Judging from past elections, it’s just a matter of time before Republican Lowell Cannaday’s campaign plays the gay card in his race against lesbian Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez. But with people like former Dallas Observer columnist Matt Pulle on the case, the campaign may not need to. Pulle has posted a survey at Texas Watchdog that he says was given to sheriff’s department employees at a recent training session on diversity. The survey asks whether respondents agree or disagree with statements like “homosexuality is a choice” and “children should not be raised by gay parents.” Pulle suggests that the survey goes too far: “Wouldn’t this type of questioning be grounds for a lawsuit at most workplaces?” he writes.
As a non-attorney, I don’t know the answer to that question, but I somehow doubt it given that the survey appears to be anonymous and possibly voluntary. I’m currently awaiting a call back from Rafael McDonell at the Resource Center of Dallas, which I believe may be responsible for producing the survey and conducting the training. I’ll provide more details about the context of the survey as soon as they’re available, but at this point it appears as though Pulle is implying that Valdez has some sort of radical gay agenda that she’s attempting to ram down people’s throats. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same homophobic scare tactic that’s been used by right-wingers for decades. Pulle’s blog post has been picked up by D Magazine’s Frontburner blog, and I’ve heard The Dallas Morning News is pursuing this story. I think I already know what The DMN’s slant will be. Here’s a hint: It won’t be favorable toward Valdez.
UPDATE: Read a statement from Cece Cox, associate executive director of Resource Center of Dallas, after the jump.
“The questionnaire is the same one that Resource Center of Dallas has used for its public safety training classes, including the Dallas Police Department, since the 1990s. It was administered anonymously and participants were explicitly told they were not to write their names on it. Furthermore, the questions were mixed up so that respondents could not be tied to specific questionnaires. Similar questionnaires have also been used in our monthly diversity training classes here at the Resource Center of Dallas and in educational, public safety and corporate settings. The questionnaire is used by Resource Center of Dallas to determine attitudes toward the GLBTA community and generate discussion in the classes. The completed questionnaires are not shared with anybody outside RCD and are destroyed after each class. The questionnaires are the sole property of Resource Center Of Dallas and were not developed by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department. We are disappointed that our efforts at diversity and inclusiveness are being used in a political manner in advance of the Dallas Pride weekend, when the North Texas GLBTA community comes together to celebrate and share. It shows that our work is needed.â€
Jeeebus…
Matt Pulle is very experienced in subtle gay bashing, so much so that he can’t leave it behind,even when he leaves a city.
I will never forget one of his most fucked up comments of all time when Oakley was running against the current Mayor Spokesmodel.
He said something like……..that he agrees that Oakley knew far more about the city of Dallas and the inner workings of the council but there was just something about the way he “smiled” and “looked” that made him uncomfortable. The pissy homophobes over at Frontburner eat this stuff up like it was a Three Forks Salad.
Thanks for calling Matt out…….somebody needs too.
Jackie, you say you can’t forget what I wrote about Oakley and then you proceed to forget it. I never wrote anything like that. And I did write about Leppert’s facial ticks so I wasn’t exactly nice to him.
And, don’t forget, you wound up souring on Oakley too.
If you think this survey is appropriate, then explain how. But let’s look at it in reverse. Suppose a church group sent out a survey asking about people’s private religious beliefs. Wouldn’t that be a bit strange?
And how am I gay bashing when I say that you shouldn’t need a survey to promote tolerance.
Anyhow, I read about your new show in the Dallas Observer. I think you’ll do great; I just wish you spent more time attacking what I wrote and less time attacking me.
And, by the way, below is a story on a straight Republican. What’s the agenda here?
https://www.texaswatchdog.org/2008/09/einstein-no-eppstein-fort-worth-political-consultant-plays-both-sides-of-the-fence/
Matt
I will find the comments you made. You seem obsessed with writing about gay people who are trying to do some good for the entire community. You know, I know and everyone with half a brain knows where you are coming from when your throw this shit out there. It bothers you that someone bust your ass on this shit. Perhaps I would be more interested in your work if you would write something interesting. How about the fact that Phil and Wendy Gramm have made a ton of money off the current economic downfall and called us “whiners” at the same time. How about Harrient Miers? Alberto Gonzalez? We have bigger fish to fry in this city. Bigger issues to deal with. Oh, thats right, they are not gay.
