Six LGBT community members told their stories as part of The Dallas Way’s Outrageous Oral 5 on Thursday.
Candy Marcum began the evening with the story of how Oak Lawn Community Services came into being. She partnered with counselor Howie Daire to begin a counseling service for gay people. Without the Internet, they promoted their business by talking to bartenders who made many referrals.
Marcum said she ended up with many male clients because it would have been unethical for Daire to work with anyone professionally whom he had sex with.
Darryl Baker spoke about being prevented from entering the gay clubs without four forms of identification and Nell Gaither’s piece was about her work for the transgender community today.
Steve Atkinson mostly talked about his work to pass local and state legislation. But he told about death threats he got while doing that work and said it was the first time he told the story in public. The police took those threats seriously but were not able to trace the call in an era before caller ID.
Hardy Haberman told about how he became part of the leather community and Cordell Adams wrapped all of the stories together before telling his own story of growing up in East Texas and moving “across the tracks.”
The Dallas Way taped the presentation, which will be available on its YouTube channel. The organization is working with University of North Texas to preserve Dallas LGBT history.
More photos below.