Rivas makes ‘Faces’ picture perfect
You might have seen the gigantic portraits of community figures during this year’s Pride parade. They were shot by photographer Jorge Rivas who has been busy with sessions for people wanting their photos taken for his Faces of Life exhibit. The opening reception with Rivas benefits AIDS Arms, Inc. and features some pretty amazing portraits.
DEETS: ilume Gallerie, 4123 Cedar Springs Road. 7 p.m. Through Dec. 15. ilumeGallerie.com.
Rivas makes ‘Faces’ picture perfect
You might have seen the gigantic portraits of community figures during this year’s Pride parade. They were shot by photographer Jorge Rivas who has been busy with sessions for people wanting their photos taken for his Faces of Life exhibit. The opening reception with Rivas benefits AIDS Arms, Inc. and features some pretty amazing portraits.
DEETS: ilume Gallerie, 4123 Cedar Springs Road. 7 p.m. Through Dec. 15. ilumeGallerie.com.
Dance the night away – three nights
The gay run Beckles Dancing Company participates in the South Dallas Dance Festival 10. The South Dallas Cultural Center hosts three days of dance and education with both a master class and performance on Saturday. Beckles is one of 17 companies included in the festivities.
DEETS: SDCC, 3400 S. Fitzhugh Ave. 8 p.m. Nov. 12–14. BecklesDancingCompany.org.
Be the envy of your neighbors
You won’t get the boys with it, but you can bid on evergreen fabulosity at DIFFA’s Holiday Wreath Collection Event. Vie for that wreath your neighbors will all be jealous of. Unless they’re bidding with you. Which is good, because the auction benefits North Texas AIDS services organizations.
DEETS: Ritz-Carlton Dallas, 2555 N. Pearl St. 6 p.m. $50. DiffaDallas.org.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 12, 2010.
DAVID TAFFET | Staff Writer taffet@dallasvoice.com
Houston Mayor Annise Parker said she was delighted to be asked to come to Dallas to be Honorary Grand Marshal of the Pride parade. And she was a little surprised other cities hadn’t asked her.
“It’s a little hot outside,” she said soon after arriving in Dallas. “We do our parade at night for a reason.”
Parker said she forgot to bring a hat, but she never wears hats in Houston. Her reason sounded a bit like another Texas Democrat, Ann Richards.
“My hat covers the hair,” she said. “They have to see the hair.”
Unlike many gay or lesbian politicians, she didn’t come out after successfully launching her political career. She said she started as a lesbian activist on the front lines.
“I was debating the nutballs in public,” she said.
Parker came out in high school. In college she founded Rice University’s first LGBT group and began her political career as president of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus.
During each campaign, the GLBT Political Caucus and her partner, Kathy Hubbard, have always been included in her literature.
“That way I owned it,” she said. “Kathy describes our relationship as not being out of the closet but being out on the front lawn,” she said.
The election received an overwhelming amount of media coverage.
“It’s unprecedented for an election for mayor of Houston to make the front cover of the Times of India,” she said. “It was difficult to slog through. It was a distraction at the beginning.”
Parker said she doesn’t think most of Texas was as surprised by her election as the rest of the country or the world. She mentioned a number of lesbian elected officials around the state including Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez.
She attributed her victory to a number of factors. Houston always elects moderate Democrats, she said.
Of the seven candidates running in the general election, she started with the highest name recognition. This was her eighth election and her opponent’s first.
“He made some rookie mistakes,” she said. “He got distracted. He got in bed with the right-wing hate-mongers.”
The week before coming to Dallas, Parker had been in New York and met with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
She said he joked that he was partially responsible for her win. Had he stepped aside, Christine Quinn, the lesbian who heads New York’s city council, would have probably made a bid for office.
“All the gay money across the country would have flown to New York,” she said.
Actually, most of Parker’s donations were local, and while she didn’t have the most money for her campaign, she had a greater number of donations than her six opponents combined.
Parker seems to be settling into her new position.
She strengthened the city’s non-discrimination policies by executive order. Her revisions included gender identity and expression and extended protection to all city-run facilities.
Partner benefits for city employees can only be granted by popular vote in that city. She said she expects that the LGBT community will soon begin collecting signatures to bring that proposition to a vote and said she would like to be able to include Hubbard on her insurance.
Parker said that in effect she is making less than Bill White did as mayor because she has to pay for Hubbard’s health insurance.
With 2.2 million constituents, Parker said she couldn’t be just the gay mayor, but she would continue to use her position to advance LGBT rights when possible. She helps raise money and speaks for the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund around the country and said their training was extremely helpful.
