Earlier today, during a conversation with Dallas Voice Distribution Manager Linda Depriter, she told me that she had been told about a year-and-a-half ago to remove Dallas Voice newspaper racks from the Gloria’s restaurants on Lemmon Avenue and in the Bishop Arts neighborhood. She said the managers at those two locations told her they didn’t want our paper in their establishments.
Well, I was irritated by that, and posted a note on my personal Facebook page saying that if they didn’t want a gay newspaper in their restaurant, then I wouldn’t be eating there anymore. That post spread like wildfire, and almost immediately angry folks were calling for a boycott. BUT — and this is very important — within an hour, Gloria’s owner Jose Fuentes had contacted our publisher and co-owner, Leo Cusimano, to let him know that he (Fuentes) and his co-owners at Gloria’s most decidedly did want Dallas Voice racks in their restaurants, and that the restaurants’ owners owe a lot to the LGBT community — here in Dallas and in Houston and other cities in which Gloria’s restaurants are located.
“The gay community built Gloria’s,” Fuentes told Cusimano. And in a follow-up call with me, Fuentes said that the LGBT community “was always there when we needed them most.”
Dallas Voice newspapers will be available again in the restaurants here in Dallas by the time the Friday, May 26 issue hits the streets.
And the lesson here is just because one employee of a business might have a problem with LGBT people, doesn’t mean that every employee does, and it doesn’t mean that the people who own and operate that business have a problem with LGBT people. A little communication can go a long, long way.
So thanks, Jose Fuentes. We appreciate your support. And I’ll be heading over to Gloria’s for lunch very soon.
