Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. [33], No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, December 9, 2016 Page: 15 of 44
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An activist, a mentor, a friend
Fairness Fort Worth co-founder and
president David Henderson, who
died Dec. 3, helped his city’s LGBT
community find it’s voice
DAVID TAFFET I Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
The man that the Rev. Carol West called the con-
science of Fort Worth's LGBT community has died.
David Henderson, president of Fairness Fort
Worth, died Saturday, Dec. 3, of esophageal cancer.
Henderson was diagnosed with the disease, al-
ready at stage four, in August. He made the diag-
nosis public in early October, but remained active
and engaged in working for LGBT equality until
the end.
Henderson was the sponsor of the Coalition for
Aging LGBT Tarrant County summit held in Fort
Worth on Nov. 12. Although his health didn't allow
him to attend, summit organizer Cannon Howers
said Henderson helped with all of the details and
planning leading up to the event.
Earlier this year, the North Texas LGBT Cham-
ber of Commerce presented Henderson with its
Extra Mile Award in recognition for his work with
Fairness Fort Worth and his many years of service
to the community. Chamber CEO Tony Vedda said,
"David was like a dog with a bone, unflinching in
his tenacity when advocating for the LGBT com-
munity."
Vedda said he was glad the chamber honored
Henderson before he was diagnosed with cancer
so that "he knew that we knew how much he did."
Henderson's activism began in 1980 when he
was a student at UT Arlington, and was elected as
the school's mascot. When staff in the athletic de-
partment found out he was gay, they asked him to
resign.
Not only did Henderson refuse to resign, the in-
cident prompted him to found what's now known
as the GSA@UTA, the first campus LGBT alliance
in Texas that was officially recognized by a school.
Henderson said he was proud that the attempt
to get rid of him because he was gay resulted in the
school having a LGBT organization as well as a
mascot who was not only gay but now vocal about
it.
"David had the most loving and gentle heart
and his spirit filled the room everywhere he went
and fought for social justice for all LGBTQA+ peo-
ple, especially youth," Becki Clesse, president of
GSA@UTA wrote in announcing Henderson's
death to the group.
Before graduating, Henderson transferred to
University of North Texas and promptly founded
an LGBT alliance on that campus as well. He joined
the board of the Dallas Gay Alliance in 1984, the
year AIDS hit Texas hard, prompting DGA to form
the AIDS Resource Center. Henderson managed
daily operations at the storefront on Cedar Springs
Road.
Henderson left Texas for about 20 years and
worked as a tax accountant. One of the couples
suing for the right to marry in Massachusetts—the
lawsuit that led to that state legalizing same-sex
marriage in 2003 — was among his clients.
Henderson returned to Texas in 2009, shortly be-
fore the raid on the Rainbow Lounge that made
headlines around the world.
In the raid, Fort Worth police accompanied
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents into
the Rainbow Lounge, open for only a week at the
time. Rather than just inspect the receipts behind
the bar, police and agents chose to engage with pa-
trons, becoming abusive with customers and leav-
ing two of the customers injured. One of the two
sustained permanent brain damage when he was
slammed to the concrete floor and handcuffed. He
was transported to JPS Hospital after collapsing
outside the bar.
The raid, coming on the 40th anniversary of the
Stonewall Riots, prompted outrage and anger in
the otherwise sleepy Fort Worth community —
and around the country, and even the world.
Protests began within hours.
"We gathered together some smart people,"
Henderson said on a video made before his GLBT
Chamber award dinner, "and came up with the
concept of working with some people in the city
and not against them. We sat down with the police,
with City Council and city management."
"He did it and he did it spectacularly," Vedda
said of Henderson's efforts after the raid. "And he
turned things around quickly."
That was the beginning of Fairness Fort Worth,
an organization that worked for equality on a city
and state level.
Within a few years, the group had given four-
hour cultural competency training sessions to all
of Fort Worth's more than 6,000 employees. They
provided that training to Arlington's police depart-
ment and parks department as well as to school
districts around Tarrant County.
Resource Center Communications and Advo-
cacy Manager Rafael McDonnell said he worked
together with Henderson to get quite a number of
things accomplished, ranging from getting nondis-
crimination policies in place with government
agencies such as the North Texas Council of Gov-
ernments and the Tollway Authority to putting in
place anti-bullying policies at Uplift Education and
the anti-bullying and transgender student policies
in Fort Worth.
