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  • Tuesday, May 13

    Bakker and Family Outing group meet Osteen whose church says we're sinners

    Source: Christian Post , Soulforce press release Houston -- Jay Bakker, a New York City pastor and supporter of gay rights, met privately with Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church to talk about faith and sexuality issues. Son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jay and a group of gays and lesbians attended one of Lakewood Church's worship services in an effort to change the influential pastor's view on gays and lesbians. Osteen welcomed the group, according to Christian Post , but "did not affirm homosexuality." The visit was the first of six megachurch stops in a campaign for tolerance called...
    Posted May 13 2008, 01:36 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Thursday, May 08

    Jay Bakker wants Joel Osteen's church to meet with gay parents; Church wants to 'agree to disagree'

    Source: Houston Chronicle , Proud Parenting , Soulforce press release At a press conference in Houston Wednesday, Jay Bakker, a New York City pastor, issued an open invitation to families from Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church - the largest church in the U.S. -- to share a picnic with LGBT families in Houston’s Levy Park on Saturday, May 10, 2008. The son of evangelical Tammy Faye Bakker Messner hopes to spend his first Mother's Day weekend since her death at a picnic in Houston with members of Osteen's church and members of Houston's LGBT community. The proposed picnic is part of a...
  • Friday, May 02

    Episcopal leader predicts gay union blessings ‘in our lifetimes’

    Source: Dallas Voice , Dallas Morning News The leader of the Episcopal Church said Monday, April 28 that she expects the denomination to sanction same-sex union ceremonies “in our lifetimes.” Speaking at the Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, a predominantly gay parish, during her first official visit to Dallas, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori also said she believes openly gay bishop Gene Robinson’s exclusion from the upcoming Lambeth Conference will only serve to increase his impact on the event. Jefferts Schori is presiding bishop of the U.S. branch of the 80-million-member worldwide...
    Posted May 02 2008, 12:35 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Wednesday, April 30

    Methodists vote to stick with church's anti-gay policies

    Source: The Ledger , The Ledger , Christian Post FORT WORTH, Texas -- Delegates to the United Methodist Church's General Conference today turned back attempts to liberalize its policy on homosexuality. By 55 to 45 percent, the delegates rejected a proposal from a legislative committee leaving in place the position that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The question of the status of gays was likely the most contentious one delegates will deal with in the 10-day conference, which concludes Friday. The result of Wednesday’s debate was similar to votes in...
    Posted Apr 30 2008, 09:00 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Monday, April 28

    Civil rights leaders urge Methodists to tear down their LGBT discrimination

    Source: UMC report , Soulforce , Ledger , GLAAD Two veterans of the civil rights struggle told a rally held during a major worldwide meeting of the United Methodist Church that there are parallels between the struggles of blacks in the 1960s and those of gays and lesbians working for full inclusion in the church today. At a rally held Sunday outside the Fort Worth Convention Center where the denomination’s 2008 General Conference is meeting through May 2, retired United Methodist clergy the Rev. James Lawson and the Rev. Gil Caldwell spoke of the connection between racism and “heterosexism.” The...
  • Sunday, April 27

    Major Methodist confab considers gay issues, and many others

    Source: Fort Worth Star Telegram , Tulsa World FORT WORTH -- At a major conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC), delegates took steps Friday toward filling posts on the denomination's Judicial Council, which is crucial in determining the church's stance on such issues as same-sex unions, the ordination of sexually active homosexuals and the membership of homosexuals in the church. UMC's General Conference, which is convened every four years is meeting in Fort Worth. Nearly 1,000 delegates from throughout the world have gathered at the Fort Worth Convention Center for the 10...
    Posted Apr 27 2008, 01:17 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Wednesday, April 23

    Anti-bullying protest draws organized opposition in Texas suburb

    Source: Houston Chronicle The Houston Chronicle reports that suburban school districts in the area have been fielding a flurry of calls recently from parents concerned about the anti-bullying observance, Day of Silence . The report suggests that the calls are part of an organized campaign to stop the anti-bullying protest. This week, Alton Frailey, superintendent of Katy's school district, let all teachers know that -- though no one asked his district to participate in the silent protest -- if someone did, "my answer is no." His districtwide e-mail on the subject, which confused and...
  • Wednesday, April 16

    Dallas-area county urged to adopt rules against anti-gay bias

    Source: Dallas Morning News McKinney -- Gay rights advocates urged Collin County commissioners on Tuesday to adopt a hiring policy that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. Collin County is a wealthy and solidly Republican suburban area just north of Dallas. A small part of the city of Dallas and most of Plano lie within the county boundaries. Commissioners are considering a proposed policy that would ban discrimination based on “sex, race, creed, disability or national origin.” It does not specifically mention sexual orientation. Officials said the county needs a written equal...
  • Saturday, April 12

