“...they think the gay community is an easy target. LET’S SHOW THEM WE’RE NOT!” These exclamatory words jump off the page of a 1995 advertisement in the Houston Voice, a Houston LGBTQ publication. The call to action? To join Q-Patrol.…
For the first time in history, the city of Austin will officially recognize Intersex Awareness Day. The formal announcement, which will be made by Austin City Council on October 17, will declare October 26, from this year on, as Intersex Awareness Day.…
Forty years ago, Félix González-Torres arrived in New York City from Puerto Rico, marking the beginning of his emergence as one of the most influential conceptual artists of his generation. During a brilliant career cut tragically short by his death from AIDS, the openly gay, Cuban-born, Latino-American artist produced a wide range of works that challenged spectators to participate in the creative experience and to formulate their own meanings. Through photography, billboards, and installations comprised of everyday objects, he evoked…
When asked about himself, the first thing Taylor De La Garza shares is that he’s from the Rio Grande Valley. The second is that, after he completes his studies in Houston, he wants to return to the Valley, where he plans to continue his journey of LGBTQ activism. “I was scared of accepting the queer part of me for a long time,” De La Garza says. “I owe a lot to my community back home.”…
It sounded like a wave breaking. When you’re watching Hamilton and a gun goes off, you expect a bit of audience commotion. You anticipate some sort of reaction to an emotional climax of a two-and-a-half-hour story—a murmur; a shifting in seats; the rustling of fabric on theater upholstery, a breeze through leaves. What sparked the red flag is when it didn’t stop.…
On August 1, the Pride Forum, a non-partisan collaboration between several LGBTQ organizations in Houston, took the stage at Texas Southern University’s Jesse H. Jones School of Business. Though it was balmy outside, the heat of the mayoral race was nowhere to be found—yet. Seven hopefuls met with moderators Emmett Schelling and LaKeia Ferreira-Spady to discuss the issues most important to the LGBTQ community.…
On May 4, South Bend, Indiana mayor and 2020 presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg gave an impassioned speech and posed for photos at a campaign fundraiser at Chapman & Kirby in Houston’s East Downtown. But before shaking hands with eager fans and donors at the public event, the openly gay Democratic contender sat down for an intimate, transparent conversation with some of the city’s most notable Black spiritual leaders at the private residence of Houston community leaders Vince Pryor and Alan…
The livelihoods of LGBTQ Texans are on the line at the Texas Capitol this week. A slew of anti-LGBTQ bills are scheduled to be heard at the Texas legislature starting on Wednesday, April 17, 2019, each posing a dire threat to the day-to-day existence of LGBTQ residents in the state—but it’s not too late to fight for justice.…
SB17 would provide any professional licensed by the state of Texas a license to discriminate based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.” The religious exemption bill is being called the latest aggression against LGBTQ Texans—as well as other individuals not protected at the federal level, such as single parents or people who practice a religion that differs from that of the service provider.…
Dear America, I arrived in this country when I was four years old. My mother had married a man, an American citizen, who would become my stepfather and we left behind our previous home in a small ranching community in Mexico. Even though I was young, I remember that period in my life like it was yesterday. I was nervous to arrive in this new place where the people looked different and spoke a different language than me. Even the houses…
