Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade dignitaries for 2011 include, from left, male co-grand marshals Gary Miller and Alan Pierce, female grand marshal Chris Bengston and honorary grand marshal Joel Burns. British rugby star Ben Cohen, pictured below, is special VIP guest for the Pride festivities this year.
Round-Up Saloon owners— and life partners — Alan Pierce and Gary Miller will share male grand marshal honors for the 2011 Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade on Sept. 18, and longtime Caven Enterprises employee and community volunteer Chris Bengston will be female grand marshal, according to information released by the Dallas Tavern Guild, the organization of local LGBT nightclubs that puts on the parade each year.
Gay Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns, who made national headlines last year with his emotional speech during a council meeting to tell LGBT teens considering suicide that life does get better, will be honorary grand marshal. The theme for this year’s parade is “It Only Gets Better.”
The Tavern Guild is dedicating its annual Pride Guide — the magazine published at the first of September each year to detail Dallas Pride activities — to the North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce. And British rugby star Ben Cohen, who has campaigned against homophobia and bullying, will be the Tavern Guild’s special VIP guest at the parade this year.
Ben Cohen is not openly gay… he is actually married to a woman!
SCottyC: You are right; thanks for the correction. Ben Cohen is married and has two children. He is very proud of his gay following and founded the Ben Cohen Stand Up Foundation to combat homophobia and bullying. He said in May this year when he retired from rugby that he would concentrate now on that foundation. He is also clinically deaf and has worked to make the sport of rugby more open to people who are deaf.
So I’m Guess Burns is going to be thowning a vote for me, and buy my book!