    University LGBT groups team up for a prom night in Denton, Texas

    Source: North Texas Daily (UNT) Carnivale prom-goers enjoy LGBT prom hosted by Denton, TX university student groups photo: North Texas Daily High heels, big hair and couples' photos are not limited to high school prom night. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Denton (GLAD) and TWU Pride hosted their Carnevale-themed prom April 5 at the UNT University Union's Silver Eagle Suite. According to its web page , TWU Pride is the student organization at Texas Woman's University in Denton for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students and straight allies. Founded in 2000, it has been an...
  • Friday, April 11

    Austin's Pride Texas events combine for greater impact

    Source: Austin Business Journal , Dallas Voice For the first time, Austin's gay pride parade and pride festival later this year will be staged on the same day as part of a burgeoning local effort to tap into the lucrative gay visitor and event market. The two events will be staged on June 14, with the festival held at Auditorium Shores and the parade departing from that location. Organizers believe the combined celebrations -- which used to be held on separate weekends in June -- could draw a combined 50,000 participants and spectators, with many coming from outside the city. People from across...
  • Friday, April 04

    Commentary: Campaign against gay Plano candidate is a sad step back

    Source: Dallas Morning News by columnist Jacquielynn Floyd This is embarrassing. All this time I've been pounding the tom-toms about how Texans are unfairly stereotyped, how this area isn't the festering hive of bigotry that some would have you believe. We are reasonable and enlightened people, I have said. The notion that we're a bunch of intolerant backwoods barbarians is an imbecilic stereotype, I have said. Then somebody reportedly goes and wages an ugly, anonymous e-mail campaign against a Plano City Council candidate because he happens to be gay. And somebody on the Collin County...
    Posted Apr 04 2008, 08:24 AM by NewsEditor with | with 1 comment(s)
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  • Tuesday, April 01

    Dallas-area county backs off; Won't review gay employee's job status

    Source: Dallas Morning News The Collin County Commissioners Court has scrapped a plan to discuss the employment status of Justin Nichols, a Plano City Council candidate who said his job as coordinator of the county's teen court is at risk because he is openly gay. Background in Qnews : One gay candidate and another who supports him become right-wing targets The change came a day after Mr. Nichols alleged that Commissioner Jerry Hoagland had asked the panel to consider firing Mr. Nichols. Mr. Hoagland declined to comment Tuesday, saying he planned to discuss the issue further with the county...
    Posted Apr 01 2008, 11:58 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Tuesday, April 01

    One gay candidate and another who supports him become right-wing targets

    Source: Dallas Morning News , Dallas Voice Plano, Tex. -- An openly gay Plano City Council candidate says his job with Collin County is in jeopardy because of his sexual orientation. The county Commissioners Court has tentatively scheduled an April 15 public hearing to discuss Justin Nichols' status as coordinator of the county's teen court program, commissioners said. Update in Qnews : Dallas-area county backs off; Won't review gay employee's job status An incumbent running to retain her seat on the county commission charges that the whole issue is part of an attempt by a right...
    Posted Apr 01 2008, 09:28 AM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Tuesday, March 25

    Punishments stir up anger after Austin bias complaint by lesbian officer

    Source: Austin American-Statesman , Austin American-Statesman Austin, Texas -- Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo suspended a veteran commander for 20 days last week for making comments that Acevedo said demonstrated a "personal bias" toward gay officers and fired a second commander who failed to report it and refused a suspension. The discipline stemmed from a conversation last year in which Cmdr. Calvin Smith told Cmdr. Larry Oliver that he was concerned about the officer's transfer to the training academy because of the "kind of message" it would send, according to a disciplinary...
  • Wednesday, March 05

    Reports offer snapshots of LGBT voters in Texas

    Snapshots coming from most election coverage overlook LGBT voters. Even gay blogs mostly take advocacy positions for one candidate or the other without looking more broadly as LGBT voters as a possible "bloc." But a few stories from Texas offered snapshots of the vote with just that emphasis. In a story in today's paper, Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas offers a day-after report on the Texas primary by visiting a gay bar in Gun Barrel City, Texas, "small, quiet, conservative town of 5,000 about 50 miles southeast of Dallas". He finds there supporters of Hillary...
    Posted Mar 05 2008, 11:46 AM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Monday, February 25