McDonnell said he and Henderson took the ri-
valry existing between Dallas and Fort Worth and
exploited it to the advantage of the LGBT commu-
nity. Before the Obergefell marriage equality deci-
sion in June 2015, Fort Worth updated its pension
policy to provide equal coverage to same-sex cou-
ples. The two activists then took that to the Dallas
pensions and said, "Hey, look what they have,"
McDonnell explained.
"As much as I miss the fellow activist, I miss the
person," McDonnell said sadly. "He came to my
dad's funeral. We went to see Lady Gaga together."
Before the Obergefell marriage equality ruling,
Henderson wanted Tarrant County prepared and
ready to issue marriage licenses. So weeks ahead
of the decision, he negotiated with the county's Re-
publican district attorney and county clerk, an-
swering any questions they had. On the day of the
decision, while the Dallas County clerk was meet-
ing with his staff until noon and the Harris County
clerk was dragging his feet until late afternoon, Tar-
rant County was issuing licenses and marrying
couples almost as soon as the Supreme Court rul-
ing was announced.
Ten days after that decision, a Republican judge
appointed Henderson as foreman of the Tarrant
County Grand Jury, where he presided over more
than 1,600 docket cases during his three-month
term. That appointment made him the first openly-
gay countywide official in Tarrant County.
"When David grabbed onto a cause, nobody
was more tenacious, more dedicated or more artic-
ulate," said Jon Nelson, a co-founder and former
president of Fairness Fort Worth. "Whatever he
did, he was in that cause with both feet, 110 per-
cent."
Nelson called Henderson a very impactful per-
son when it came to helping other people. Hender-
son's motto was, he said, "Be the role model you
wish you had growing up."
To that end, Henderson mentored four young
men who had been bullied or were thrown out of
their homes when their parents found out they
were gay. One of the four was Alex Loesch, who
met Henderson on his 15th birthday.
Loesch said he lived with his grandmother be-
cause he never had a father and his mother died
when he was young. In school, he was bullied.
"Losing David is as close to losing a father as I'll
ever know in my life," Loesch said. "He took me
to my first gay Pride parade, even letting me march
in it. He frequently took me and my best friend
Zane out to dinner, bought me dress clothes and
lectured us on safe sex."
Loesch said Henderson took him to get his dri-
ver's license and taught him to change a flat tire.
He took him white-water rafting and attended
his graduation. When Loesch was looking
for a job, Henderson was his reference.
"David was there for every single
milestone of my coming of age," /
Loesch said.
Loesch was the first young
gay man Henderson took
under his wing, but Hender-
son mentored three others
as well.
"Xavier was able to
grow from complete
poverty and starva-
tion, being
David Mack Henderson,
the conscience of the
Ft. Worth LGBT
community.
shunned from family and classroom alike to being
a child prodigy, starting the first GSA in his school
and becoming the president for GLOW at Paschal,
as well as being an outstanding violinist," Loesch
said of one of the other three of what Henderson
thought of as his godsons.
Another was Tony, who "didn't have a home to
go to, let alone a school to attend," Loesch said.
"But it didn't take long for him to finally graduate,
find a place of his own and start life anew. And
none of these lives would have been changed for
the better without the help of David."
West called Henderson a mentor in every sense
of the word, saying that just as Henderson's death
was a tragedy for the young men he mentored, it
is a tremendous loss for the entire community.
"David helped the Fort Worth community find
its voice," she said. "He worked with passion. He
didn't give up. He drove people crazy."
West said Henderson was realistic about his ill-
ness and knew it was terminal, and applauded the
friendship he had with his mother, "who loved
him for who he was." He died, West said, wrapped
in a rainbow flag his mother knitted for him. ■
David Mack Henderson is survived by his mother,
Dr. Janet Henderson, and the four young men he men-
tored and thought of as his godsons. A memorial service
will be held on Thursday, Dec. 15, at 2 p.m. at Celebra-
tion Community Church, 908 Pennsylvania Ave, Fort
Worth.
12.09.16 dallasvoice 15
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. [33], No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, December 9, 2016, newspaper, December 9, 2016; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1007112/m1/15/?q=%22David+Henderson%22: accessed June 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.