LGBT Issues

Two for One, And One For All

More Or Less Everyone Agrees That Rick Perry Is a Moron for Comparing Homosexuality to Alcoholism

If nothing else, Rick Perry deserves points for hubris. In California to stump up business for Texas -- including a proposed factory to build batteries for Teslas -- the governor responded to questions about the Texas GOP platform's endorsement of dangerous reparative therapy for LGBTQ individuals ... More >>

The Case Against 8 Is the Best Kind of Popular History

Sheffie Kadane Opposes Dallas' Pro-LGBT Measure Because Gay Rights Should Apply to Everyone

This afternoon, for the first time since a marriage equality resolution went down in flames almost a year ago, the Dallas City Council made its first official nod to LGBT equality in the form of a "comprehensive statement of support" passed by the Budget, Finance & Audit Committee. The measure now g ... More >>

In Court, Texas Says It Bans Gay Marriage to "Promote Responsible Procreation"

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia didn't hand down any ruling Wednesday following a hearing on two Texas couples' lawsuit challenging Texas' gay-marriage ban. A decision, on whether to grant the couples' request for a preliminary injunction blocking Texas' constitutional amendment prohibiting same- ... More >>

Gay Marriage Won't Undermine the Texas Constitution; its 483 Amendments Did That

Vic Holmes and Mark Phariss, the gay Plano couple suing to overturn Texas' ban on same-sex marriage, will be in San Antonio on Wednesday trying to convince a federal judge to allow their case to continue. The battle lines are familiar by now. Gay marriage, proponents say, is a constitutionally prot ... More >>

Dallas Pastor Bucks Methodist Church, Says He Will Perform Same-Sex Weddings

The United Methodist Church, much like the state of Texas, does not approve of gay marriage -- or, for that matter, of any divergence from the Adam & Eve model of human sexuality set down in Genesis. The UMC's official rulebook says that "sexual relations are affirmed only with the covenant of mono ... More >>

The VA Is Denying a Gay Dallas Veteran and His Husband Housing Benefits, Because Texas

In September, on the heels of the landmark Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Windsor, which entitled legally married gay and lesbian couples to the same federal perks as their heterosexual counterparts, the Obama administration declared that the opinion encompassed military veteran's benefits. So t ... More >>

Texas National Guard Will Now Give Benefits to Same Sex Couples Under "New Procedure" That May Not Exist

For the past few months, the Texas National Guard and the Department of Defense have been in a public brawl over gay rights. And last week, it appeared that the Defense Department, along with gay couples, emerged as the clear victor. Texas, Oklahoma and West Virginia are now complying with the DOD ... More >>

Texas National Guard Still Denying Marriage Benefits to Same-Sex Couples

If a same-sex marriage happens outside of Texas, but no law in Texas was there to recognize it, did the marriage ever even happen? Earlier this year, a state senator asked Attorney General Greg Abbott to weigh in on the question in light of all the same-sex couples employed by municipal government ... More >>

Straight Talk Highland Park Presbyterian's Ditching Its Church

Is it over gay pastors? Don't ask. They won't tell.

Surprise! Texas GOP Candidates Don't Support Gay Rights -- or Do They?

Every week or so, managing editor Patrick Williams disappears into his office and reemerges a cranky, nicotine-addicted, third-person-referring superhero we like to call Buzz. So The Associated Press last week reported the results of a survey it sent to the top Republican candidates for statewide o ... More >>

Texas Supreme Court to Decide If Gay Dallas Couple Can Divorce

Jeffrey and Henry Buck were married in Massachusetts on September 22, 2006, some two years after the state recognized same-sex unions. They moved to Texas in 2008 and quickly discovered what heterosexual couples have known for ages about the sanctity of matrimony: Sometimes it just doesn't work out. ... More >>

Fort Worth Representative Lon Burnam Files Texas' First Post-DOMA Marriage Equality Bill

Back in February, when the Texas legislature was in session the first time, Representative Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, authored a bill aimed to authorize "a marriage between two persons of the same sex in this state and repealing the statutory prohibition against the recognition of a civil union or si ... More >>

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez Is the Unlikely Star of a Pretty Cool HBO Documentary

The new HBO documentary The Out List was supposed to be a response to California's Proposition 8. But it turned into something bigger, director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders told Vanity Fair, where he's a contributing photographer. What it became is a series of interviews with 16 openly gay, lesbian, b ... More >>

