Chad Can Do

Chad Mantooth is Dallas Voice’s assistant publisher and advertising director, and a recipient of a 2025 Visit Dallas Can Do Spirit Award. (Photo by David Taffet)

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com

This has been an exciting year for Chad Mantooth: He was recently named associate publisher of Dallas Voice, and earlier this year he joined the board of the Cedar Springs Merchants Association and began heading up a committee that organizes the monthly Cedar Springs Wine Walk. In September, he hosted the Pride in Dallas Parade on Cedar Springs Road, and, again earlier this year, he was recognized with the LGBTQ Chamber Champion award.

For the last seven years, Mantooth has collected auction items for Cassie Nova’s annual Freakmas Show which has raised thousands of dollars for underprivileged kids in Oak Lawn.
And, to top it all off, this week Visit Dallas presented him a Can-Do Spirit Award in the Diverse Community of People category.

Fortunately for the Dallas LGBTQ+ community, we can say that Chick-fil-A’s loss is Dallas’ gain. It’s part of how Mantooth made it to Texas.

Mantooth is from Kansas City. After he graduated from the University of Kansas, he took an unpaid internship at a radio station. It was the start of a 10-year career in radio in promotions and as marketing director for multiple stations.

But he was laid off — repeatedly.

“No one’s listening to radio anymore,” Mantooth explained. “Everybody gets fired in radio.”
So, using his experience as a marketing director in radio, he landed a job with Chick-fil-A in Kansas City. But, after a year, he was fired.

“Behind closed doors I was told they ‘do not approve of my choice of lifestyle,’ but I was officially let go for an accounting error,” he said.

His final job in Kansas City was as a group sales manager with Broadway Across America — until the local office was relocated to New York City. Mantooth said he didn’t want to move to somewhere cold. So instead, he moved to Dallas, even though he knew absolutely no one here and was still on unemployment.

“I did a few part-time jobs until I found Dallas Voice,” Mantooth said. “I applied for an advertising position, but I wasn’t hired the first time around. A few months later, the position popped up again and [Dallas Voice Publisher] Leo Cusimano hired me.”

That’s when he started really becoming involved in the community.

“When I first moved here, I decided to get involved in as many things as possible — Gaybingo, LifeWalk,” he said. Then he met Cassie Nova by attending her shows in the Rose Room and at JR.’s, and the two became friends.

“Our dark and twisted sense of humor just meshed,” Mantooth said of his friendship with the drag performer. “We hit it off, and I went to her annual Christmas Freakmas Show after she took over for former Rose Room Show Director Edna Jean Robinson. I thought, ‘Hey I could help with that!’ I said I’d help out with some prizes with my Dallas Voice contacts.”

So he got started and even managed to surprise himself with what he was able to get, including a nice financial contribution from Mark Cuban and signed items from Taylor Swift, Cher, Lady Gaga, Cyndi Lauper and Paris Hilton, along with rainbow Christmas trees.

He currently has a stack of copies of Dolly Parton’s latest book sitting in his office along with other donated auction items When the COVID pandemic died down, Mantooth decided he wanted to get the monthly wine walk on Cedar Springs Road up and running again. So he began working with the Cedar Springs Merchants Association. The Wine Walk is the primary fundraiser for CSMA, with the money used for beautification efforts along the Cedar Springs Strip. Earlier this year, CSMA donated about $25,000 toward replacing the rainbow crosswalks that had deteriorated.

Little did Mantooth know at the time how controversial the new crosswalks would come to be. But then Gov. Greg Abbott ordered rainbow crosswalks around the state be removed, claiming that such crosswalks are a safety hazard — a claim debunked by numerous studies — and that the crosswalks symbolize a “political ideology.”

The flood of rainbows that have taken over The Strip in response, including the rainbow steps in front of Oak Lawn United Methodist Church, have garnered international headlines.

All things considered, Mantooth said he’s glad he moved to Dallas: “I had visited Dallas several times from Kansas City, and I’d never been to a city with such a vibrant LGBT community,” he said. “In Kansas City, LGBTQ+ organizations never worked together.”

He said it always impressed him that in Dallas people worked together for the common good.

“I thought it was the coolest thing that each Gaybingo game was sponsored by a different business or organization — businesses and organizations working with Resource Center to put on the best event,” he said.

And the folks he works with in all his efforts are glad he moved to Dallas, too: “I’m so glad Chad’s a part of everything we’re doing,” said CSMA President Kevin Miller. “He’s always helping us connect businesses and organizations to build a stronger community.”

Matt Vinson from Visit Dallas said more than 90 individuals were nominated for this year’s awards and more than 1,000 people voted.

“Chad personified someone who goes above and beyond and is a pillar in his community,” Vinson said. He called Mantooth a great advocate for the largest and very diverse LGBTQ+ community in the Southwest.

“I’m so thankful I have a job where I can do that,” Mantooth said, “because in the end, gratitude is my core value.”