And Parker said Houston has benefited from being the largest city in the world with a lesbian mayor. Her recent trade mission to China is an example.
Earlier in the year, Parker was named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most powerful people in the world. She said she never would have made the list had she been “just another white guy.” One of China’s top trade officials was also on the list.
In August, Parker led a trade delegation to China. The Chinese trade official, she said, probably met with her because both were on the list and because of the curiosity factor. Men hold most government positions in China, she said, not out lesbians.
She said that while that was how her being a lesbian has benefited Houston, she can also use her position as a bully pulpit.
She may make a return trip to China where Houston and Moscow are competing to bring a convention to their cities. She said she hopes the mayor of Moscow is there and that Houston wins the convention over his city.
Parker said she plans on calling the Moscow mayor out on his terrible treatment of gays and lesbians. Among other things, he has canceled permits for Pride parades in the city and last weekend had his city’s best-known gay activist arrested.
With the November election approaching, Parker said she is remaining officially neutral in the state’s races.
“To represent my city I have to get along with everyone,” she said.
As mayor of the state’s largest city, Parker said she’s had more contact lately with Gov. Rick Perry than former Houston mayor Bill White.
“But I am absolutely livid that Rick Perry has an attack ad on Bill White that features me,” she said. “I don’t want to be used as a wedge in that campaign.”
Parker said that Perry used a quote of something she said while controller. She said it was not out of context and might have even been impolitic to say at the time. But she described her relationship with White as a good working relationship despite a disagreement on a particular issue at one time during their three terms in office together.
Parker maintains a high popularity rating in Houston and said she thinks her city is getting used to their new high-profile mayor. Among the reasons, she said, is that she is the only mayor of a major American city who hasn’t had to lay off any workers.
Parker did admit just one area where Dallas beats Houston — light rail. However, she said the two cities are working together to get a high-speed rail link built between them.
In January, Parker and Hubbard will celebrate their 20th anniversary.
Parker said one thing Hubbard did not share with her was the parenting gene. It took several years before she convinced Hubbard they should be parents.
They have raised three children together. Their foster son was an openly gay teen who they took in at age 16. Later, they adopted their two daughters at ages 12 and 7. Their younger daughter is 15 now and still at home. Her son, who is now 34, rode in the car in the parade with her.
Houston’s mayors serve two-year terms so Parker will be running for re-election next year.
Doug Tull, the gay bar patron who was shot during a robbery a few blocks from his apartment in Oak Lawn in late August, was released from Parkland Hospital on Wednesday, Sept. 15 after two surgeries.
“It’s nice to be home but there are a lot of medical things I have to do,” Tull said.
Tull thanked his friend Darwin Kopaska, who has been by his side since the shooting; and Ron Nelson and Frank Holland, owners of Pekers, for saving his life by their quick action.
“I have a home nurse that comes by Monday, Wednesday and Friday to take vitals and all that,” he said.
So far there are no suspects. Photos from a bank surveillance camera of the suspects’ vehicle driving through the parking lot were not clear enough to reveal the license plate number.
“I just hope the police catch those guys so they can’t hurt anybody. Anyway, I’m doing all right and thanks for asking,” Tull said.
And yes, we keep using the same photo of Tull, but we’ll get a new one once Tull is feeling up to it. He preferred this one of him smoking outside at Illusions taken last year to a current one of him looking like crap after surgery.
We’ve officially received the first of what undoubtedly will be several non-heat-related post-Pride complaints. After all, you can’t please everyone all the time. This one comes from Kit Elliott, who says he wants to lodge a “formal complaint” against Dallas Pride for alleged anti-Republican “hate” in the form of comments made by the MC prior to the start of the parade. “It must stop and it has to stop,” Elliot writes. Here’s his full e-mail, which we’ve forwarded to Michael Doughman, executive director of the Dallas Tavern Guild:
I would like to lodge a formal complaint against the Dallas Pride Parade for their words and actions do not match their message. While the leaders have their own beliefs, they need to keep their message of hate to themselves. I showed up to the parade around 1:30 pm, and the first sentence out of the MC’s mouth was an anti-Republican statement — a “we hate Republicans joke.” This is offensive to the GLBT Republican community who believe in human rights and fiscal responsibility. I believe that you should infiltrate the community with those who accept us and change the mindset from within instead of “fighting” and excluding this group from an otherwise excluding world. Can you imagine being GAY and growing up with the discrimination that gays get and flocking to a community that accepts you just to feel that discrimination again from within the community. It must stop and has to stop! I will NOT tolerate a community of hate and discrimination, and Dallas Voice and the parade planners should NOT tolerate this either.