Dallas Activists Celebrate Gay Marriage Rulings

There was going to be a rally last night one way or the other. Local activists had scheduled the Dallas Day of Decision Rally for 7 p.m. of whatever day the Supreme Court issued its ruling on Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act, and depending on how those decisions went the rally would eit ... More >>

ExxonMobil, the Leader in Backward LGBT Policies and Cultural Tone Deafness

It's almost tradition by now. Every year at Exxon's annual shareholder's meeting, New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who oversees state employees' retirement dollars, introduces a resolution calling for the company to ban discrimination against gay and transgendered employees. And every year, it ... More >>

Boy Scouts of America Delegates Vote to Lift Ban On Openly Gay Scouts [Updated]

The Boy Scouts of America have formally voted to lift the longstanding ban on openly gay scouts, according to a tweet from a delegate at the meeting where the vote took place. Openly gay scoutmasters and other paid adult staff, on the other hand, are still not welcome in the organization. Some 1,4 ... More >>

Attorney General Greg Abbott Rules that Domestic Partner Benefits are Barred by Texas Constitution

Voters didn't mince words in 2005, when they added Article I, Section 32 to the Texas Constitution. "Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman," it says. "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical ... More >>

As Supreme Court Debates Gay Marriage, Texas Politicians Explain How it Violates God's Law

The attention of the country, or at least that segment of it that's politically aware enough to pay attention, is focused squarely on the U.S. Supreme Court,which this week is debating a pair of potentially momentous cases. Hollingsworth v. Perry, which was argued today, could do away with Californi ... More >>

Mayor Rawlings Says Real Men Don't Hit Women. They Don't Beat on Gays Either.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has scored points in disparate places with his man's man campaign against woman-beating, from New York Magazine to the metro page of today's Dallas Morning News -- all of it much deserved, if you ask me. A guy like Rawlings, Class of '76 at Boston College where he playe ... More >>

State Rep. Rafael Anchia Hopes to Repeal Texas' Gay Marriage Ban

In 2005, Texas voters considered adding an amendment to the state constitution declaring that marriage "shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman" and forbidding any formal recognition of same-sex unions ratified elsewhere. The measure, controversial only insomuch as some conservativ ... More >>

Dallas City Employees Make "It Gets Better" Video, But What is Mike Rawlings Doing In It?

This week's edition of the Dallas Voice features a long article about the video you see above, an "It Gets Better"-themed compilation featuring a whole bunch of LGBT city of Dallas employees, including city spokesperson Frank Librio, assistant city manager Joey Zapata, asisstant city attorneys Melis ... More >>

Merck Suspends Funding to Boy Scouts of America, Citing BSA's "Policy of Exclusion"

Back in July, the Irving-based Boy Scouts of America reiterated that it won't be having any openly gay folks in its organization. Now, they've lost another corporate sponsor as a result of that policy, the American Independent reports. The Merck Foundation issued a press release on December 5, say ... More >>

Dallas Senator John Carona Declares Support for Gay Rights, Gets Pilloried By GOP

If you were to put money on which Republican politician in Texas would publicly express support for gay rights, John Carona, the state senator from Dallas, would be a good bet. He's always been about as pragmatic as Texas Republican come. But it was still a surprise when, earlier this week, he told ... More >>

The NFL's Game Changer

Chris Kluwe is prying open America's last closet: major-league sports.

Ted Cruz Gets His Honeymoon -- But Only in the Straight, Godly Meaning of the Word

Basic rule of American democracy: Anybody who wins an election gets 10 seconds of credibility. Let's hope in the case of Ted Cruz, lionized today in The New York Times as "A Republican Voice With Tea Party Mantle and Intellectual Heft," we can make it to the second 10 seconds without throwing up. ... More >>

City Leaders Kick Off Gay Pride Month With No Mention of Gay Green Lantern

Going in, I was assuming the Pride Month event at City Hall was for celebrating the previous days' revelation that the Green Lantern is gay. It's not Batman or Superman, but baby steps, right? But no one -- not Councilwoman Delia Jasso, not any of the half dozen speakers, not the Turtle Creek Chora ... More >>

The Gay Selma

Schools ignore gay bullying at their own peril

DISD's Next Superintendent Needs "Cultural Competency in LGBT Issues"

Back in January, Robert watched as the DISD board, which has the amazing skill of stretching out any conversation to 10 times its natural length, debated the qualities they'd like to see in a new superintendent. Last night, Resource Center Dallas CEO Cece Cox sent the board an open letter, reminding ... More >>

Tom Leppert and Jesus Christ -- Why, Why, It's Like Looking at Twins!

