Activist Larry Kramer is honorary grand marshal
Sheriff Lupe Valdez and LULAC Dallas Rainbow Council President and co-founder Jesse Garcia have been named the grand marshals of the 2009 Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade.
Larry Kramer will be the honorary grand marshal.
The parade steps off at 2 p.m. on Sept. 20.
Valdez was elected sheriff of Dallas County in 2004 and reelected in 2008. She is currently the nation’s only lesbian Latina sheriff.
Garcia co-founded the Dallas Rainbow Council of LULAC in 2006 and serves as its president. He was president of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas and served on the national Stonewall Democrats board. He was one of five national Pride co-chairs for the Obama campaign.
Dallas Tavern Guild executive director Michael Doughman said, "Larry Kramer represents an important part of our history that we need to keep alive." In 1981, he co-founded the first AIDS organization, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, in New York. He founded ACT UP in 1987 to protest the high price of drugs to treat AIDS and the Reagan administration’s failure to address the crisis. He is a playwright and author who wrote the AIDS drama, "The Normal Heart" and was nominated for an Academy Award for his 1969 screenplay for "Women in Love." He also wrote the 1978 novel "Faggots."
Adam Bouska from the No H8 Photo Campaign will participate in Pride weekend with a gallery showing and photo shoot.
Applications to participate in the parade or festival are available on the Dallas Tavern Guild Web site. People may also volunteer to work the parade route or at the festival in Lee Park on the Web site, DallasPrideParade.com
E-mail taffet@dallasvoice.com
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 24, 2009.
“No comments yet”
Gee I wonder why ……….
By the way, the term “Faggots” in this article is “offensive” and should (under the Dallas Voice “terms of use”) be censored and removed from the article in the same manner in which the editors remove other material from commentors which is “deemed” inappropriate.
Perhaps the “terms of use” does not apply to writers or contributors, only to commentors, especially those who rock the boat……
It’s the name of the book Kramer wrote.