After tense showdown over equality resolution in Dallas City Council chambers this week, LGBT leaders discuss where we go from here
FIGHTING BACK | LGBT activists march through downtown on June 8 to protest the city’s failure to take up an equality resolution. (Courtesy of Cd Kirven)
LGBT leaders began brainstorming this week about how to respond the Dallas City Council’s apparent lack of support for equality.
After expressing their outrage over the failure of an equality resolution to the council on Wednesday, June 12, several activists said they would regroup and come back stronger and force the council to hear them.
Uninviting unsupportive council members and the mayor from Dallas Pride and voting others out of office in two years were priorities for some, while others said they would ramp up actions until the council passed the resolution.
The resolution was originally scheduled to go before the council Wednesday, but never made the agenda after Councilwoman Delia Jasso pulled her signature from a memo that would have required it to be addressed.
Mayor Mike Rawlings has called the issue a “misuse” of council time and stepped in while in South America last week to block a last-minute effort to add the resolution to the agenda.
Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano submitted a request to add the item last Friday, but Rawlings had conversations with the city attorney’s office, which ultimately ruled he was not absent because he was still available. As a result, Medrano was told she didn’t have the power as acting mayor to add items to the agenda.
RACIAL OVERTONES | Cd Kirven addressed Councilman Dwaine Caraway as she left the chambers. ‘I’m black, too. You know what this feels like,’ Kirven said. (Patrick Hoffman/Dallas Voice)
Cece Cox, CEO of Resource Center Dallas, said the events surrounding the resolution serve as a wake-up call but also showed there’s a willingness for discussion that will open the door for other initiatives such as comprehensive transgender healthcare for city employees.
“I think it has shown a lot of folks in the LGBT community how much more work needs to be done,” she said. “We can’t take any support for granted. Councilwoman Jasso showed us that.”
Cox said the community needs to build relationships with council members who expressed support during Wednesday’s meeting, but also begin reaching out to new council members who take office June 24.
Cox was one of several activists who addressed the council Wednesday during public comments.
Rawlings wasn’t present when most of the activists spoke in the morning but was in his chair in the afternoon when Dallas Gay and Lesbian President Patti Fink addressed the council.
“When I hear the word ‘misuse’ coming from anyone in the council, I take that very personally,” Fink said. “It’s not a misuse of this body’s time and energy and authority to address the concerns and rights of LGBT Dallasites.”
Fink concluded her emotional speech by promising that in the future the LGBT community will be organized and vote to replace members who aren’t supportive.
Unlike several council members who discussed the resolution during the morning session, Rawlings didn’t respond to Fink’s comments.
It was rumored that Rawlings was purposefully absent Wednesday morning when a few dozen activists in red were present.
Paula Blackmon, Rawlings’ chief of staff, said that was “absolutely false” and he arrived at City Hall after 11 a.m. because his flight arrived that morning.
Blackmon said Rawlings hadn’t reviewed footage of the morning discussion and wouldn’t comment on it. As for Fink’s remarks, she said he “always welcomes open microphone speakers.”
She said Rawlings is not considering adding the item to the agenda in the future. The outgoing council will hold its final meeting June 19.
In response to LGBT speakers the morning of June 12, Councilman Jerry Allen suggested the resolution be sent to a council committee. Councilman Dwaine Caraway then angered the audience when he lectured them about holding one issue against the council.
In response, several of the couple dozen activists walked out of the meeting while others stood and turned their backs to Caraway.
Lesbian activist Cd Kirven shouted “shame on you” to Caraway when she left the meeting after it was decided the issue would go before a committee.
“I guarantee you that GetEQUAL will show up to committee meetings and we will continue to address the mayor,” Kirven said. “Shame on Dwaine Caraway and shame on all the council members who are treating us like we’re invisible.”
Daniel Cates, GetEQUAL TX regional coordinator, is calling on the Dallas Tavern Guild to disinvite Rawlings and others from the Pride parade in September, but that appeared unlikely.
Michael Doughman, executive director of the Tavern Guild, said council members aren’t invited to attend Pride. Instead council members reach out to the organization to ride on the float. He said the issue has already been discussed and the board decided not to get involved.
“We are not a political organization. Taking political or religious stances jeopardizes our nonprofit status,” he said. “The Tavern Guild’s unanimous decision is that we will not be involved in this decision.”
Cates said it would be “insulting and disrespectful” for Rawlings to appear at Pride. If he does attend, Cates said GetEQUAL would plan action from the crowd.
“This is not about politics,” he said. “This is about our lives. This is about our families and the thousands upon thousands of people in Dallas who just want the American dream.”
Councilman Sheffield Kadane was the only member who spoke in direct opposition to the substance of the resolution, calling it a “moral issue” and referencing to the Bible’s definition of marriage.
Both Jasso and Griggs remained silent. Griggs said later that politics had been brought into the council’s discussion of the resolution. He said resolutions never go to committees and added that he believed the best way to bring the issue forward was with the memo. Committees will begin meeting again in October, which is when the issue will likely move forward.
“[Politics is] not what this is about,” he said. “This is about getting this passed and now it’s proposed to go to committees.”
Councilwoman Angela Hunt said the issue shouldn’t need to go to a committee because members either support or oppose it. She said in the six months since Griggs announced the resolution she never heard anything about it going to a committee, calling the response from council members Wednesday a diversion.
“This is a smokescreen by folks hesitant to vote on this issue,” she said.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 14, 2013.