    Jay Bakker preaches at MCC in Austin to help launch Soulforce megachurch visits

    Source: Austin American-Statesman , Dallas Voice Jay Bakker, son of the scandal-rocked televangelist Jim Bakker and the late Tammy Faye Messner, spoke at Metropolitan Community Church in South Austin Sunday. He preached at both services, capping off a weekend of training for gay and lesbian families who about to embark on a campaign to confront churches that promote anti-homosexual teachings. Soulforce is still looking for local families to help initiate a dialogue on LGBT issues with prominent Christian evangelists including Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter’s House in Dallas. Paige Schilt, a spokeswoman...
  • Monday, February 25

    Fort Worth church compromises to include gay members in directory

    Source: Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star Telegram FORT WORTH -- Broadway Baptist Church members reached a compromise on a church directory Sunday, ending a debate on how to include photos of gay members but leaving the pastor's fate unclear. In a 294-182 vote, members approved a recommendation by the church's board of deacons to publish a directory that would include member photos in "candid, small and large group pictures" but not include family portraits. The 125th anniversary pictorial directories "will identify the people in them by name and every effort will be...
    Posted Feb 25 2008, 11:13 AM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Wednesday, February 13

    Appeals Court: Texas can't ban sale of sex toys

    Source: Associated Press via Advocate (AP) A federal appeals court has overturned a Texas statute outlawing sex toy sales, essentially leaving Alabama as the only state with such a ban. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by up to two years in jail, violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment on the right to privacy. Companies that own Dreamer's and Le Rouge Boutique, which sell the devices in its Austin stores, and the retail distributor Adam & Eve, sued in Austin federal court in 2004 over the...
  • Thursday, January 17

    Soulforce hopes to start talks with Texas evangelists

    Source: Dallas Voice Dallas -- Soulforce is looking for 40 volunteer families from Texas to help initiate a dialogue on LGBT issues with prominent Christian evangelists including Bishop T.D. Jakes of the Potter’s House in Dallas and the Rev. Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston. Each family will visit The Potter’s House and Lakewood Church, as well as one of four other U.S. megachurches, in May as part of Soulforce’s “An American Family Outing.” The goal of the event is to change the hearts and minds of congregations led by those who’ve taken the reins of the evangelical movement from noted...
    Posted Jan 17 2008, 09:13 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Monday, December 24

    Galveston comes out as latest gay tourism, residential hotspot

    Source: Houston Chronicle , KHOU TV , News 8 Austin GALVESTON, Texas -- With its laid-back lifestyle and low cost of living, Galveston promises to become the gay tourist mecca and residential center of the South, said activist-publisher Laura Villagran, who earlier this month opened the city's first gay and lesbian visitor's center. Long known for its vibrant bar scene and raucous Splash Day celebrations, Galveston in recent years has become home to a growing gay and lesbian professional class. Now, real estate agents say, the city is poised to become a retirement haven for graying gays...
  • Friday, December 21

    Fort Worth elects first out official

    Source: The Advocate Fort Worth, Texas, has elected its first openly gay public official. Joel Burns won a runoff election Tuesday night to represent the ninth district on the city council. Burns, a real estate agent, won with 54% of the vote, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. About 14% of registered voters participated in the runoff, a decrease from 18% in the November 6 election. The ninth district includes downtown Fort Worth and Texas Christian University. The Star-Telegram 's endorsement of Burns called him the candidate "who is the most knowledgeable about city issues and takes...
    Posted Dec 21 2007, 09:20 AM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Wednesday, December 12

    Gay Montrose area was key to win in Houston local race

    Source: Houston Chronicle Houston -- Fourteen years ago, many residents of the mostly white Montrose neighborhood, cradle of Houston's gay community, complained that their political voice was being squelched by their area being folded into the overwhelmingly black, working-class City Council District D. "Having Montrose in District D is exiling us to Siberia," said Annise Parker, then a lesbian activist hoping to win public office and now the city controller. This week, Siberia looks more like a tropical beach resort. Montrose, on the map an awkward appendage to a district that covers...
    Posted Dec 12 2007, 10:56 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Sunday, December 02

    Fort Worth church delays decision on whether to include gay couples in anniversary pictorial

    Source: Fort Worth Star Telegram and Dallas Morning News A prominent Fort Worth church continues to struggle with how to handle photographs of gay members in a pictorial directory that’s to be part of its 125th anniversary celebrations. Broadway Baptist Church won’t decide until next year whether to allow portraits of gay couples to appear in a church directory being published to celebrate the church's 125th birthday. Members of the congregation who attended a meeting after Sunday services decided to send the issue back to the board of deacons, with the expectation that the board will make...
    Posted Dec 02 2007, 06:07 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Friday, November 30

