The ups and downs of a tumultuous year
The last 12 months have a been a roller coaster for the LGBT community. Still suffering a grief hangover from Donald Trump’s unexpected victory in the November 2016 presidential election, when faced with the reality of his inauguration in January, progressives of all stripes stood up to fight back against what many see as a regressive and oppressive regime.
From the women’s marches that saw millions of people take to the streets of cities across the country on Jan. 21, to the Pride parades and marches in June and September; from the crushing results of 2016 election to the renewal of November 2018 when progressive candidates rebounded and at least openly-transgender candidates won office — we look back at six of the stories that shaped our world in 2017.
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In the 1990s, the LGBT community was well represented on the Dallas City Council. At one point, three openly gay councilmen served at once.
Stonewall Democrats of Dallas grew to become the largest political club in Texas, and we’ve elected a lesbian sheriff, a gay county clerk and a lesbian judge. But in 2017, after the election of Donald Trump as president, a new wave of LGBT politicians came forward.
Most gay Dallas councilmen have come from Districts 2 and 14 that include Oak Lawn. This year, Omar Narvaez was elected to District 6, which covers West Dallas. Not only did Narvaez get elected in an area not known for its LGBT population, but he defeated an incumbent, a rare occurrence on the Dallas City Council.
Narvaez spent much of the campaign working with a landlord and the tenants of his West Dallas properties, brokering a deal that allowed the tenants to buy and repair their homes and help bring them up to code.
But while Dallas trends blue, Collin County is known as one of the reddest counties in Texas. Despite that, Jess Herbst, mayor of the small town of New Hope, came out as transgender. And the big news there is that no one really seemed to care.
A reporter has attended every New Hope council meeting since Herbst announced her transition. Each meeting, the same thing happens: Nothing. The town’s road commissioner sometimes slips up and calls Herbst by her former name. She just laughs it off and tells him not to worry about it. They’ve known each other 20 years.
Right now, she’s the highest-ranking elected transgender official in the country. That changes on Jan. 1 when Danica Roem is sworn into the Virginia House of Delegates and two transgender city council members join the Minneapolis City Council.
In Texas, the election cycle for state and federal offices is long. Candidates for November 2018 elections had to register for the March primary by mid-December. Quite a few LGBT candidates are running for offices up and down the ballot.
For the office of governor of Texas, one lesbian and one gay man are among 10 Democrats running for their party’s nomination.
Jeffrey Payne is a business owner with companies as diverse as a court reporting firm to the Dallas Eagle. He’s well known in the community for his charitable work, including the Sharon St. Cyr fund that provides hearing aids for hearing-impaired individuals and provides grants to organizations for ASL interpreting services.
Sheriff Lupe Valdez is known well regionally and has some name recognition across the state as the country’s only Hispanic lesbian sheriff. She’s known for cleaning up Dallas County jails, bringing them up to federal standards. She’s also known for Gov. Greg Abbott’s attacks on her on the issue of sanctuary cities. She’s an Army veteran and was a former agent for the Department of Homeland Security as well as four-term Dallas County sheriff.
Running for the U.S. House of Representatives are Lorie Burch in District 3 and John Duncan in District 6.
When District 6 incumbent Rep. Joe Barton was caught sexting, he decided to retire and the race blew wide open. Five Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination, including Duncan, Prism Health’s compliance officer. On the Republican side, 13 people jumped into the race. While the district leans Republican, none of the candidates running in the district that includes Ellis, Navarro and part of Tarrant counties are well known.
In Collin County, attorney Lorie Burch faces four Democrats for the nomination to replace Rep. Sam Johnson. One of her Democratic opponents is a candidate named Sam Johnson. Three Republicans are vying for the position as well. Republican state Sen. Van Taylor is among them.
Texas marriage equality plaintiff Mark Phariss is running for Taylor’s Texas Senate seat. He has one opponent in the primary. The winner of that race will face either Philip Huffines, brother of state Sen. Don Huffines, who represents North Dallas and part of Oak Lawn, or Angela Paxton, whose husband is indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Three LGBT candidates are running for the Texas House of Representatives from North Texas.
Veteran Democratic fundraiser and attorney Julie Johnson has one opponent in her primary for the District 115 nomination. If she wins, she’ll face bathroom bill author Matt Rinaldi in November. In his last election, Rinaldi won by about 1 point after narrowly winning his primary. He’s been no friend to public school financing in a district with some of the best public schools in North Texas.
Former Stonewall Democrats Secretary Jessica Gonzalez is challenging long-time incumbent Roberto Alonzo for his West Oak Cliff seat. The winner of the primary faces no challenger in November and wins the seat.
In Tarrant County, Finn Jones, a founder of the group TransCendence, has no primary challenger and will face right-wing Rep. Tony Tinderholt for the District 94 seat.
Tinderholt is on record for wanting to jail women who have abortions. He made a name for himself as a defender of true conservative values in 2015 when he appeared with his fifth wife at a Playboy party.

— David Taffet