Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 43, Ed. 1 Friday, March 13, 2009 Page: 1 of 36
thirty six pages : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
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OCAL QUEER LIBERACTiON ON THE GRASSY KNOLL i HEALTH RESEARCHERS INCH CLOSER TO AIDS VACCINE I PLUS VIEWPOINTS I DINING I STAGE I BOOKS
d4s ^3ICE
LOCAL
Annual No-Tie
Dinner benefitting
AIDS Services of
Dallas set for
Saturday.
PAGE 6
LOCAL
HRC prez warns of
"last dying gasp"
of attacks from the
right at meeting of
DFW Federal Club.
PAGE 6.
2009
READERS VOICE,
AWARDJ
COMING NEXT FRIDAY!
VOLUME 25 I ISSUE 43
ESTABLISHED 1984
dallasvoice.com
MARCH 113 I 2009
THE PREMIER SOURCE FOR LGBT DALLAS/FORT WORTH
Hate crimes study clears committee
Bill backed by Lquaiity Texas seeks to determine why there have been
only 9 prosecutions in 8 years despite more than 1,800 incidents
ByTammyeNash Senior Editor
LGBT rights advocates were celebrating this
week after a bill that would establish a commit-
tee to study the effectiveness of the James Byrd
Jr. Hate Crimes Act passed out of the Texas
House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
on an 8-2 vote.
Since the hate crimes law was enacted in
2001, there have been more than 1,800 bias-
based crimes reported to the Texas Department
of Public Safety, according to the statewide
LGBT advocacy organization Equality Texas.
But only nine of those cases were actually pros-
ecuted as hate crimes.
HB 616, written by Rep.
Marc Veasey D-Fort
Worth with the help of
Equality Texas, would
"basically ask the state to
set up a committee to
review how the James
Byrd Jr. act has been
implemented, and what
are some of the issues surrounding the imple-
Rep. Marc Veasey
mentation of the law," Paul Scott said Thursday,
March 12, a day after the bill was approved in
committee.
"The committee would look at any possible
bias in reporting hate crimes. It would make a
note of when crimes are initially labeled as hate
crimes and then the hate crimes charge is
dropped before prosecution. The whole idea is
to see how the law is used and if it is used, and
what are the barriers to its implementation and
See HATE CRIMES on PAGE 11
FOOD PANTRY GETS BIG DELIVERY, PREPARES FOR OPEN HOUSE
MFAEE88JS88LL
A volunteer stocks shelves at the Resource Center of Dallas' HIV/AIDS food pantry after Whole Foods Market donated much of the inventory
from its recently closed store on Greenville Avenue last week. The donation gave the pantry a boost in the wake of its move from Cedar
Springs Road to Denton Drive Cutoff in February. The pantry will host an open house at the new location, 5450 Denton Drive Cutoff, from
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, March 13. The open house will include a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at 11:30 and will be attended by representa-
tives from Dallas County Health and Human Services, the North Texas Food Bank, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition
Service, HIV/AIDS service providers in the Dallas area and staff from Resource Center of Dallas.
Anti-gay e-mail shows
challenges facing both
Log Cabin, local GOP
Grand Prairie Republican Club president rejects invitation
from LGBT group, calls them 'unfruitful works of darkness'
By John Wright News Editor
Gays are "unfruitful works of darkness" whose immorality could hasten the
death of American government, according to a February e-mail written by the
president of the Grand Prairie Republican Club and sent to representatives from
GOP groups throughout Dallas County.
The e-mail, obtained by Dallas Voice last week, was written in response to an
invitation from Log Cabin Republicans
Convention center hotel debate
Log Cabin Republicans of Dallas will
host a debate March 23 on the city of
Dallas' proposed convention center
hotel. The debate between City
Councilman Ron Natinsky and Anne
Raymond of Crow Holdings is scheduled
to begin at 6:30 p.m. at Mattitos
Restaurant, 3011 Routh St. For more,
e-mail robschlein@aol.com.
of Dallas to attend the group's month-
ly meeting. The invitation reportedly
was distributed as part of new commu-
nication initiative within the party.
Rob Schlein, president of Log Cabin,
said despite the offensive remarks, he
feels the episode illustrates the
progress the LGBT group is making
locally.
The e-mail from Cylynda Caviness,
president of the Grand Prairie Republican Club, was the only negative response
Log Cabin received to its invitation, Schlein said. Meanwhile, representatives
from other groups have criticized Caviness' e-mail and commended Log Cabin
for its response, sent out a few days later to the same recipients.
"It emboldens us," Schlein said of Caviness' e-mail this week. "It reminds us
of the work we have to do to change people's attitudes. We're going to have these
incidents come up from time to time, because we're reaching out, we're taking
risks."
Caviness didn't return a phone call seeking comment.
In the e-mail, Caviness indicated that the Grand Prairie Republican Club voted
See LOG CABIN on PAGE S
WEEKEND WEATHER
OTOTRI Rain 39°
SA1 Cloudy 39/52
IB SUN Sunny 41/64
Hang in there. As bad as the last few days have been, next week
looks almost as good. We'll have plenty of sunshine and highs in
the mid-7Os Monday through Wednesday.
Steve Cruz likes Jessica
Simpson — now that
her waistline has
expanded. The furry
safer-sex porn star kicks
off the Texas Bear
Round-Up. PAGE 18.
CITY SKETCHES
Green beer and green
eyes. Meet Robert
'Lucky' Davidson, the
fiery tattooed Irishman
who's not afraid of drag
on St. Patrick's Day.
PAGE 19.
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 43, Ed. 1 Friday, March 13, 2009, newspaper, March 13, 2009; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239055/m1/1/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.