3 of 6 Fort Worth City Council hopefuls talk about the importance of queer community in Cowtown and their need for representation
Ann Zadeh, left, Greg Hughes, middle, Bernie Scheffler, right
UPDATE: Ann Zadeh and Ed Lasater came out on top in Saturday’s election. They’ll now head to a runoff on June 21.
ORIGINAL STORY:
FORT WORTH — When Fort Worth Councilman Joel Burns announced his resignation from his post in February, the thing on the LGBT community’s mind was how would they replace him.
Fort Worth Councilman Joel Burns
Burns took the seat in 2007 when Wendy Davis resigned to run for the state Senate. During his seven years on the council, he’s helped improve the city’s infrastructure and green initiatives, but has also been a voice for the LGBT community as an openly gay council member. Millions have watched his 2010 “It Gets Better” video where he became emotional at the horseshoe, sharing his experiences growing up and being bullied.
Now, six candidates are lining up to replace him. Of them Ann Zadeh, Bernie Scheffler and Greg Hughes spoke to Dallas Voice about their support for the LGBT community. They, along with Ed Lasater and Margo Garza, attended an April forum by Fairness Fort Worth and Tarrant County Stonewall Democrats. Juan Rangel III did not respond to Dallas Voice for an interview and did not attend the LGBT forum.
Burns hasn’t endorsed in the race and isn’t expected to. He didn’t respond to requests for comment on the race. Stonewall doesn’t endorse in races, and FFW, as a nonprofit, cannot endorse a candidate in the race.
Zadeh, Scheffler and Hughes all expressed interest in expanding the city’s healthcare for transgender employees, adding the LGBT protections outlined in the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance on housing and job applications within the city, including LGBT issues on the city’s legislative agenda and creating or altering city forms to be gender neutral.
Currently the city’s plan doesn’t cover anything for its trans employees, including hormones. Adding comprehensive trans healthcare, which would include gender reassignment surgery, is the one outstanding item on a list of recommendations made by the Diversity Task Force after the Rainbow Lounge raid in 2009.
Hughes, 57, an engineer at Lockheed Martin, is a former member of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority board. He said his record on LGBT issues date back to 2009 when he testified before the council on adding gender identity to the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance barring bias in housing, employment and public accommodations.
“I didn’t have anyone in my family that would be particularly affected by that, to my knowledge anyway, but that as a straight Christian person, I was supporting it because it was the right thing to do,” he said.
He said he’s also been an outspoken advocate for marriage equality and even served on the diversity council at Lockheed.
As for trans healthcare, he said he knows the cost would be minimal to the city, but he’d request the city manger to analyze the numbers, and he would even bring it to the council for consideration.
“I would certainly bring that back and instruct the city manger to bring us the numbers,” Hughes said. “I would make the case for it.”
Bernie Scheffler, 35, is a bicycle shop owner and appointed to the park board by Burns. He said he knows the LGBT community is watching the race because they’ve had a representative in office and now have to determine who to look to now.
“I think they’re watching closer because they, in talking to some of them, they’ve had it really good the past seven years, and certainly people don’t want to take steps back,” he said, adding that it’ll be tough for anyone to replace Burns. “I don’t know if anyone can follow Joel’s footsteps for the LGBT communtiy. Those are hard shoes to fill, impossible shoes to fill.”
Scheffler said he’d push for LGBT issues to be included on the city’s legislative agenda for the city lobbyists to take to Austin and support a statewide ban on LGBT job discrimination, which the city already bans. He worked for state Sen. Wendy Davis during her first term and said that experience showed him the impact cities have on policy.
“The weight that a city carriers when they come and lobby for something is pretty tremendous,” he said. “If Fort Worth believes that it’s the right thing to do, which they have shown that they have, then they need to advocate for other cities to [adopt ordinances] as well, and I would include lobbying for it at the state level.”
Ann Zadeh, 47, is a certified planner who served six years as the mayor’s appointee to the Fort Worth Zoning Commission. She was endorsed by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
She said she wasn’t as knowledgeable about trans healthcare to make a decision to fully back a comprehensive plan, adding that she’d want to look at all the coverage for employees and see how the change would fit into the city’s plan.
“I would have to look into that more thoroughly. That is a new issue to me,” Zadeh said. “It’s not something I’m opposed to. I’m definitely interested in looking into it to make sure anybody who works for the city gets the health coverage they need to help them lead a happy, healthy life.”
Along with lobbying efforts by the city, Zadeh said she’d encourage people from every community to apply to serve on boards and commissions. There are only two known openly gay members on city boards and commissions.
“I would encourage LGBT people to serve on boards and comissions to be involved and be heard,” she said.
David Mack Henderson, president of Fairness Fort Worth, said the slate is “a pretty descent flock to work with.”
Of the five who appeared at the forum, he said they all seemed open to working with the LGBT community. But he said the community also needs to be more present in municipal issues instead of relying on Burns or his replacement to do the work.
“All of the five candidates who appeared, they all seemed educable on LGBT issues, some more than others,” Henderson said. “The takeaway from that night is that they have to reach out to a community they expect to represent, learn more about us and our needs and concerns.”
Election Day is Saturday, May 10. In the event of a runoff, it’d be held on June 21.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 9, 2014.
