Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 24, No. 48, Ed. 1 Friday, April 18, 2008 Page: 1 of 72

TEXAS VISITING LGBT JOURNALISTS MEET MAYOR
NATIONAL DIGNITY PROTESTS POPE'S VISIT TO U.S. I PLUS VIEWPOINTS I TRAVEL I STAGE I BOOKS
p4* ^>ICE
GUS KLEIN
gives you a video
preview of the
Great Spaces mag.
DallasVoice.com
TEXAS
Transgender
activists protest at
Human Rights
Campaign event in
Houston.
PAGE 6.
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GREAT SPACES
For ideas on every-
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PULLOUT SECTION
VOLUME 24 I ISSUE 48
ESTABLISHED 1S84
dallasvoice.com
APRIL 118 I 2008
THE PREMIER SOURCE FOR LGBT DALLAS/FORT WORTH
Local church ready to confront UM over discrimination
NORTHAVEN UNITED METHODISTCHUI
i
JOHN WRIGHT/Dallas Voice
Mary Lowrance says she believes she cannot be part of the efforts to change the United Methodist Church's anti-gay policies unless she remains engaged in the church.
Northaven joining with Soulforce,
Reconciling Ministries to make
a stand at United Methodist
General Conference in Fort Worth
By John Wright Staff Writer
FORT WORTH — The only thing Mary
Lowrance ever wanted to do was be a minister
in the United Methodist Church.
In 1994, after graduating from Brite Divinity
School at Texas Christian University Lowrance
said she answered God's calling and was
ordained a UMC elder,
Lowrance married a man who was also a
Methodist minister, and she served various con-
gregations in the Fort Worth area over the next
decade.
"My awareness that I was a lesbian, I buried
that as deep as I could, because I knew what the
church's position was on that," Lowrance said.
"For a while, I thought I'd live in the closet until
the day I died."
But after Lowrance and her husband were
divorced in 2002, she said she gradually began
to come to terms with her sexual orientation.
As a result, she was overcome by a deep sense
of guilt, as well as the fear of a church trial, and
especially the impact it would have on her
See UMC on PAGE 16
Activists ask Collin
County to protect
LGB' workers
Move comes in wake of effort to
oust gay Teen Court coordinator
By John Wright Staff Writer
MCKINNEY — Two weeks after the job of
Teen Court coordinator Justin Nichols was
threatened because he's gay, Collin County
commissioners were urged Tuesday, April 15 to
enact an employment policy that prohibits dis-
crimination based on sexual orientation.
A county official said Wednesday April 16
that commissioners didn't discuss or act on the
proposal because it wasn't on the agenda for
Tuesday's regular meeting.
Schwarzenegger vows to
fight anti-gay amendment
Blogger says California court set to strike down law barring gay marriage
By Rex Wockner Wockner News Service
Dawnetta Miller
Justin Nichols
Dawnetta Miller, co-founder of the Collin
County Gay and Lesbian Alliance, was one of
three CCGLA representatives who addressed
the Commissioners Court.
"What's gone on with Justin certainly has
made the community stand up and take notice,
the general community as well as our own
community, but these are things we've been
See COLLIN COUNTY on PAGE 12
WEEKEND WEATHER
-P->I FRI Partly Cloudy
72°
0 SAT
Sunny
48/83
<^>) SUN
Mostly Cloudy
57/84
Friday starts out cloudy but sun prevails by the afternoon, and
the skies will stay clear through Saturday. But the clouds come
back on Sunday and hang around most of the week.
INDEX
SPIRITUALITY
Local News
6
Dallas-bred rebel singer
National News
25
Michelle Shocked dis-
Viewpoints
32
putes her former status
Life+Style
34
as a lesbian. Now she's
Starvoice
51
an evangelical Christian
Calendar
53
who believes being gay
Classifieds
66
is a sin. PAGE 34.
SAN DIEGO — Speaking April 11 at the Log
Cabin Republicans National Convention,
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said
the effort by anti-gay forces to amend the
California Constitution to permanently ban
same-sex marriage is "a total waste of time" and
that he will fight against it.
Anti-gay activists claim they have collected
almost enough voter signatures to put an initia-
tive on the November ballot that would let vot-
ers directly amend the Constitution.
Schwarzenegger addressed the 200 LGBT
PARTY
Shirtless boys will be
worshipping at the altar
of the cha-cha gods this
weekend. Porn stars,
disco divas and celebrity
DJs herald Purple Party
8. PAGE 36.
Republicans for about 20
minutes, ending with a
question-and-answer ses-
sion with Log Cabin
President Patrick
Sammon.
Sammon said to the
governor: "Our organiza-
tion started here in
California in 1978 and
grew out of a ballot initiative — the Biiggs
See SCHWARZENEGGER on PAGE 28
Gov. Schwarzenegger
ART
Ihe Fort Worth Modern
showcases Kehinde
Wiley's vibrant canvas-
es. Ihe gay master
fuses hip-hop, baroque
and post-colonial styles.
PAGE 44.