If you’ve never made it to Dallas Voice’s Freedom of Speech Night at Buzzbrews Kitchen on Lemmon Avenue, tomorrow night might be a good time to check it out. For one thing, I’ll be making my debut at the event, but if you need another reason, this month’s installment features a smackdown debate between Blake Wilkinson and Rick Vanderslice of Queer LiberAction, and Jay Narey and Mike Lo Vuolo of Stonewall Democrats (although Narey and Lo Vuolo won’t be representing the organization in an official capacity). In any case, if Narey’s recent column in Dallas Voice (and the attached comment thread) is any indication, these four will have plenty to talk about. DV Publisher Robert Moore will referee, and I’ll be asking questions along with Freedom of Speech night host Jack E. Jett. The event will follow a stuctured debate format for the first 45 minutes before being opened up to the audience for additional questions. Should be interesting, to say the very least. Admission is free, and the festivities begin at 8 p.m.
23 Comments
admission is free, but I’m charching $5 a head 🙂
can’t we all just get along?
Elizabeth,
We were all getting along (for the past 30 years or so here in Dallas) until Blake Wilkinson and associates came and fucked everything up.
Dallas, historically had one of the most cohesive GLBT communities in America. It is amazing and sad how so few people can cause such damage to what others spent decades building.
I can’t wait for QL to finally fade away…. I think we have about 18 more months of this ego driven theater to deal with.
Why are we fighting each other? Isn’t there room at the table for everyone to be involved the way they feel so inclined? The goal is equality; we need everyone to obtain it.
brandon,
i’m not a huge fan of QL but did you ever stop to think that maybe it’s not such a bad thing that someone comes along and “(fucks) everything up” every once in a while? it’s called change – – – – come to the debate and voice your opinion and try to stay open-minded to both sides. in the end this is a petty division though, since we’re all working towards the same goal.
Brandon,
Grow up. If you cant be productive and mature, dont post.
Thanks
Why would the Stonewall Democrats want to give any more attention to the QL misfits?
TO Jack E. Jett: Please ask both groups for their “strategy and Plans” for full LGBT Equality. I’m out of town but, want to get their answer(s).
Brian, you are another one. Frankly I am so tired of you insults and banter. If you have anything of value to say, have the courage to use your last name. If not, please keep your comments to yourself. I am not alone in feeling that you are just a angry person with nothing of value to contribute.
Thanks
@ Joe Remsik,
I am a long time Dallas gay rights activist. I am quite productive.
I was commenting about the topic at hand, the effectiveness of QL.
You chose to go off topic and attack me personally because I think QL has been a negative force in Dallas.
You, it seems are the one off topic and lacking in maturity. Would you care to comment on the topic at hand?
We know how you feel about me, but how do you feel about the effectiveness of QL’s strategy?
@Brandon
You wrote – “We were all getting along (for the past 30 years or so here in Dallas) until Blake Wilkinson and associates came and fucked everything up.”
Really? You must have had your head in the sand for most of the eighties and early nineties when no one could agree on anything except that we were all dieing (Or maybe you were not born yet). Thank goodness for ACT-up and other organizations like it or we wouldn’t have the drugs and treatment we have today and I would be a dead man. The community was saying the exact same things about them at the time but now these organizations are lauded as the catalysts for the drastic changes that needed to happen.
Keep stiring the pot QL and Blake! Change is hard but worth it. This old queer is behind you 1,000 percent! Marriage Now! Adoption Rights Now! No more sitting at the back of the bus and waiting quietly for our turn, when the economy gets better, when the poll numbers look better, blah blah blah! If we had waited on poll numbers back in the day we would not have had fast track drug trials, we would not have had protease inhibitors, many of us would not have our lives. Just because our causes are not about iminent life or death any more does not mean they are any less urgent.
Stir the pot! Make a mess! Creat lasting change!
i may not totally agree with QL’s tactics but AT LEAST THEY ARE DOING SOMETHING!!!
in my mind it’s better to do it and do it wrong then do nothing at all
I was not attacking you. QL will not fade away. Blake and everyone with QL has made a lasting difference in this homophobic state–and in the homophobic city of FT Worth
Your comments:
We were all getting along (for the past 30 years or so here in Dallas) until Blake Wilkinson and associates came and fucked everything up.
Dallas, historically had one of the most cohesive GLBT communities in America. It is amazing and sad how so few people can cause such damage to what others spent decades building.
I can’t wait for QL to finally fade away…. I think we have about 18 more months of this ego driven theater to deal with.
Were you living under a rock, my friend? Grow up and stop bitching…..grab a placcard or a sign and get on the streets.
