Vonciel Jones Hill
Vonciel Jones Hill, who spent her eight years on the Dallas City Council opposing LGBT equality, has been nominated to the DART board.
One job of the city council is to welcome people to the city. It costs nothing and brings in revenue. However, for eight years, Hill refused to sign a letter welcoming visitors to the city to Dallas Pride. That event brings thousands of people to the Dallas each year. Those visits generate revenue for the city.
Here’s one of an annual series of stories about Hill being the only council member to refuse to sign a letter welcoming visitors to Pride.
Several months before marriage equality went nationwide in 2015, the Dallas City Council voted to change the definition of spouse for pension purposes. Same-sex spouses would be treated equally with opposite-sex spouses for pensions. Hill voted to deny pensions to same-sex spouses of retired city employees.
In 2013, Hill protested a Greater Than AIDS billboard placed in her district, an area that is among the highest in HIV infections in North Texas.
She protested the billboard presenting gay African-American men as acceptable and said “engaging in such conduct presents health risks.”
Her objections sparked protests outside Abounding Prosperity. County Health Director Zach Thompson did a good job of refuting her. Does she understand that some DART employees have HIV and will she begin discriminating against those employees? Is the city council looking for a new DART board member whose presence will spark protests?
Hill may be a quite competent attorney and talk to her about any other subject and she comes across as bright and engaged. But her bigotry against the LGBT community disqualifies her as a board member to DART, which many people in the LGBT community rely on.