Via.C'mon, Tom, show us the part where you walk on water.​Oh, oh, oh -- now I get it. All this time former Mayor Tom Leppert sure seemed to be just a stinking hypocrite, a back-stabbing, forked-tongue phony who turned all anti-gay and old-time religious-y after leaving office and deciding to r ... More >>

Like His Pastor Friends, Perry Thinks Hanging Gay People is a "Traditional American Value"

"Dear Lord, please put your hands on those gay people, and then just, you know, twist at the neck."​Here's the president yesterday, decrying not-minor human-rights violations against gays overseas (from the Washington Times):"I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting [ ... More >>

SMU Not Happy About Landing on Princeton Review's "LGBT Unfriendly Schools" List. Again.

​While Dallas ISD is debating a change to their rules in order to make their campuses more gay-friendly, two local universities have landed, once again, on the Princeton Review's list of "LGBT Unfriendly" schools. Released last week as part of Princeton Review's mammoth collection of college ranki ... More >>

Resource Center Dallas Happy, For the Most Part, With "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Report

U.S. Navy Petty Officer Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeleyRobert Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at today's press conference​The Department of Defense today released its 247-page Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with a Repeal of ... More >>

Resource Center Dallas Wants Dallas ISD to Define Students Protected by Bullying Policy

​Yesterday we spoke with Dallas Independent School District trustee Edwin Flores about a proposed policy before the board tomorrow: "Freedom from Bullying." Which is great news, says the Resource Center Dallas. But the center's higher-ups believe the bullying policy doesn't go far enough, especial ... More >>

You May Find It Trans...cendental

DART Struggles With Discrimination Policy, And Gay-Rights Advocates Aren't Happy At All

Incidentally, kudos to Erik Garcia, a third-grader at Harrell Budd Elementary School, for his winning entry in the Student Poster Contest​The Dallas Voice has been all over Dallas Area Rapid Transit's rewording of its discrimination policy, which has been altered, it appears, to exclude protection ... More >>

As Judges Heard Arguments For and Against Same-Sex Divorce, the World's Tiniest Protest Took Place Outside

Patrick MichelsMichael Robinson, left, and David Bowling were the sole protesters at today's same-sex divorce hearing downtown.​So much for the media circus outside today's highly anticipated (judging by the advance news coverage, anyway) hearing at the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building, where t ... More >>

A Brief Summary of the Hubbub Surrounding Dallas Director Israel Luna's Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives

​For those not paying attention, there's been quite the firestorm in recent weeks surrounding Dallas filmmaker Israel Luna's Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives and its inclusion in the Tribeca Film Festival, which kicks off April 21. At the end of last week, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Def ... More >>

The police raid on the Rainbow Lounge has rocked the world of Fort Worth gays

Robert Jeffress Looks to Scandinavia for Reasons to Oppose Gay Marriage

Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas Ah, bless you, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Because till GLAAD posted this video on its YouTube channel today, we had no idea that First Baptist Church of Dallas's Robert Jeffress was among temp host Jane Velez-Mitchell's ... More >>

Should One Deduction Lead to Another?

Tori Van Fleet, a forensics and firearms expert with the Fort Worth Police Department, has been following an unusual case making its way through U.S. Tax Court -- one that will determine whether it’s acceptable for people to claim transgender surgery as a tax deduction. Van Fleet hopes the answer ... More >>

Teenage and Transgendered

Liz and Amber were just friends until Liz became Jay

Locker Rooms Talk

Patricia Nell Warren discusses her new book

Get Used to It

Councilman John Loza plans to fight for a city ordinance banning discrimination against gays

Mr. Fixit

"Ex-gay" minister Randy Thomas prays to put gays and lesbians on the straight and narrow

The other F-word

Eminem's mind-blowing Marshall Mathers LP promises to spark feverish free-speech debates

Air homophobia

A gay-bashing pilot prompts a change at Southwest Airlines

Real, reel gay

Out Takes, Dallas' newest gay and lesbian film festival

Edifice complex

Michael Piazza wants his proposed $20 million cathedral to send a message to the world -- gays can go to heaven too