Aren’t there any gay people where you are living now that you can bash? Or do you just write about our public figures who are gay because you are certain to get it placed on the Front Burner?
You can’t stand being called out on your shit. I would think you would read the above comment from The Resource Center and offer an apology to Lupe Valdez. ‘
Now forget about us here in Dallas and get on your Sarah Palin bandwagon. She is not gay. She hates gays. She was in the PTA. She is a hockey Mom…and she hates FREE SPEECH.
Well, I just write about DFW people, which, I think, allows me to say that I will not be voting for a presidential ticket that includes a committed creationist.
Jackie, we’re more alike than you think. And don’t forget you got way down on Oakley too. If I did mention his appearance, it would have been only fair since I mentioned another candidate’s facial tick.
Finally, I should add that a few years ago I was recognized by a well-read gay paper in Nashville called Out & About for a series of stories about how local cops were selectively targeting gay chat rooms.
Anyhow, if you think I’m a lousy reporter, writer and human being, fine. Maybe you’re right. But I don’t think you can make the case that I treat people differently.
Matt
I remember writing on Unfair Park about your article from Nashville. I gave you props for that. I wrote that I may be wrong about you. However, you did write that you thought that Oakley had the right resume to be mayor. If so, why did you go way out of your way to support Leppart? Why do you go so far out of your way to bash Lupe Valdez? Do you understand that we live in a city that is owned and operated by right wing conservative media? (exception being The Dallas Voice and Dallas Observer now that Bible Thumper Chick is gone)
You are right that I soured on Oakley. I have never met the man. I would never vote for someone just because they are gay. I am convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the critique of Lupe Valdez is based in homophobia. You can always tell because the critique is always over something totally idiotic…i.e… allowing A&E to film, did she score high on a test?
and bullshit like that. Things that we don’t even question about the fucking President.
Just so you know, the Mayor that you helped to select has turned out to be nothing more than a spokes model.
What is it that you want for Lupe Valdez? What is your fucking endgame with her? Should she never be allowed to work ANYWHERE? Do we throw her years of experience out the window because someone (not HER) did some sort of survey that might weed out folks like you that have a bias in the first place?
Here is the deal Matt……You stories about our gay leaders are weak…weak…weak. They have now legs.
You have to understand that the year is 2008; you can’t go around using subtle verbiage to unfairly attack our leaders without having your shit thrown back in your face.
Those days ended long ago.
While your bigoted buds over at Front Burner get away with it because there very livelihood depends on it, they are getting shit thrown back at them.
So, write all the homophobic shit you can throw our way. Just don’ t cry like a little teenage girl when we throw it back in your face.
Get it? Got it? Good!
I don’t think you are a lousy human being. I just think you are starting to make a career out of playing the gay card a bit too much.
It sounds like Matt Pulle thought he was going to pull a “gotcha” on Sheriff Valdez, until it was revealed that this is just a routine and common survey used all the time, by a variety of organizations and agencies, since the 1990’s. Now he is embarrassed and trying to save face, again.
Once again, it is just much ado about nothing from Matt Pulle… EXCEPT now everyone in town is talking about and being reminded that we have a lesbian sheriff, just in time for a close election.
Shame on you for your yellow journalism Matt Pulle, and shame on you for not doing your research about the origins of the survey before you ran with your “gotcha” story.
I noticed that this so called Texas Watchdog website is run by nothing but people from Tennessee. I think that is highly suspect.
I was pleased when I heard that you had left the Observer to go to Tennessee, so please stay there, “report” about what the sheriff of Nashville is doing, and leave the openly gay elected officials of Dallas alone.
You are not welcome in Texas.
