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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Who knew so much could go wrong with moving a statue? The Nasher Sculpture Garden does it all the time. But after several tries, the statue of Robert E. Lee as well as Lee’s name were finally removed from Oak Lawn’s most popular park.
After a confrontation between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Va., that turned deadly in August over the removal of statues honoring Confederate leaders, cities around the country began considering their own public displays.
In Dallas, two monuments stood honoring the leaders of the Confederacy — one in Pioneer Park, Dallas’ original cemetery, and one in Oak Lawn’s Lee Park.
The Dallas City Council voted on Sept. 6 to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee in Lee Park. And within hours, a crane and trailer drove up to the park, but that statue wouldn’t budge.
Placed in 1936 and dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt, who was also in town to open the Texas Centennial celebration at Fair Park, the statue of Robert E. Lee should have simply been set upon its pedestal. That’s how large monumental statues were placed at that time.
Instead, when crews gathered on Sept. 6 to remove it, the multi-ton bronze statue of Lee and his boyfriend on horseback wouldn’t budge.
After crews had been working for several hours to loosen the statue and seemed on the verge on finally unseating it, word came that Judge Sidney Fitzwater had issued a restraining order stopping the removal. One Hiram Patterson, a Dallas resident who said he had never seen the statue until a few weeks prior to its planned removal, represented by an out-of-state attorney, sued to stop the irreparable harm he would suffer if the statue was removed.
The next day, Fitzwater heard the case and dismissed it.
Crowds gathered again, but no cranes appeared to remove the statue: The crane that had been at the park the day before was sent to Houston for some scheduled work. Work to remove the statue was expected to resume when the crane returned, but on its return, it was involved in a fatal accident with an 18-wheeler.
Meanwhile, the monument remained cordoned off. Almost a quarter of the park remained closed. Statue supporters held pro-statue demonstrations around the park and a vigil for the monument whose days were numbered. Police were particularly concerned about one rally held by a “pro-open carry” group that arrived with their guns ablazin’ (figuratively speaking).
After several more false starts, crews discovered the statue was bolted to the pedestal. In addition, it was wedged into the stone so some of the ornamental edging on top would have to be chipped off.
On Sept. 14, the general finally surrendered. Hiram tried to stop removal once again, but Fitzwater had left his office early that day.
A smaller crane than the one sent weeks earlier drove up to the statue. A low-slung trailer pulled up next to the crane. Bolts were cut. Stone was chipped. Rather than raise the statue high into the air, the smaller crane lifted it up just a few feet and placed it on the trailer where it was securely strapped into place.
The statue barely fit under traffic lights and underpasses as a convoy drove it under the Katy Trail to a city storage location where it remains.
On Sept. 22, the Dallas Park Board voted to restore Lee Park’s name to its original moniker, Oak Lawn Park. That name, which Dallas Voice had been using since the controversy began, is the historic name for the park. Developers William H. Lemmon and Oliver P. Bowser built Oak Lawn Park in 1903 as an amenity for the surrounding residential area they were building. From its opening, the park was popular, and the city bought it in 1909.
Today, the statue’s pedestal still stands in Oak Lawn Park on the corner of Turtle Creek Boulevard and Hall Street. The Confederate monument in the Pioneer Park cemetery remains, standing close to one of the Dallas Convention Center’s main entrances. Dallas Independent School District renamed three schools from names of Confederate leaders to local heroes.

— David Taffet