Please forward this on to the parade planners for next year.
Thanks!
Kit Elliott
Kudos to Pride parade floats for making the event fab. But how likely will we hear the obvious trash disco or Lady Gaga blaring from speakers as they trickle down the road to Lee Park? Way likely. In this mixtape edition, I created my fantasy parade soundtrack for some of the floats and entrants this year. Otherwise, be prepared for “We Are Family” heading your way.
“I’m a Rainbow” – Donna Summer: OK, it’s a ballad and maybe obvious, but it sounds like just what Resource Center Dallas is all about. Plus, a drag queen could kill this on a float.
“Stand By Your Man” – Lyle Lovett: His cover isn’t cheeky by any means, but would speak volumes for the Round-Up Saloon’s walk down. Although I was torn between this and Toby Keith’s “Shoulda Been a Cowboy.”
“Sex (I’m a …)” – Berlin: Personally, I love the brazenness of Adult New Releases’ ads. I only imagine they’d be the same way in public.
“Not Myself Tonight” – Christina Aguilera: As the men transform into the divas of the Rose Room, I can see this running through their heads. Why not “sing” it out loud?
“Young Americans” – David Bowie: Youth First Texas keeps growing into an important part of the LGBT community. And you know, the children are our future.
“La Bomba” – Ricky Martin, pictured: Maybe it’s cliche to go with Latin music for our gay Latin clubs, but this song is a party all by itself. Crowds will rumba as this floats down.
“Another Piece of Meat” – Scorpions: Heavy metal has its place in the parade if this accompanies a visit to Club Dallas. What? They have weekly cookouts. Get your mind out of the gutter.
“Id Engager” – Of Montreal: Legacy Counseling Center could throw a little Freud our way and be totally hip about it.
“Teeth” — Lady Gaga. After her impromptu concert at the Round-Up Saloon, she had to be here — if only for Floss.
— Rich Lopez
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 17, 2010.
RICH LOPEZ | Staff Writer lopez@dallasvoice.com
TEXAS FREEDOM PARADE
Proceeds east along
Cedar Springs Road from
Wycliffe Avenue to
N. Hall Street. 2 p.m.
……………………………………
Hunky’s has been a Crossroads institution for 25 years — though most of that half a block over from its current location. The gayborhood and the burger stop are officially symbiotic.
So it may surprise those who have watched the Alan Ross Freedom Parade from Hunky’s patio to know this year marks the eatery’s debut as a float entrant. And owner Rick Barton is a bit nervous.
“I kinda got into it a little late,” he admits.
Barton was sounding a bit frazzled just days before Pride, figuring how the hamburger joint would celebrate its coming out. Barton researched the idea of having a float constructed, but he and his crew opted to go simple this year — mostly because he has a restaurant to think about.
““That day is busy for us — the parade obviously means good business,” he says. “So we decided not to go with a big float and toned it down to a vehicle with some of our employees handing coupons out and guys along the side of our Jeep performing.”
Regardless of what the restaurant enters, the real question is: Why now? A quarter century is a long time to wait to join in the parade.
“We just had our anniversary and I just thought, ‘It’s time to be in,’” Barton says. “Even though we’re in the center of the community and show our Pride everyday, it lets people see we are here and feel a need to be in.”
His decision coincides nicely with the spot’s new digs. Hunky’s anchored the northwest corner of Cedar Springs and Throckmorton, becoming an iconic location for the neighborhood. But this spring, they jumped across the street, taking over the corner left vacant by Crossroads Market. Change was hard though Barton received enthusiastic response from the regulars.
But the move wasn’t just a physical one. Relocating mere yards from the former spot has affected his eatery and the employees in only good ways. That attitude is coming through in their first parade appearance on Sunday.
“There’s a renewed invigoration with the new space,” he says. “There we became limited by what we could do and it started to become staid. We were just riding the boat. Here, the employees are responding well, the customers are, too. It’s a feel- good kind of vibe.”
That translates into a team effort for Hunky’s preparation for Sunday. Barton might make it sound like it was just thrown together, but he smiles with pride in his teams from both the Oak Lawn and Oak Cliff locations in working to get it done.
“It’s all come together pretty quickly,” he says. “But with the employees helping out and coming over from the other location, it’s become a Hunky’s family kinda gig. One of our employees is one of the guys performing alongside the Jeep.”