What good does it do for Lupe to use this questionnaire? If I were handed this to fill out, and as a gay man, I’d find this very offensive in a way that forces me to look at something that overall isn’t an issue I would be thinking about. If the same survey came from an African-American boss asking me how I feel about the AA community, I’d be similarly dumbfounded.
There’s no gay-bashing here. To think a gay person running for/in office is going to do a great job for that reason alone is a dangerous trap. I’ve had reservations about Valdez from the start and her lack of proper, or rather just plain messy, authority over the office is more about her leadership style than it is about the person she sleeps with. Besides, shouldn’t we take note that according to the Resource Center, she’s using their questionnaire without their approval?
Full disclosure here, I worked with Matt at the Observer. This isn’t just me defending a former colleague who has always been very professional and friendly. It offends me to read that Pulle is being called out as a supporter of Cannaday by reporting the issue. I just think it’s too easy to rely on someone’s demographic as reason enough to do a perfect job.
Full disclosure here, I worked with Matt at the Observer. This isn’t just me defending a former colleague who has always been very professional and friendly…………………………
NUFF SAID>
Valdez had nothing to do with the survey. The survey and sensitivity training is important for the GLBTQ community. This city is owned and operated by homophobes. Look at all the gay bashing comments over at Front Burner over this article.
Pulle has made a career out of writing about gays that have some powers. Something about it gets stuck in his butt crack. He made a mountain out of a mole hill on this and now doesn’t have the fucking balls to say he was wrong….Just keep stirring the pot…..Pulle..
Rich you must either be straight, very very young, or republican. You comment about the possibility of being asked to fill out a survey on African Americans making you feel dumbfounded. Why? Your name is not attached. How much information do you need Rich to see that Pulle is in the tank for Cannaday just like he had his lips surgically attached to the ass of Mayor Spokes Model Tom.I woul d be willing to fill out any survey to help stop the bigotry that exist in this city.
Pulle is Bible Girl with a penis. Hewent way out of his way to write about a survey conducted in Dallas while he is not even living here. Why? Could it be the Ann Coulter syndrome?
On the other hand Rich, I admire your for sticking up for your bud. One thing I have noticed about Dallas is that the straight media sticks up for each other. When an outsider questions their tatics, they are ALWAYS and I meand ALWAYS wrong.
I would be a bit more taken with your stance on this issue if your were willing to givie your full name while vouching for Mr. Pulle. The name alone suggest that you must be near Wick Allison.
Rich, you’re the greatest. Thanks for sticking up for me.
If anyone has any questions about why I wrote what I did, feel free to call me. I’m at 615-957-4470. I live in East Dallas, but I still have a Nashville number.
Matt
Sorry for the comments about you not living here. I thought you had moved away.
Warning shot for any GLBTQ thinking of running for local office.
With your resume, I am sure D Magazine will hire you sooner rather than later.
Please don’t suck the cool out of DO.
Matt Pulle may or may not be anti-gay, but he certainly is a partisan hack. Look at his new “publication” — a website that is supposed to track down “corruption” in Texas politics, but all that seems to be featured are attacks on Democrats.
Democrats?
95% of the levers of power in this state are pulled by Republicans. The single greatest source of corruption in Texas is Republican donor Bob Perry. But Matt Pulle is back in town, writing hit pieces on Lupe and Fred Baron. His partisanship is rampant.
Remember his “I hate all the Democratic candidates” hit piece in mid-2006 in the Observer? The one that threw mud at basically every Democratic candidate from Craig Watkins through “Rosita” Renfroe? Has Pulle ever written anything so expansive and derogatory about Republican candidates or elected officials?
Where is Pulle’s article condemning the Dallas Police Department for using the survey that he is so incensed someone in the Sheriff’s Department used. Where does he get off assuming that Sheriff Valdez is the one who approved or chose the survey, when there’s no evidence of that at all?
Pulle is a partisan hack. For a brief period, Dallas was free from his loathsome, untalented, right-wing screeds. But apparently he couldn’t hack it in Tennessee, ’cause they sent him back. Woe is us.
