A look at the history of Dallas Voice and its place in the LGBT community
Robert Moore, Dennis Vercher, Leo Cusimano
David Taffet, Arnold Wayne Jones, David Kushner; Rex Ackerman; Stephen Mobley, Chad Mantooth, Nicholas Gonzalez; Terry Thompson, Kris Martin.
Tony Martinez, Greg Hoover; Tammye Nash; Michael Stephens, Jesse Arnold, Greg Hoover; Kevin Thomas
David Webb, Ray Nungaray, Veronique Zayas; Gary Karwacki, Alex Barnishin, Leo Cusimano, Chico Segura
1962 Dallas’ first lesbian bar,
Trader Vic’s, opens on Monticello.
1965 Circle of Friends, the first gay organization in Dallas, is founded.
1968 Frank Caven opens his first bar.
1969 Stonewall Riots in New York light the flame that becomes the modern LGBT rights movement.
1970 Metropolitan Community Church Dallas, which grew out of the Circle of Friends and evolved into what is now Cathedral of Hope, is founded.
1972 Dallas’s first Pride parade, marking the third anniversary of the Stonewall riots, is held in downtown.
1973 The second Dallas Pride parade is held. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Foundation is formed in New York City.
1974 Club Dallas opens.
1975 Union Jack clothing store moves to Cedar Springs Road.
The Bronx opens on Cedar Springs Road.
This Week in Texas, affectionately known as TWiT, starts publishing.
1977 The Dallas Gay Political Caucus, which later became the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance and the DGLA PAC, is founded.
1978 Throckmorton Mining Company, owned by Caven Enterprises, opens on Throckmorton Street, less than a block from Cedar Springs Road.
1979 The first Razzle Dazzle Dallas party is held in the Hall of State at Fair Park. Eartha Kitt, who was performing at the Music Hall, shows up at Razzle Dazzle and performs for the crowd.
1980 TapeLenders opens on Cedar Springs Road.
The Turtle Creek Chorale forms.
After a seven-year hiatus, a third Pride parade is held, this time in Oak Lawn.
1982 Ruling in Baker v. Wade, federal District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer declares Texas’ sodomy law to be unconstitutional. A celebration is held in what was then Lee Park, then Oak Lawn Park and now Turtle Creek Park, to commemorate the decision.
Black Tie Dinner is founded.
Tarrant County Gay Pride Week Association holds first the Fort Worth Pride parade.
Joe Fillpot, owner of the Sundance bar on Maple Avenue, is the first person in Dallas to die of AIDS.
1983 Lambda Weekly begins broadcasting on KNON. Lambda Weekly is still on the air, still on KNON and is now the longest-running LGBT radio show on the air anywhere.
A second Pride festival is held in Oak Lawn Park
1984 Dallas Voice starts publishing with co-founders Robert Moore as advertising director and Don Ritz as editor.
The first annual Texas Freedom Parade is held in September on Cedar Springs Road.
1985 Activist Bill Nelson runs for Dallas City Council.
Dallas Gay Alliance creates the AIDS Resource Center.
Congregation Beth El Binah is founded.
The PWA Coalition founded and begins working to provide housing for people with AIDS. Today the PWA Coalition is known as AIDS Services of Dallas, and it operates four apartment complexes housing men, women and children impacted by HIV/AIDS.
1986 AIDS Arms is founded. Today the agency is known as Prism Health North Texas, and recently entered a partnership with Uptown Physicians.
1987 Tim Seelig becomes artistic director of Turtle Creek Chorale.
Elizabeth Taylor visits AIDS Services of Dallas.
Dallas Voice incorporates as Voice Publishing Company Inc.
1988 Tammye Nash begins writing for Dallas Voice in offices at 2525 Wycliff Ave.
Dallas Buyers Club is created by Ron Woodroof.
DGLA opens its own credit union.
AIDS activists draw chalk body outlines outside Dallas City Hall to emphasize the toll AIDS is taking on North Texas.
AIDS Interfaith Network is founded. Today the agency is known as Access & Information Network AIN.
1989 Nelson-Tebedo begins testing a new drug for people resisting AZT.
David Taffet begins freelancing for Dallas Voice.
An arson fire on Cedar Springs wipes out The Round-Up Saloon, Dallas Gay Alliance and Union Jack.
A newly-formed girl group called the Dixie Chicks begins playing the bars in Oak Lawn
Dallas Tavern Guild Executive Director Alan Ross commits himself to building an AIDS Memorial in Oak Lawn Park. The effort takes him six years.
Activist Terry Tebedo, Bill Nelson’s partner, dies of AIDS.