Sorry Blake I got $10.00 a head for my tickets.
First of all, I would have prefered that the debate announcement didn’t even include Stonewall Democrats. I wear many hats in volunteer work but for some reason the Voice decided to list the political affilitaion I have. I’m joining this debate, myself, as full time union organizer and community and political activists. My other volunteer work is with subtance abuse for HIV/AIDS persons, Community Development in low income Dallas neighborhoods, neighborhood activism, and workers rights. Being an activist junky for the past 35 years since I was 15 is just in my blood. This isn’t a Stonewall sponsored event it’s an event I know will turn out other activist junkies like myself. These are things that I did prior and after joining the Stonewall Democrats. Will there be Stonewall members there, yes there will. As a matter of fact I can only imagine that the room will be filled with passionate activists who in most intances are tyring to get to the same goals. Equal rights for all of us. I can’t imagine that the room will be filled with folks in our community who will be bussed from JR’s balcony to BuzzBrews for a activist debate. If we were all activists we’d have all our rights by now.
I am only hoping that instead of a pissing match, people will be able to meet to share ideas and ask questions that will only serve to better the hard work all activists do. I can only hope that everyone can be civil, and that more will want to be involved in working toward uniting for a common cause–or rights.
Sorry..meant OUR rights at the end.
Well – I would anticipate that some may try to turn an otherwise civil discussion into a smackdown perhaps. But if I know Mike LoVuolo and Jay Narey like I think I do – we can count on them to stay “on message” and deliver a cogent opinion on the topic of the day without resorting to unnecessary histrionics.
You’re childish Joe Remsik. I stated I think QL is a waste of time. I was surprised the Stonewall Democrats would even talk to QL. Then, we find out – it’s not “officially” Stonewall Democrats.
I have never met anyone that praised QL and/or their antics. Everyone who has ever mentioned them did so with a laugh and eyes rolling. None has thrown up yet, but it seems possible.
Brian, this is what I mean…..You are spending time being petty instead of fighting for OUR rights. Stay off the blogs, BRIAN. You are talking to someone who PRAISES QL.
I will not longer respond to you.
Joe Remsik: You don’t know how I spend my time dip-shit. Your Blogs?
Grow up.
I appreciate your dismissing yourself from the conversation. Now you have more time to angrily March around making demands. Lucky us.
Hello All,
I have always wondered why a gay person would feel the the need to have a government entity validate their marriage. Why is it the business of any government to condone or refute a religious ceremony? Marriage is essentially a religious ceremony. I was just wondering. I hear gay rights people getting a lot of press but it seems like the movement is missing the point about individual liberty. why do you even care what a government body thinks? Isn’t it each persons own right to express their sexuality and religion as they see fit in the USA? Please enlighten me gay activists.
CW, That’s easy: You may think of marriage as a religious institution, but in this country, government has imbued it with LEGAL rights: Taxes, inheritance, hospital visitation, etc. Reportedly, more than 1400 federal laws affect someone’s marital status and grant them certain rights. When you deny a class of people those rights, you treat them unequally IF they want them. Personally, I have no problem with calling them civil unions IF we call them that for straight people, too. So, having a religious ceremony gets you married… but no rights. You want rights? Even if you are “married,” you have to enter a “civil union.” Whatever your sex. But it doesn’t work that way in reality.
CW and Arnold Wayne:
If you take a moment to fire up Bing or Google you will learn that Mexico and England *both* have a 2-step process..
The first is from the State.. and the second is from the Church or whatever religions faction that may be used.
But I’m sure that all of the people here on this blog who are yelling and screaming at each other know this. Either that, or they’re too damn stupid and ignorant to do their homework.
The United States of America has only a one-step process which does not separate “Church from State” as so eloquently stated in our Constitution. The pope of ROME will never condone gay marriage nor will they ever condone straight divorce and a second marriage.. (remember, till death do us part?)
If gay people in the world would have pushed for the two step-process then all of this would have become moot cuz if you don’t get married by the Catholics then you go to the Wiccans or whatever..
Funny how our “community” could spend so much time on the “M” word but very few of them could realize that the very legal system that “Separates Church And State” is flawed and does *exactally* that.
DUHHHHHHHH!!! Sounds like a case of ignorance to me.. (and what is the root of the word IGNORANCE? Huh?? could it be to IGNORE ??)
Gee, never realized how much of a rocket scientist I really was. Maybe they’ll give me the Nobel prize too?
Thanks for the replies. I think you are correct even though I have mixed feelings about many of these issues. It seems as though the government is too involved in peoples lives straight or gay.
This situation really points that fact out.