candidates will participate in a forum on animal issues in the city of Dallas on Sunday, April 10, at 2 p.m. at the Central Dallas Library, 1515 Young St., in downtown Dallas. The Metroplex Animal Coalition is sponsoring the forum, with is free and open to the public. Journalist Larry Powell with Urban Animal magazine will moderate.

The mayoral candidates are former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle, Councilman Ron Natinsky, real estate consultant Edward Okpa and Mike Rawlings, former Pizza Hut CEO and Dallas homeless czar.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition April 8, 2011.

—  John Wright

Thanespotting

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I hate to have to say it, but I am so over Shakespeare. It was my college major, and theaters do it with the regularity of The Nutcracker at Christmastime, and frankly, I’m barded out.

Which is not to say I am directing my overall frustration specifically at Kitchen Dog Theater’s current production of Macbeth. At 100 un-intermissioned minutes, it’s a quick dart through the castles of Scotland — almost too quick. At heart, it’s a ghost story with witches and specters and lots of blood … only no blood here, and not a lot of mood. (The design is a convoluted modernization of urban guerrillas — Che Guevara meets Patty Hearst. Didn’t work.) But the problem is not really with the production, which kept my interest though never truly engaged me; the problem is doing it at all. Let’s declare a moratorium on iambic pentameter for two years. Even a great meal needs a palate cleanser.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

Through March 5. KitchenDogTheater.com

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition Feb. 11, 2011.

—  John Wright

DART gets New Year off on wrong track

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Hampton Station

An angry busload of passengers got off at Hampton Station at 8:09 this morning. The bus was a minute or two late. The train was a minute early. As the bus was pulling in, the Red Line train pulled away.

A rider from the bus saw the press pass dangling from my backpack and said: “We can complain. You can write about it.”

So here it is.

The bus from the Red Bird Transit Station to Hampton Station runs up Hampton Road and unloads all passengers to take the Red Line to downtown and points north. Some students take the train just one stop to Tyler Station and then walk to school.

The point is that everyone on the 7:55 bus from Red Bird is connecting with the 8:12 train to Parker Road.

Continue reading “DART gets New Year off on wrong track” »

—  David Taffet

Navigating our Top 10 News Stories of 2010

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In this week’s Dallas Voice, which will be available on newsstands by Friday, we take a look at our Top 10 LGBT News Stories of 2010. Because the list was designed for the print edition, it may seem a little difficult to navigate here, so we thought we’d go ahead and provide this quick reference. As always, you can also download the print edition as a PDF by clicking here.

1. Teen suicides put spotlight on bullying

2. DADT repeal capped 17-year fight

3. Dallas Dems narrowly survived GOP tidal wave

4. As Prop 8, DOMA cases proceeded, Texas made its own marriage news

5. Bus driver’s plight led to trans protections at DART

6. Controversy brewed success for ‘TOTWK’

7. Perry, Dewhurst were tied to cancellation of gay-themed play at Tarleton

8. FW changes continued in wake of Rainbow Lounge

9. Dallasites helped fuel GetEQUAL

10. Rare bathhouse raid sparked controversy

—  John Wright

11 arrested in DPD vice operation at Club Dallas

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Officer Laura Martin

Eleven people were arrested at Club Dallas on Friday night, Oct. 8, when vice officers raided the gay-oriented gym in response to a complaint, according to Laura Martin, the Dallas Police Department’s LGBT liaison officer.

Martin said 10 of those arrested were charged with public lewdness — or sexual activity in public — while one was charged with interfering with police. The person charged with interfering with police reportedly was a Club Dallas employee who didn’t immediately comply with officers. Martin said she believes it was the first vice operation at Club Dallas —commonly known as a gay “bathhouse” — since 2003.

“We’ve done operations in that club since the late ’70s. There just hasn’t been one in a while because there hasn’t been a complaint,” Martin said. “They [officers] were in there for a legitimate reason, and obviously there was illegal activity going on or that many arrests wouldn’t have been made. It just happened that no one complained in a few years, so they haven’t been in there in a few years.”

The manager of Club Dallas, on Swiss Avenue in Deep Ellum, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment, but Martin said she feels the vice operation was justified and conducted appropriately.

“I’ve certainly never been there, but I’ve heard that public lewdness does go on in the club,” she added. “All you have to do is keep your ears open.”

Though they may seem private, the confines of businesses such as Club Dallas are considered public places under Texas’ public lewdness statute.

Martin said police won’t reveal the source of the complaint, but she said it was “most likely a former member who thought they didn’t get what they paid for.” However, she said it’s also possible that the complaint was made by another business owner in the area, which is undergoing redevelopment thanks to DART’s new rail line.

“When somebody complains we have to go in, just like when someone calls 911 we have to go to the call,” Martin said. “Now that so much activity was found there, they can probably expect more vice operations there.”

One Club Dallas member who witnessed the vice operation but was not arrested said officers were rude and unprofessional during the operation. He also said he feels the club is being targeted by the city to make way for the redevelopment.

The member, who asked not to be identified, said he was working out when he went around the corner to get a drink of water and was confronted by an officer. He said he was forced to remain seated throughout the operation.

“He said, ‘You sit down there and you don’t move,’” the member said. “I tried to ask him what’s this about, and he said, ‘You just chill out.’ They detained us when we were just working out, which I thought was strange.”

The member said about a dozen officers participated in the raid, which began at 9:30 p.m. and lasted until 10:15 p.m.

