Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, December 4, 2009 Page: 4 of 60
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texasnews
instantTEA
Black Tie brings in $1.04 million
ER BLACK TIE DINNER BLACK TlEllINNER BLAC
i
THE BIG BUCKS | Nan Arnold, third from left, presents a check for $50,190 to, from left, Gina Menicucci,
Jennifer Guyot-Wallace, Roger Poindexter, Chad West and Bill Prather of Lambda Legal Defense and Edu-
cation Fund. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
HRCF gets $520,000; Lambda
Legal gets $50,190, top amount
among 19 local beneficiaries
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Black Tie Dinner officials this week announced
that the 2009 event — held in September at the
Sheraton Dallas hotel—brought in $1.04 million
that was distributed Thursday, Dec. 3, to the
Human Rights Campaign Foundation and 19
local beneficiaries,
Also during the Thursday night reception,
Nan Arnold was named as female co-chair for
the 2010 dinner. She replaces Laurie Foley, who
just completed her second year as co-chair, and
will serve With Ron Guillard, who is completing
his first year as co-chair.
Foley and Guillard said it was the "generous
support of corporate and individual sponsors,
table captains and their guests, and through the
purchase Of live luxury and silent auction items,
raffle tickets and general ticketsales" that put the
total funds raised over $1 million again this year,
despite the ongoing economic challenges
■ BLACK TIE, Page 14
Census to report married couples for first time in 2010
Form doesn't allow LGBT people to
identity themselves, but gay rights
advocates call couples designation
a step in the right direction
JOHN WRIGHT I News Editor
wright@dallasvoice.com
Forty years ago, the form said "negro" instead
Of "African-American," according to Elizabeth
Lopez Lyon, who's over LGBT outreach in Texas
for the U.S. Census Bureau.
And while the 2010 Census won't give people
an opportunity to check a box that says "lesbian,"
"gay," "bisexual" or "transgender," the bureau will
for the first time report the number of same-sex
couples who describe themselves as married.
LGBT advocates, including Lyon, consider this
a step in the right direction, and they're encourag-
ing the community to take full advantage of the
opportunity for a variety of reasons, including to
help make the case for a sexual orientation ques-
tion on future government surveys.
"It's not on this Census form, but if you want to
be counted as LGBT, then you need to make your
voice heard," Lyon said during a recent meeting
of LULAC 4871, the local LGBT chapter of the
League of United Latin American Citizens.
Lyon is over the Census Bureau's LGBT out-
reach efforts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The 2010 Census also marks first time the bureau
has conducted LGBT outreach, and Lyon said
she's interested in meeting with other local
groups.
Although she's not LGBT, Lyon said she? re-
quested the assignment because she has a gay
brother and a lesbian sister. "This is very dear to
my heart," she said.
Since 1990, the Census has unintentionally pro-
vided a sample of same-sex couples in the U.S., ac-
cording to Jaime Grant, director of the policy
institute at the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force.
That's because the form has allowed same-sex
couples to identify either as married or as "unmar-
ried partners *
Grant said about 100,000 same-sex couplesself-
identified in 1990, when fears about discrimina-
tion were more widespread. In 2000, the number
grew to about 600,000.
This still only represents a "tiny subset" of the
community, Grant said, because most LGBT peo-
ple are single. However, the data has been used in
virtually every major LGBT-related policy debate
and has helped dispel common myths about the
community.
■ CENSUS, Page 15
EXPLAINING THE CENSUS | Elizabeth Lopez
Lyon answers questions about the 2010 Census
during a LULAC 4871 meeting in November. (John
Wright/Dallas Voice)
DallasVoice.com/Instant-Tea
FW to withhold names of
Rainbow Lounge witnesses
The city of Fort Worth is seeking to with-
hold the names of witnesses who were pres-
ent during the Rainbow Lounge raid, arguing
that releasing the names would violate the
witnesses' privacy and cause people to
speculate about their sexual orientation, ac-
cording to The Star-Telegram. As a result,
many of the names likely will be redacted
from the Police Department's final report on
the Rainbow Lounge raid, which the city says
it will release by Friday, Dec. 11.
This is very interesting, especially consider-
ing that most of the witnesses' names have
already been released by the Texas Alcoholic
Beverage Commission, in TABC's final report
on the Rainbow Lounge raid last month. I
count a total of 29 witness names in the
TABC report, but apparently someone forgot
to inform The Star-Telegram about this minor
detail, because it isn't even mentioned in the
newspaper's story. Also, is the city of Fort
Worth not aware that TABC has already re-
leased the witnesses' names? What is the
city going to withhold next, the solution to
two plus two? And if they did, would there be
a story in The Star-Telegram?
But seriously, privacy is a legitimate con-
cern, especially when it comes to sexual ori-
entation. In a state where people can be fired
for being gay and in a country where they
can be kicked out of the military for divulging
their sexual orientation, it's a very legitimate
concern. But as the story notes, sexual orien-
tation has never been on the list of things that
are considered private and protected under
Texas open records law. As a journalist, I
would tend to argue that people's sexual ori-
entation should not be private under open
records law. But as a gay person, I would
argue that in some cases it should.
In a letter to the Attorney General's Office
defending its decision to withhold the wit-
nesses' names, the city states that it "values
the diversity of its citizenry and takes pride in
all of the communities represented, including
the LGBT community." But in light of the fact
that the witnesses' names have already been
released by TABC, this statement just seems
like grandstanding on the part of the city. Still,
I'm willing to support the city in its position
that people's sexual orientation should be pri-
vate under open records law, and I'd even
applaud a decision from the AG's Office up-
holding the city's position, but only on one
very important condition: If sexual orientation
is going to be private under open records
law, the state of Texas must agree that from
now on it's going to keep its nose the hell out
of people's bedrooms in general. Deal?
— John Wright
dallasvoice.com
12.04.09
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, December 4, 2009, newspaper, December 4, 2009; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239093/m1/4/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.