It took the ilume just a year to make its impact on the ‘hood and it is living up to its commitment to be part of the community with its inaugural Pride float. The living spaces are snazzy; nosh spots Dish and Red Mango seem to be thriving, and the pool is becoming legendary for parties and Facebook pics. The ilume Gallerie, however, takes the lead for their float in the parade, thanks to gallery director Ronald Radwanski.
“We’ll have 48-by-72-inch panels of portraits on our float,” Radwanski says. “Some people will be on the float and others like me will be walking along.”
The Gallerie will be coasting along with a mobile museum. The gallery on wheels ties into the Faces of Life exhibit now at the Gallerie, which highlightsluminaries in Dallas’ LGBT community with larger-than-life portraits, each individual adorned with a large red ribbon. The shots were taken by photographer Jorge Rivas, who made a splash at the Gallerie earlier this year with his images of fashion and culture.
Going big is a huge undertaking, but Radwanski assures they are on schedule.
“They’ve started constructing it already and the enlarged portraits are being printed,” he says. “I’m so excited that we can mark a year of the ilume with this float in the parade. That it also benefits LifeWalk makes it much more so.”
Big or small, young or old, both establishments look beyond what they have going in the parade and instead, a reveling in the idea of being a part of it all. Besides, things could change for 2011.
“After this time, we might just go all out with the big float idea next year,” Barton says.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 17, 2010.
With the paper almost three times as large as most weeks, we wrote and wrote and wrote this week but a few items didn’t make it into print. This was one of my favorites that got left out, about David the Dignity Dog who will be in Lee Park on Sunday celebrating Pride:
Among the booths in Lee Park after the Pride parade on Sunday will be the Doggy Watering Hole and Treat Station sponsored by David the Dignity Dog.
David is a 1-year-old, 100-pound bloodhound boxer mix lap dog. Speaking for David was his people Jim Davis.
He said that David cannot be trusted to hand out the treats so he, along with members of Dignity Dallas, will make sure other dogs get goodies.
Dignity is the Catholic group with outreach to the LGBT community. They meet in the chapel at Cathedral of Hope on Sundays at 6 p.m. for mass and fellowship meeting. Afterward, they go out to dinner.
Dignity will have treats for the people whom dogs bring to the booth, too. Davis said that last year they went through 1,500 Pope-sicles. He said they’ll have more on hand this year.
Davis stopped by the office earlier this week and assured us that David’s tiger is stuffed, not real.
Dallas County Young Democrats and Dallas Stonewall Young Democrats are holding a cookout Saturday, Sept. 10, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Kidd Spring Park, 711 W. Canty St. in Dallas, in honor of the country’s first responders.
The second annual event is called “Serving Those Who Serve Us,” and all firefighters, police officers, military personnel and reservists and their
families get free admission. Others are asked to give a $5 donation. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Dallas Fire-Rescue.
For more information, contact Joseph Amyson at communityservice@dallasyoungdemocrats.org.
Resource Center Dallas is joining with CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers, to mark the second annual LGBT Center Awareness Day on Wednesday, Sept. 15, with a special display of items from the Phil Johnson Historic Archives and Research Library from noon to 6 p.m.
The items on special display will include a sign from the 1993 March on Washington signed by Dallas participants; a yard sign from the Proposition 2 election in 2005; a kissing booth from Queer Liberaction; a megaphone from Cheer Dallas; photographs from pioneering Dallas activist William Waybourn and photographs from Phil Johnson of Dallas’ Pride parade in 1984.
The theme of this year’s LGBT Center Awareness Day is “Building Our Community from the Center,” showcasing the integral role that community centers play in the development, unification, and empowerment of all LGBT communities. Events are also taking place at other local centers in celebration of the day.
Terry Stone, CenterLink’s executive director, said that each week, more than 40,000 people visit community centers in 46 states and the District of Columbia, accessing “programs and services that literally build community from the center.”
Cece Cox, executive director of Resosurce Center Dallas, said this community awareness day “is the perfect opportunity for people who are familiar with the center to learn about what we are doing here, and for people new to the North Texas area this can be their first opportunity to learn about us.”
Last year, the Resource Center Dallas provided services to more than 50,000 people through activities such as GayBingo Dallas, diversity education, the Phil Johnson Historic Archives and Research library, an information hotline, community health programs, STD testing and other LGBT and HIV/AIDS programs, Cox said.
For more information about LGBT Center Awareness Day, go online to MyCenterLink.org. For more information about Resource Center Dallas, go online to RCDallas.org.
Resource Center Dallas’ GAIN (GLBT+Aging Interest Network) will hold a potluck supper on Thursday, Sept. 16, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Resource Center Dallas, 2701 Reagan St.
