Robert Emery delivering presentation at Dallas Holocaust Museum
The new Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum will house a permanent exhibit on the history of LGBT rights in Dallas. The new building is being constructed across the DART tracks from the current museum in the West End.
As part of that new initiative, Robert Emery presented a program on the history of LGBT rights in Dallas at the Holocaust museum on Tuesday, June 20. The presentation was drawn from show he put together with Uptown Players for the Pride edition of Late Night at the Dallas Museum of Art last Friday.
The presentation was billed for Millennials and many younger people attended.
Emery said what was frustrating was how much of the city’s history had to be omitted simply because of time restraints.
He touched on local legal battles, successful political campaigns — a picture of gubernatorial candidate Lupe Valdez drew cheers — gay bars and churches, and how Dallas and Texas has changed. For example, in 1962, you could be jailed for 15 years in Texas for being gay. By 1970, MCC, which became Cathedral of Hope, began meeting in Dallas.
Emery explained how Dallas has the largest LGBT church, the largest annual sit-down fundraising dinner and the most-recorded gay men’s chorus.
Museum director Mary Pat Higgins said she hoped to present more programming like Emery’s.
— David Taffet
Construction of new Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum
