Protest planned outside City Hall over mayor’s refusal to sign marriage pledge
JOHN WRIGHT | Senior Editor
wright@dallasvoice.com
Activists from GetEQUAL plan a rally outside Dallas City Hall on Friday night, Jan. 27 to call on Mayor Mike Rawlings to change his mind and sign a pledge in support of same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, Rawlings is set to meet privately Saturday, Jan. 28 with a group of 20-25 LGBT leaders to discuss his decision not to sign the pledge.
However, LGBT activists said this week that their beef with Rawlings, who took office last summer, now extends beyond the pledge itself.
They said they’ve been very alarmed by the language and tone Rawlings has used in defending his decision not to sign the pledge in the media.
Most recently, on Wednesday, Rawlings told WFAA-TV that the marriage pledge — signed by more than 100 mayors across the country, including from all eight cities larger than Dallas — was an example of “getting off track” and that the issue of marriage equality is not “relevant to the lion’s share of the citizens of Dallas.”
“Sadly, I think the more he talks about this in the press, the more he digs in as completely out of touch,” said Patti Fink, president of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance. “He’s really pissing off our community. We really have a much deeper, more profound problem than this pledge. … This mayor is naïve. We’re not irrelevant, and we are a part of the lion’s share.”
Fink noted that DGLA issued a rare warning against voting for Rawlings in 2011.
“We certainly hoped that he would prove us wrong when we put a warning on him last year, but I fear that perhaps that warning was well justified, because it certainly appears from this encounter that he puts business before civil rights, which was the essence of our warning,” Fink said.
Paula Blackmon, Rawlings’ chief of staff, said he wasn’t available for comment Thursday. Rawlings told Dallas Voice last week that although he personally supports marriage equality, he didn’t sign the pledge because he wants to avoid social issues that don’t impact the city.
Daniel Cates of GetEQUAL, which is organizing Friday night’s protest, also questioned Rawlings’ handling of the controversy. On Monday, Blackmon told Dallas Voice that Rawlings was skipping a “Meet the Mayor” community meeting in Kiest Park because it would be unfair to subject other residents to an LGBT protest. “He just does not want to put them through that,” Blackmon said.
Cates called such language “damaging and destructive” and said it smacks of “thinly veiled homophobia.”
Rawlings’ decision to skip the Kiest Park meeting appeared to backfire when residents who showed up called him “cowardly” for dodging the protest.
“I think he’s got the worst PR team on earth,” Cates said.
Cates said Friday’s “Sign the Pledge” rally, set for 7 p.m. outside City Hall, will include speakers and a chance for people to address personal notes, including family photos, to the mayor. Cates said he planned to hand-deliver the correspondence to Rawlings at Saturday’s meeting.
“The goal is really for our mayor to finally have his policy match what he says his personal views are,” Cates said. “We are going to continue to apply pressure, and that can stop whenever he wants.”
Cece Cox, executive director and CEO of the Resource Center, organized Saturday’s invitation-only meeting between Rawlings and LGBT leaders.
Cox said she reached out to the mayor’s office last week after his explanation for not signing the pledge “sent up about 100 red flags.”
Saturday’s meeting, which is closed to the media, is scheduled for an hour and a half. In addition to the marriage pledge, Cox said she hopes to address other LGBT-related city issues including transgender health benefits, pension benefits for the domestic partners of employees, nondiscrimination requirements for contractors and mandatory diversity training.
Pam Gerber, one of Rawlings’ prominent LGBT supporters during last year’s campaign, said she’s willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and she hopes something positive will come out of the meeting.
Gerber noted that even though neither DGLA nor Stonewall Democrats endorsed Rawlings, he appeared at a gay Pride month reception his first day in office and later rode in the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade.
“If he absolutely will not sign it, then how do we leverage this opportunity to bring something good about for our community?” Gerber said. “I’m not 100 percent confident that he won’t change his mind, because he is a good man who is incredibly well-intentioned. But if that’s the case, then we need to be pragmatic about it and figure out how to move forward and make gains for the LGBT community, instead of looking at the whole thing as all or nothing.”
Fink seemed less optimistic, and she said no matter what, it’s unlikely the conversation will end this weekend.