Rich,
You are factually incorrect. The Sheriff’s department had permission to use the surveys. That is beyond obvious from the response from Ms. Cox. Not only did they have permission, but they were encouraged to use them. Can you not read and understand what you read?
It is quite sad that with all of the real corruption and injustice going on in Texas and in Dallas, so called reporter Matt Pulle feels that talking about a silly diversity survey is truly in any way important, or that any person with any sense at all would consider this in any way “news”. This is just more lipstick on a pig.
Matt is typical of all right wing writers. They can’t take what they dish out. When they get called out, they whine and cry like little babies. Then they clam to be a victim. If Matt could learn to bottom as well as he tops he might be seem less hawkish…hackish. With all the political crap going down with Republicans that have a Dallas connection, he chooses something so inane to report on about a freaking survey that he found offensive. It is laughable. It is his local version of a gay Teletubbies report. It is a homophobic attention grabber. It will draw in the evangelicals to his site. It is a very clever maneuver.
On the other hand, it is very chicken shit to throw something out there and then ask people to phone him so he can explain it. You’re a writer Matt, be brave, put your explanation in words, just like you did in the first place. Explain to us how you rationalize this to be newsworthy, while Republican crooks are a dime a dozen in this city.
The saddest part of this is that there is a big market in Dallas for subtle gay bashing verbiage.
X, I stand corrected. A 3:30 am read was perhaps a bad idea. However, I stand by Pulle’s duties as a reporter and observer and the questionnaire is an interesting piece and as a reporter, he, the Voice, myself would/should find it enough to make note about.
Jack, you are wrong, I am very much gay, I’m very much not Republican and I only wish I was younger. And regardless if my name is not attached to it to the survey, to me it boils down to simply and ethically asking myself, what’s the point? Unless it covers all demographics, I might be more understanding to the twitter going on with you but if it’s just about one group of people, that worries me.
Re your statement – “I woul d be willing to fill out any survey to help stop the bigotry that exist in this city.” I wonder if that includes your apparent heterophobic and Republican hating comments. I can’t even believe I’m defending Reps as well. (Pulle, you owe me)
Jett, you’re an important voice for the community and it’s appreciated that you are out there sticking up for us and “throwing it back” but at the same time, bashing back or bullying your opinions will never be acceptable.
Oh, and it’s Lopez. Rich Lopez.
About our site, we have critical stories of a series of Republicans including a good friend of Bush’s, Bill Keffer, Bryan Eppstein, Kim Brimer and Rick Perry. It’s a very balanced site. One way to figure that out is to read the stories on there.
On the topic of the survey, A lot of people find it to be silly and unprofessional. You shouldn’t be asking people–even anonymously–to interpret the Bible or ask what they would do if they could somehow divine if their unborn child was gay. Like I wrote, a public or private agency should make it clear to its employees that no kind of discrimination is tolerated and that there are no second chances for bigots. They should also be told what kind of jokes are appropriate–very, very few–and what kinds are not–most. And that should be it.
Just my opinion.
Meanwhile, I’m still chuckling at how Jack would write how he never forgot what I once wrote about Oakley–before proceeding to forget it. This guy is like our president–he just shoots from the hip without regard for the facts. I love it. So. Much.
Keep it coming.
What have *you* written that’s been critical of Republicans, Matt?
When you were at the Observer, you were the on-staff Democrat basher — be it Craig Watkins, or your favorite topic Lupe Valdez or some other decent person fighting the right-wing filth that controls this state.
But, Matt, I’ll give you this much: you’re more honest than “Tom McGregor,” the Democrat-basher at DallasBlog, who’s really Tom Pauken Jr. posting under a fake name.
Dear Matt Coulter.
You have our attention. We are now aware you are back in town.
Rich, I no longer take rubber knives to gun fights. The high road has turned into quick sand.
My theory is to get in the mud with them. For some reason, straight men have a really tough time when a gay guy calls them on their shit. As Matt’s idol, John McCain might say, I don’t expect to win Ms. Congeniality or head cheerleader here in Dallas. You would not believe the amount of hate mail I get from evangelicals. Even christians in New Zealand dislike me. I don’t know a Oakley from a Valdez, but I know gay bashing when I see it and I see it on a non stop basis with your pal Matt. He is a right wing hacktivist.
