First United Methodist Church Dallas in the snow. (Courtesy of Wesley Fryar and Jay McDowell)

As December comes to a close, we take a look back at the roller coaster ride that was 2021

Compiled by the Dallas Voice Staff

After a year of quarantine doom-and-gloom and uncertainty, the availability of several new COVID-19 vaccines, not to mention the fact that the Trump presidency was coming to an end and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would be inaugurated as president and vice president on Jan. 20, gave many people hope that 2021 was the year we would rebound. The year started with an air of optimism.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.

The country — the world — watched in horrified disbelief when, on Jan. 6, a violent mob descended on the U.S. Capitol, intent on stopping the process of certifying the results of the November 2020 presidential election which was underway inside.

Then in February, Texas was slammed with an unprecedented “cold spell.” With temperatures well below zero for several days in a row, the state’s outdated and poorly prepared electrical grid failed miserably. At least 210 Texans died because of the record-breaking winter storm, which left the state facing as much as $130 billion in damage. Long after the snow and ice had melted and temperatures returned to something resembling normal for a Texas winter, people continued to struggle to recover.

Another notable footnote on the deadly winter storm of 2021: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a right-winger and a Trump supporter, was mid-storm heading for Cancun with his wife and children and some other wealthy Houstonites, as his constituents here at home went without heat and, in some cases, water, struggling to stay warm and alive. Cruz immediately returned home after being caught, claiming he never intended to stay and just went down to get his family settled — an unlikely claim since he was photographed at the airport with enough luggage for a much longer stay. Oh, and to top it all off, he and his family left their dog home alone in the cold.

Still, it seemed we were seeing some good news at least on the COVID pandemic front. People were being vaccinated. The number of COVID cases was steadily declining, and the country was beginning to open up again. Then came the delta variant. Due in large part to wide swathes of the population refusing to get vaccinated and follow even the simplest of safety protocols (like wearing a mask), the virus had mutated, and by July, the Centers for Disease Control was warning of “a rapid and alarming rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates around the country.” The delta variant, experts stressed, was more than two times as contagious as the original virus and was likely to cause more severe illness in the unvaccinated.

Now, six months later as the year is coming to an end, the COVID death toll in the U.S. has topped 800,000 — and a new variant, omicron, which is perhaps even more contagious though possibly less severe — is making the rounds.

And that is just the beginning. In 2021, we have seen Texas Gov. Greg Abbott waging war on common-sense COVID prevention measures in an effort to woo right-wing voters and the Texas Legislature waging all-out war on transgender youth and minority voting rights. Alarming and enraging numbers of trans people around the country and here in Texas continue to be murdered, and here in DFW we have seen several high-profile murders and other crimes affecting our LGBTQ community.

But, thankfully, there have been some highlights, as well. As hoped, the Biden administration has moved quickly to reverse some of the damage done to our community — and the country — over the previous four years. Our LGBTQ organizations are rebounding from 2020, with recent fundraisers returning to in-person events and bringing in record donations. And 2021 has seen some promising steps forward in the ongoing battle against another, more pervasive epidemic: HIV/AIDS.

We here at Dallas Voice have rounded up the big stories from the last 12 months, chronicling the ups and downs of this roller-coaster year. Here is the first half of our news-focused year in review coverage. Watch for the second half in our Dec. 31 issue.

— Tammye Nash