“This is an education hill we must climb together as a community and engage him as much as possible,” Fink said. “He is not leaving us behind because we are going to be pulling on the cuffs of his trousers every step of the way, and he will not marginalize the LGBT community of Dallas.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 27, 2012.
GetEQUAL=Tea Party 2.0
The discriminatory Dallas power structure has always needed a little encouraging when it comes to “officially” treating its residents and visitors as equals! It will be very interesting to see if the Mayor will finally have his policy match what he says his personal views are. John Wright, Are there any Dallas City Council members “officially or personally” standing for marriage equality?
“It was left to an NAACP chapter in faraway Brownwood to sue and force final desegregation of the midway and eating establishments.”
https://www.dallasobserver.com/2004-09-09/news/laff-in-the-dark/
@preppystudent – You should be glad that GetEQUAL is fighting for your (our) rights. If MLK had taken the route the NAACP wanted him to, he’d still be sitting in the back of the bus and drinking from a different fountain. Wake up! These are your CIVIL RIGHTS, not the whim of some conservative religious nut job! Go out and TAKE THEM! Go GetEQUAL!
This should be of concern for all citizens of Dallas. Not based only on the “gay factor”, but anytime a leader makes specific public comments to marginalize any sector of the population they represent is a serious problem. It’s not only the inaction on the pledge…it’s his public disclosure that a sector of Dallas is being marginalized because they are not “part of the lion share of the citizens”. It deserves more investigation on the source of this position. And further, I would love to have seen John Wiley Price’s face if Mayor Annette Strauss would have made this comment in the 1980’s about the black community in Dallas. This has now clearly moved beyond his not signing the marriage equality pledge.
I have to agree with Cannon. Seriously, WTH? This whole thing is an atrocity on the Mayor’s part, as well as his entire office. Let’s see, I’m an unemployed single-mother of two, barely scraping by and vying for any job that might pay the bills. I suppose I might not be one of the “lion’s share…” in Mayor Rawlings mind, yet I’m one of a gazzillion in Dallas and across the country.
“Daniel Cates of GetEQUAL, which is organizing Friday night’s protest, also questioned Rawlings’ handling of the controversy. On Monday, Blackmon told Dallas Voice that Rawlings was skipping a “Meet the Mayor” community meeting in Kiest Park because it would be unfair to subject other residents to an LGBT protest. “He just does not want to put them through that,” Blackmon said.”
REALLY??? I wonder just how many of the protesters confirmed for this meeting were, not only gay, but live in or around Kiest Park! “Put them through that???” What? Real life?
GLBT’s of Dallas, ‘officially’, you are second class citizens worthy of parade trinkets thrown from a City Of Dallas sponsored rainbow adorned float. Face it, the Mayor, he’s just not that into you!
Mayor Rawlings was real “Gay firendly” before he was elected, wanting the LGBT vote. Now, that he’s got elected he’s telling the LGBT community his won’t support the one most important issue they face. I think our community should have “buyers remorse” and do everything possible to re-call this apparent closet homophobe, especially if he doesn’t change his mind and change it quickly! Marriage equality should be a right for everyone. Until then, we are second class citizens! Mr Rawlings should already know this if he knows and understands ALL his tax paying constitutes.
What really kills me about this entire situation is that even though all the other major U.S. City mayors have signed this pledge, Dallas Mayor Rawlings feels that he IS NOT going with the majority, just to prove a point that he chooses to be different on this issue, and more so for personally reasons. I can understand that not everyone in this country will ever accept the idea of Gay Marriage—I GET THAT. But Mr. Mayor, you just killed the positive attributes that the City Of Dallas holds dear to it’s heart of being a loving city, the 7th largest in the United States by the way. Whether you agree or disagree with this issue is not what this is all about. If the majority of citizens in this city are ok with you signing this pledge, THEN DO IT. You are here to serve the people and NOT here to serve your own opinions, WHICH YOU ARE ENTITLED YO, just like all of us!!!
Rawlins supports marriage equality. He doesn’t sign petitions including petitions regarding federal and state policies. He doesn’t act on coercion from others. He follows his principles and doesn’t do things just because others are doing it. His actions support the equality of gay and lesbian citizens. I have new respect for Rawlins.