Dallas Voter, I penned critical pieces on Tom Leppert, Toby Shook, Bill Hill, Ken Mayfield, Maurine Dickey, and state Judge Sharon Keller, along with the Perry appointees on the state environmental board.
And I certainly wrote favorably about Angela Hunt, a Democrat in name and deed.
Matt,
If the use of the survey is so newsworthy, then why did it take you 8 years (the amount of time that the survey has been in use) to finally “report” about it?
Do you really think that THIS is news. It is not. Perhaps you know so little about what really goes on in Texas and Dallas. Why don’t you write about the Trans Texas Corridor, or something that is actually important.
You are making more and more of a fool of yourself the more that you try to defend this obvious nonsense. You fail to mention that during the day long training in question, there were also surveys about participants feelings about race, religion, and gender. Why did you only single out the LGBT survey and completely ingnore the others?
Your story does not hold up in the light of day. Sorry you lost this one. Go back to the drawing board and find another way to remind Dallas voters that Sheriff Valdez doesn’t date boys.
And on one final note. In all of this discussion, you fail to ever point out that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people can be legally fired from their jobs in Texas simply because they are gay. But you are probably completely unaware of this fact. As is seems you are unaware of many facts until after the fact.
I did take a moment to look at your website, which is not run by Texans, but claims to watch Texas. All I saw were FOUR stories about this survey, including your attempt to get some sort of reaction from the… ACLU. It totally looked like some right wing website to me. You are even more of a tool than I had thought.
You are now marked, and your watchdog group is now being watched. WATCH OUT!
Dallas Voter is right.
Matt’s boss worked at a winger public policy institute in Nashville before starting this baby up.
Matt, I read your Watchdog “story” about the ACLU response to the survey; you mock the ACLU for saying it needed more “context”; I’m sure you pulled the thing out of context in the first place.
You seriously sound like you’re channeling Rod Dreher.
And, it’s not as if Cannaday’s campaign, Dallas County GOP, or somebody, isn’t willing to try to politicize a totally apollitical city event out here in the burbs .
SC, Trent’s a mightly disloyal right-winger::
https://www.texaswatchdog.org/2008/08/houston-money-man-had-deep-connections-to-bush/
It is very clear that Matt Pulle is exercising his homophobic, bigoted and ignorant venom in hopes of being the next Rod Dreher. Rod who changes religions like underwear and leaves
skidmarks on everyone of them. Matt seems to have a problem with honesty as well as hypocrisy from the looks of these post. He will soon be sucking on the teets of an Allision or
a Dreher where he THINKS he can stop GLBTQ candidates from moving forward.
Hey Matt, why did you come back to Dallas. Los Angeles and New York are full of gay men and women who hold high political positions. You should go to one of those cities and get them straightened out. Oh, that’s right, it is not the bible belt.
>>… you are wrong, I am very much gay, I’m very much not Republican and I only wish I was younger…..<<
it’s true, i’ll vouch for rich. he’s ancient.
Brian…..hatechu!
Now everybody go see my fab new website hintofmintlive.com. BAM!
Rich
Very cool site. Nice layout. I love the flash of obama/clinton/ in getting all tizzy.
Now, what do we consider old? I use to think that 50 was really old but for some reason, I don’t feel that way anymore. Now, I think 85 is old.
jack e, i have to agree with you about rich and cindy’s new site. it’s very cool and i’ve already added it to the list of blogs i check often. as for what’s considered old, i’d have to say anything greater than my current age.
brian
then i am hoping that your current age is 60.
Thanks Jack! I hope we can work together in the future! And Brian ain’t sixty, but his hair is! Ask his colorist!!!
Matt Pulle has now admitted on his right wing website, Texas Watchdog (which has no actual people from Texas working there) that HE WAS WRONG, and that the Dallas Police Department had indeed used the same survey for which he greatly criticized Sheriff Valdez.