    Dallas gay bookstore closes and helps shutter the era of the gayborhood

    Source: Dallas Morning News If, as expected, Crossroads Market closes in the next few weeks, Phil Johnson has to remind himself that the cause of its death is something its founders always wanted. Opened originally as a junk store, Crossroads Market served as much as a community center as a business. The epicenter of gay activism in Dallas, the bookstore was a place where political candidacies were born and AIDS relief was organized. Its founders included a who's-who of early Dallas gay leaders including William Waybourn, Craig Spaulding, Terry Tebedo, Bill Nelson and Mr. Johnson. "It...
  • Monday, November 19

    Fort Worth diocese takes first steps to split from Episcopal Church

    Source: Star-Telegram FORT WORTH -- Delegates to the Fort Worth Episcopal Diocese's annual convention took the first step Saturday to cut ties to the Episcopal Church, a move driven in part by the diocese's opposition to the ordination of women and gay men and the blessing of same-sex unions. More than 200 clergy and lay delegates voted at the Will Rogers Memorial Center, with an overwhelming majority rejecting on first reading an amendment assenting to the authority of the Episcopal Church. The church's 2.1 million members constitute the U.S. body of the Anglican Communion, but the...
    Posted Nov 19 2007, 07:16 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Tuesday, November 13

    Dallas AIDS agency office raked by early-morning gunfire; Nobody hurt

    Source: Dallas Morning News No sign marks the darkened windows of the AIDS Interfaith Network. But now, they are marked by bullet holes. The bullets, 20 or more, also tore through the agency's interior walls early Monday, and through furniture, a printer, a file cabinet and other office supplies. They left the carpet littered with broken glass, splintered wood and drywall dust. And they blasted through two of the agency's unmarked 2006 Dodge minivans parked in front, shattering windows, ripping upholstery and leaving dark fluid leaking from an engine. According to NBC5i TV in Dallas , the...
    Posted Nov 13 2007, 03:55 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Thursday, November 08

    Largest gay church breaks ground on Philip Johnson chapel

    Philip Johnson's design for Cathedral of Hope campus in Dallas -- his last major project before his death in 2005. Parts of the campus -- including the bell tower commemorating those who have died of AIDS -- have been built, but the mostly-gay Dallas congregation continues an extended fund-raising effort for the overall campus. Source: The Advocate (with additional material from Cathedral of Hope) The Cathedral of Hope and the grassroots organization Hope for Peace & Justice will break ground on the Philip Johnson–designed Interfaith Peace Chapel this coming Sunday in a special service...
  • Wednesday, November 07

    No parole in Texas for man convicted in brutal 1991 gay-bashing murder

    Source: Houston Chronicle One of 10 men convicted in the beating and stabbing death of a man outside a Montrose area nightclub in 1991 has been denied parole, the parole board announced today. Jon Buice, 33, will be eligible for parole again in two years. Buice has served about one-third of a 45-year sentence after pleading guilty to murder in the gay-bashing death of Paul Broussard, 27. "We're thankful the parole board saw fit to deny parole to someone who has not served half of his sentence," said Andy Kahan, director of the mayor's Crime Victims Office who has worked with Broussard's...
    Posted Nov 07 2007, 03:34 PM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Friday, November 02

    Log Cabin Republicans work to center the party

    Source: Reuters DALLAS (Reuters) - Doug Warner seems like a stereotypical Republican: Southern, white, male, he served in the military, drives an SUV and likes hunting and fishing. He is also openly gay. Warner's sexual orientation makes for an awkward fit in a party with a powerful evangelical Christian wing that regards homosexuality as a sin and same-sex marriage as a threat to the traditional family. For years, bashing the "homosexual agenda" worked well for Republicans. In 2004, the party placed anti-gay marriage referendums on 11 state ballots. All passed by large majorities...
    Posted Nov 02 2007, 08:49 AM by NewsEditor with | with no comments
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  • Thursday, November 01

    Anti-'saggin' song riles Dallas LGBT community

    Source: Dallas Morning News Dallas Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway wants urban youths to improve their image by hiking up their pants. But a local hip-hop artist is using homophobia as a tool to get that message across. What started as an effort by Mr. Caraway to discourage saggin' – the wearing of jeans or trousers drastically below the waistline to expose underwear – has raised concerns because of a rap song that equates the fashion practice to being open to gay sex. "Pull Your Pants Up" by Dooney da Priest (real name: Dewayne Brown) first describes saggin' visually, but...
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