DIFFA/Dallas’ now iconic Jacket Collection premieres.
The Women’s Chorus of Dallas is founded.
Tim Self becomes Dallas Voice’s first advertising director.
1990 Stephen Mobley is born.
Activist Bill Nelson dies of AIDS.
1991 Chris Luna is elected to Dallas City Council
LifeWalk steps off for the first time to raise money for Oak Lawn Community Services.
1992 Leo Cusimano becomes an ad rep for Dallas Voice, after first joining the staff as a part-time graphic artist.
AIDS activist Ron Woodroof dies.
Cathedral of Hope moves to its newly-completed facility, designed by world-renowned architect Phillip Johnson, at 5910 Cedar Springs Road.
Lambda Pages is first published.
Dallas Voice moves its offices to 3100 Carlisle St.
1993 Dallas Voice advertising executive Tim Self dies.
Craig McDaniel is elected to the Dallas City Council, becoming the city’s first openly-gay council member.
Nicholas West of Tyler is murdered in a gravel pit in Noonday, Texas by a gang of car thieves targeting gay men. Donald Aldritch and Henry Dunn have since been executed for his murder.
Lynn Albright becomes Dallas Police Department’s first official LGBT police liaison.
Dallas Morning News features Robert Moore and Don Ritz in its business section.
Conservative groups protest Prestige Ford for advertising in Dallas Voice.
1994 Nicholas Gonzalez is born.
Texas Governor Ann Richards serves as honorary co-chair of Lifewalk.
The Phil Johnson Historic Archives are established.
Dallas Voice becomes an associate member of the Associated Press
Dallas Voice moves to larger offices in a building on Carlisle Street, across the parking lot from 3100 Carlisle.
1995 The first National Coming Out Day celebration is held during the Texas State Fair at Fair Park.
The city of Dallas enacts a non-discrimination policy protecting LGBT employees.
Dallas Voice graphic artist John Bode dies of AIDS.
1996 The first Dallas Black Pride celebration is held.
Legacy Founders Cottage opens, offering hospice care for people dying of AIDS opens.
Stonewall Democrats of Dallas forms, eventually growing to be the largest Democratic club in Texas.
Dallas Voice launches its first website, DallasVoice.com.
Greg Hoover becomes the Dallas Voice classified manager
Dallas Voice hosts the first Gay Day at Six Flags celebration as part of Dallas’ Pride weekend.
1997 Openly-gay candidate John Loza replaces openly-gay Councilman Chris Luna on the Dallas City Council. Both served as Mayor Pro Tem.
Walt Whitman Community School for LGBT teens opens in Dallas.
1998 Rex “Heda Quote” Ackerman, Dallas Voice’s beloved long-time gossip columnist and legendary bearded drag queen for charity dies. Dallas Voice Co-founder Don Ritz retires.
Log Cabin Republicans protest in Fort Worth when state party refuses them a table at its convention.
OutTakes Dallas film festival begins.
1999 Resource Center founding Executive Director John Thomas dies of AIDS.
The Gay and Lesbian bar association forms.
A court ruling in Littleton v. Prange annulls transexual marriages in Texas.
Youth First Texas is founded.
Transgender Day of Remembrance begins.
2000 Vermont allows civil unions. Dallas activist couple Vivienne Armstrong and Louise Young become first Texas couple to get hitched.
Oak Lawn Community Services closes. Programs transfer to AIN and AIDS Arms.
QTexas magazine begins publishing.
2001 Al Quaeda terrorists carry out attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon using commercial airliners. Passengers aboard a fourth plan, including gay man Mark Bingham, fight back against the terrorists on their flight, forcing the plane to crash in an empty field in Pennsylvania rather than at its intended target, believed to have been either the Pentagon or the White House.
Gay man Ed Oakley is elected to Dallas City Council.
Dallas Voice co-founder Don Ritz dies of AIDS.
Uptown Players opens with its first show, “When Pigs Fly.”
GayBingo, benefitting the Resource Center, begins.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry signs the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, including protections for lesbians and gay men, into law. The Texas hate crimes law still does not include transgender people.
Terry Thompson joins the Dallas Voice staff.
David Webb joins the Dallas Voice staff as reporter.
2002 For her second act as mayor, Laura Miller pushes through a city-wide nondiscrimination ordinance including protections for LGBT people.
Laura Miller becomes the first Dallas mayor to ride in the Pride parade.
Lambda Legal opens a regional office in Dallas.
Conservative groups try to stop Gay Day at Six Flags.
2003 The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, rules that all sodomy laws in the U.S. are unconstitutional.
Arnold Wayne Jones joins Dallas Voice staff as a lifestyles reporter.