GAIN committee members will furnish the meat dishes, including smoked brisket. They will also supply plates, utensils, wine and other beverages. Others who attend are asked to bring their favorite side dishes.
There will be several prize drawings during the event, including a drawing for a $50 gift card to Dish Restaurant.
Although the group is primarily for those 50 and older, everyone is welcome to attend the potluck.
The Rainbow Garden Club North Texas will hold its third annual tour of members’ and friends’ gardens on Sunday Oct. 3, from noon to 6 p.m.
Gardens on this year’s tour are in Richardson and Northeast Dallas, and include a working farm, a secret garden, a tropical paradise, a garden for entertaining, a garden that is a tropical retreat and a garden with an Austin vibe.
Ticket are $10 and are available at Brumley Gardens, 10540 Church Road, North Haven Gardens, 7700 Northhaven Road, Redenta’s Garden, 2001 Skillman St., Shambala Body Gallery, 415 N. Bishop Ave. and Under the Sun Garden Center, 7124 Campbell Road.
Officials with Resource Center Dallas announced this week that the center has hired Sharon Neal as its new capital campaign director, effective Sept. 13. She will be responsible for planning, implementing, conceptualizing and evaluating the center’s capital campaign for a new building, and her job will include resource development, grant seeking and individual fundraising.
Cece Cox, RCD’s executive director, said Neal “brings a wealth of personal experience and a considerable background in capital campaign projects. The center is committed to meeting the increasing demand for services and programs in a new home on Cedar Springs Road, just north of Inwood, and Sharon will help us make that dream come true.”
Neal most recently worked at KIPP TRUTH Academy in Dallas, where she served as the school’s director of development and led a $1.5 million dollar capital campaign. She previously served as managing director for the PaCRS group, where her non-profit and corporate clients included the Center for Nonprofit Management, the Verizon Foundation, Education is Freedom, Texans Care for Children, Cornerstone Assistance Network, Capital One and the Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS.
Neal is also the former director of development for the Women’s Museum at Fair Park and held community outreach positions at both 7-Eleven Inc. and TXU Corporation.
She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University and a certificate of corporate citizenship from Boston University’s Carroll School of Management. She is an alumna of Leadership Texas.
AIDS Outreach Center of Tarrant County’s annual Artists Against AIDS Silent Art Auction is set for Oct. 23, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center.
Artwork will be on display from Oct. 1 to Oct. 23.
The event will feature food, entertainment, an open bar with wine and beer and a silent auction including a selection of high-quality fine art from local and regional artists. Tickets for the auction and party are $75.
This year’s honorary co-chairs are state Sen. Wendy Davis, and Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns. Event co-chairs are Cynthia Hodgkins and Sarah Garrett.
Featured artists for the evening are Henrietta Milan and Eric Stevens.
Terri Burke, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, will will speak Sept. 15 on recent decisions by the Texas State Board of Education that some people believe were an abuse of authority by board members who forced their own personal ideologies into Texas public schools’ curricula.
The meeting will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff, 3839 W. Kiest Blvd. in Dallas. The event is co-sponsored by the ACLU of Texas and the Unitarian Church of Oak Cliff. Admission is free and open to the public.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 10, 2010
Jesus Chairez, known as the “godfather” of Dallas’ LGBT Latino movement, says he’s moving back to Big D from Mexico City, where he’s lived for the last two-and-a-half years. From an e-mail this morning:
I should be in Dallas on September 17th after Mexico’s big party on September 15, which this year celebrates Mexico’s 200 years of Independence from Spain and commemorates 100 years of the Mexican revolution of 1910.
For your information September 16th is Mexico Independence day, but the party always starts on Sept 15th with the GRITO of the current President of Mexico in the Zocalo. I will be in the middle of the Zocalo with thousands of people. This is how I will close my book too, by being here for Mexico’s 200-year anniversary.
About my book that I will be writing: from DFW to DF and back. (DF is how Mexico City is known by Mexicans, it is the Federal District, much like our D.C., it is not a state). It will be a book about my life as a gay Latino, a gay Latino activist that started DFW’s first Latino GLBT group and that started USA’s first Latino GLBT radio show, Sin Fronteras. One that went to the motherland, the land that was my grandparents, and returned.
I would have left on Sept 16th but I don’t want to fly with a hangover. I will be in Dallas for the Pride Parade, too — YEA.
We’ve posted Chairez’s goodbye letter to Mexico City below. He says he plans to stay in Dallas until he gets the book written, but may then travel elsewhere, perhaps to Buenos Aires. Welcome back for now, Santo Gay.
