In today’s paper, I wrote about an incident that happened at the State Fair of Texas last weekend. A couple was called over to a booth with their seven-year-old daughter to win a prize. Instead, they were subjected to an anti-gay tirade that left their daughter in tears.
Latisha Pennington contacted fair officials but after getting few results she called Dallas Voice. I suggested she contact Craig Holcomb, a former city council member who is openly gay and runs Friends of Fair Park.
I got in touch with the public relations office, which assured me that Fair Director Kelly Pound had already had a talk with the folks at the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship in America booth, where the verbal assault took place.
I mentioned that although I would never advocate, only report, my article would include the name of the group and their booth location. The public relations office decided to pay the group another visit.
Thursday night, Pennington and her partner Dondi Morse got word from Holcomb that the man who hurled the epithets at them would no longer be working at the booth at the fair. The group renting the booth would be sending the family a letter of apology. And the fair sent them tickets for a return visit.
The next step would have been filing a complaint with the Dallas Fair Housing Office, the department that handles all claims of discrimination. None of that is necessary now. It’s nice to work on a story that resolves itself with an apology and an understanding of why something that happened was so wrong.
This is great news!…
I’ve been thinking about this incidence since I read about it this morning
The new tickets are great and I hope they have a wonderful experience this time around!
Mike in Dallas
This is so sad. Being a Gay Parent as well, our Children face so much adversity in their lives, Although its not their life style they still get the retaliation, hate, and disrespect. I feel for anyone who has ever went through this wrong doing. I think the booth should be pulled from the fair all together instead of the man.
I’m sure the booth renters are sorry the child was traumatized, but now that they know that what they are doing is getting results, I’m sure they’ll do it again. In fact, I submit they have probably already started.