There is no word yet on whether or not he has apologized to Cece Cox of the Resource Center of Dallas for calling her a liar, or whether or not he has apologized to Sheriff Valdez for wrongly accusing her of pushing a radical gay agenda.
Matt Pulle published SIX separate stories about this survey. His agenda is greatly questioned now as a result of his numerous errors, omissions, mistakes, and homophobic obsession with the diversity training of jailers in Dallas County who, to be able to do their jobs, must be able to put aside their prejudices about gays, minorities, and women.
He seems to be too stupid to understand the purpose and the need for the training in the first place. He need only look at his own SIX stories about the survey to see homophobia in action.
Everything you need to know.
https://politics.nashvillepost.com/2008/08/20/gone-to-texas-trent-seibert-uses-his-pulle-down-menu/
https://politics.nashvillepost.com/2008/08/12/messing-with-texas-trent-seibert-leaves-think-tank-for-internet-startup/
https://www.nashvillescene.com/2005-01-13/news/a-naked-gamble/
I don’t even need to look at the above site to see that it is probably some semi positive gay story Pulle wrote back in 1742 and thus has given him the authority to gay bash every gay public figure in the Texas area. Texas is one of the few states that his shit will fly, for a while.
He owes Valdez and Cox an apology.
X, I don’t know who you are but I love you. I wish I had your skill for verbiage.
I didn’t know that Pulle posted this story in 6 places. It saddens me to think that six places in Dallas would find it newsworthy.
Um, it’s not a right-wing site. That’s rather obvious if you spend five seconds skimming the front page.
And we did not get a single fact wrong in our reporting about the survey. We quoted the pd saying that they did not use the questions and quoted Cox saying they were wrong. Then, we went back to the PD and they retracted their comment after we questioned them repeatedly.
Reading is fundamental.
You come to Texas to uncover “corruption,” and you spend your first weeks bashing Fred Baron, who to my knowledge has never done anything to hurt anyone, but not a word about the scum-of-the-earth Bob Perry, who has directly and purposefully corrupted the entire homebuilding industry and its accountability in this state?
Of course, what Fred has done, which offends the sort of right wing filth that funded the “think tank” your boss used to work for, is give money to good progressive Democrats. People who realize that “tort reform” means making it impossible to have your day in court when you’re harmed by a big company, and that “tax relief” means giving rich people the national credit card and leaving the bill for the children of the middle class.
How dare he.
And how dare the Sheriff be… well, the Sheriff. All Democrat and liberal. Disgusting. Thank God you enlightened folks from the hick-kingdom of Tennessee have come down to shine some light on us poor, besotted Texans. However did we get by without you?
Matt Pulle got many facts wrong.
To begin with he got the entire premise of the story wrong.
The truth of the matter is, the Sheriff’s Department used a 15 year old survey that the Dallas Police and various local universities, as well as a laundry list of companies and organizations have all used for years. But Matt Pulle presented the matter as though this was a revolutionary new development in diversity training over at the Sheriff’s Department.
He presented it as though, Sheriff Valdez, who is a lesbian, was promoting a radical gay agenda and harassing good God fearing heteros in her department.
Any fool of a reporter who has been in Dallas for more than six months knows that the word of long time Dallas leader Cece Cox is beyond reproach, and should be taken over the ramblings of an uniformed low level police spokesperson.
He may have mastered New Speak, but he isn’t fooling anyone.
People who can read are not as dumb as he would wish they were.
That is as clear as a queer after six beers.
To read more about Matt Pulle’s past mistakes, controversies, and political activities, as well as more dirt on his right wing “libertarian” boss Trent Seibert, and the think tank funding the whole sham, go here:
https://sixmeatbuffet.com/archives/2008/04/10/push-pulle-ing/
https://www.freecolorado.com/2001/05/seibert.html
https://federalcityus.blogspot.com/2007/02/who-is-tcpr.html
The New York Times has a great piece about the right wing group that is funding Matt Pulle and his Texas Watchdog website.
https://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/the-sam-adams-project/