Cathedral of Hope drops its MCC affiliation.
Texans vote to add a ban on same-sex marriage to the Texas Constitution.
Dallas Voice moves to new offices at 4145 Carlisle St.
2004 Woody’s Sports and Video Bar opens.
Razzle Dazzle Dallas is cancelled.
Black Tie dinner is forced to relocate from the Anatole to the Sheraton Dallas downtown, which has been its home ever since.
The North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce is founded.
QTexas acquires the Texas Triangle newspaper and Lambda Pages.
2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf coast
Dallas Police LGBT liaison officer Lynn Albright retires. Laura Martin become the new liaison.
Dallas Voice launches TXT Newsmagazine and relaunches Lambda Pages as the LGBT Yellow Pages.
2006 Dallas Voice Senior Editor Dennis Vercher dies of AIDS. Tammye Nash is named senior editor.
Tim Seelig leaves the Turtle Creek Chorale.
The Legacy of Love monument is dedicated at the intersection of Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road.
Dallas Voice launches an innovative new video news component called DVtv.
Dallas Voice holds the first Readers Voice Awards.
2007 Ed Oakley steps down from the Dallas City Council to run for mayor, eventually losing in a run-off to Tom Leppert.
The Cedar Springs Merchants Association’s monthly wine walk begins.
2008 The Tom Thumb grocery story on Cedar Springs Road, long known as “Mary Thumb,” is razed to make way for construction on the ilume residential/retail complex.
LGBT Yellow Pages becomes Dallas Voice Yellow Pages.
2009 Agents with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and officers with the Fort Worth Police Department conduct an early-morning raid at the newly-opened Rainbow Lounge bar in Fort Worth on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, making headlines around the world.
The Dallas Mayor’s LGBT Task Force is formed.
Dallas Voice celebrates its 25th anniversary.
David Webb retires as full-time Dallas Voice writer but continues to contribute as a freelancer.
David Taffet joins the Dallas Voice staff full time as a news reporter.
2010 Kevin Thomas joins the Dallas Voice art department.
The Dallas Way is founded.
Cathedral of Hope’s Interfaith Peace Chapel opens.
2011 Anti-bullying legislation passes in the Texas Legislature.
2012 FDA approves Truvada for PrEP
Chad Mantooth joins the Dallas Voice as an advertising sales rep.
2013 Ruling in Windsor v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
The movie Dallas Buyers Club about AIDS activist Ron Woodruff is released. Dr. Steve Pounders is played by Jennifer Garner.
Robert Moore retires as publisher of Dallas Voice and sells the company to Leo Cusimano and Terry Thompson. Cusimano becomes publisher and Thompson becomes president.
Gay candidate Adam Medrano elected to Dallas City Council and eventually becomes deputy mayor pro tem.
Dallas Voice’s classified sales manager Greg Hoover leaves to sail the South Pacific. He eventually settles in New Zealand and opens a gay guesthouse with his new husband.
2014 Tammye Nash returns to the Dallas Voice staff as managing editor after a two-and-a-half-year absence.
The first OUT North Texas LGBT visitors and relocation guide is published.
Queerbomb LGBT Pride and protest organization is founded.
2015 The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling Obergefell v. Hodges, makes marriage equality the law of the land across the U.S.
2016 A gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle attacks the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. In what was the largest mass shooting in modern history.
Resource Center opens its new facility on Cedar Springs Road.
Four Dallas Police officers and one DART police officer are killed by a lone gunman who goes on a shooting spree during a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas.
2017 Terry Thompson retires from Dallas Voice. Leo Cusimano becomes sole owner of the company.
Gay candidate Omar Narvaez is elected to the Dallas City Council.
2018 Nicholas Gonzalez joins the Dallas Voice staff as an advertising sales rep.
A Texas historical marker honoring Cedar Springs/Oak Lawn as the home of the Dallas LGBT community is placed at the Crossroads.
Officer Amber Roman is appointed the Dallas Police Department’s LGBT liaison officer.
2019 A new study in Europe proves that HIV-positive people with an undetectable viral load cannot transmit the virus.
Dallas Voice celebrates its 35th anniversary.
Dallas’ Pride celebration, including the Miller Lite Music Festival and the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, move from September in Oak Lawn to June at Fair Park.
LGBT people and their allies around the world celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
This timeline is obviously not intended to be a comprehensive list of important dates in LGBT history nor in the history of Dallas and North Texas. It is simply a look back at some of the highlights — and low points — over the last 50 years and Dallas Voice’s contributions to the community as we celebrate our last 35 years and embark on our 36th year as the Voice of the North Texas LGBT Community.
