In February 1988, Mayor Annette Strauss visited the AIDS Resource Center on Cedar Springs Road, which was located about where TapeLenders is now. Strauss served from 1987–91.
This was during the height of the AIDS crisis and the visit marked the beginning of any cooperation between the city and the LGBT community in providing services to people living with AIDS. Until this time, few grants were available and little government money was going to help people with AIDS. After the visit, other government officials visited and began working with the LGBT community to provide services.
This wasn’t the first time a Dallas mayor visited the LGBT community. Jack Evans, who was mayor 1981–83, was the featured speaker at a Dallas Gay Alliance monthly meeting. The next day, the Dallas Morning News got wind of the event. Evans said he spoke to the group, but he didn’t know who they were.
That story was related to Mayor Ron Kirk, 1995–2002. Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance’s monthly was one of his first stops after his election. He opened by thanking everyone at DGLA, the Dallas Gun Lovers Association, for their support in his election.
These are the only pictures I found in our archives of the old AIDS Resource Center/DGA office on Cedar Springs. The building was destroyed in 1989 by an arson fire set by a DGA volunteer to cover up the theft of computer equipment. At the time, the AIDS Resource Center was a non-profit project of DGA, which spun off several years later. Today, it’s known Resource Center.