The officers came in carrying plastic flexcuffs and seemed to be trying to intimidate patrons, the member said.

At one point the member said he heard one of the officers remark that, “I’m going to have nightmares forever after this,” a reference to the fact that it was a gay-oriented business.

The member said he was also at Club Dallas the following night when the fire marshal paid a visit.

“There’s real crime going on in the city, and they don’t need to be harassing a private club,” he said. “I’m irritated and I’m frustrated because I feel like the police department is targeting them, and I don’t appreciate being talked to like that, being detained.”

Public lewdness is a class-A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a maximum $4,000 fine.

—  John Wright

It’s Texas-OU weekend and parking will be a pain — but hopefully not a costly pain

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Finding safe — and legal — parking can be tough on any weekend in Oak Lawn. But throw in the annual Texas-OU showdown, and finding parking anywhere gets even tougher.

A parking scam during the 2008 Texas-OU weekend cost a lot of football fans some big bucks. But Dallas city officials said this week that they will be coordinating with state agencies as they did last year to make sure nobody gets scammed again.

The ’08 scam was a coordinated effort between fake parking attendants and licensed towing companies, where “unsuspecting fans were flagged into private parking lots where they paid the ‘attendants’ to let them park for the game. Towing companies then swooped in and hauled off the vehicles,” the city’s statement said.

Last year, the city put new procedures in place to avoid such scams, including special permits and city-issued signs to let people know where they could park, and Dallas police and the Texas Department of Licensing beefed up patrols and enforcement around Fair Park. They will be doing the same this year.

Paul Curington with the Dallas Police Department’s parking enforcement division suggested people headed to the game park inside Fair Park where fees will probably be lower and the area safer. But those who park in an off-site private lot or in someone’s yard need to look for the official green signs that indicate that property owner has a valid city permit to offer parking, and a “towing enforced sign.”

If you  head down to Oak Lawn in your own car, be sure to park in a well-lit area — one where your vehicle won’t get towed — and park as close to your destination as possible. Don’t walk alone, and stay out of the dark areas. Park in one of the lots with security if you can.

Curington also suggests leaving the car at home and taking DART to the game. The same holds true for those headed to Oak Lawn to party, either before, during or after the football game. If you don’t want to ride the bus, consider a taxi; it might cost a few bucks, but not as much as having your car towed and sure as hell not as much as being robbed or assaulted. Isn’t it worth a little extra to be safe?

—  admin

'Blue sheet' uncovered: A copy of the DART resolution on transgender protections

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DART spokesman Morgan Lyons just sent along a copy of the two-page resolution that was apparently approved by the DART board last night. Lyons also promises to call soon, but based on his e-mail, it looks like the board did in fact approve the proposed nondiscrimination policy minus the word “except.” In other words, board member Claude Williams’ interpretation was correct. I guess this is the “blue sheet” to which Board Chairman William Velasco was alluding. But as you can see after the jump, this version ain’t blue.

Continue reading “'Blue sheet' uncovered: A copy of the DART resolution on transgender protections” »

—  John Wright

Questions linger over DART board's vote Tuesday night on transgender protections

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DART board member Ray Noah, left, and agency general counsel Hyattye Simmons look on during last night's meeting. Noah is the board member who inserted the one-word amendment that would have gutted the proposal. And Simmons has been accused of engineering the plan.
DART board member Ray Noah, left, and agency general counsel Hyattye Simmons look on Tuesday night. Noah is the board member who proposed a one-word amendment last week that would have gutted the transgender protections. And Simmons may have been a co-conspirator.

We have phone calls and e-mails in to DART spokesman Morgan Lyons seeking clarification and confirmation about what exactly the agency’s Board of Directors approved last night with regard to transgender protections.

There are two conflicting interpretations of what happened during the meeting. We’ll explain after the jump.

Continue reading “Questions linger over DART board's vote Tuesday night on transgender protections” »

—  John Wright

DART unanimously approves transgender protections, but wording of policy still at issue

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DART
Audience members from the LGBT community deliver a standing ovation after DART’s Board of Directors gave final approval to transgender employment protections on Tuesday night.

After removing a one-word amendment that would have gutted the measure, DART’s Board of Directors voted uanimously Tuesday night to add transgender protections to the agency’s employment nondiscrimination policy.

About 50 people from the LGBT community packed the DART meeting, with roughly 10 of them addressing the board during a public comment period. They called on board members to approve the policy after first removing the word “except,” which was inserted by the board last week.

According to LGBT legal experts, the word would have nullified the proposed transgender protections and rescinded those for gay employees that were adopted by DART in 1995.

“A word is standing between us, and the word is ‘except,’” Stonewall Democrats of Dallas President Erin Moore told the DART board, adding that everyone has a sexual orientation and a gender identity. “All of these things also include you. Why not include us?”

Following the 30-minute public comment period, DART board member William Tsao made a motion to remove the word “except” and approve the new policy. The motion was seconded by board member Faye Wilkins before being approved unanimously.

The vote drew a standing ovation from the audience.

Later, however, some said they still had concerns about the final wording of the policy.

Cece Cox, associate executive director at Resource Center Dallas, sought clarification from the board following the vote. And Cox and others from the LGBT community huddled after the meeting to discuss the issue. They indicated they planned to work with DART on possible substitute language in the coming days.

“We moved the ball down the field,” RCD spokesman Rafael McDonnell said later. “We’re not at the goal line.”

Stay tuned to Instant Tea for video from the meeting, and for a full story, see Friday’s Voice.

—  John Wright