(phone dialing)
(phone ringing)
-: [answering Machine] God bless you.
This is Roy H. Williams with the-
-: What's up?
-: May I speak to Mr. Williams please?
-: Speaking.
-: This is Jack Crout,
from the Lesbian Gay Political Coalition of Dallas.
-: Yes Sir.
-: I believe you wanted to screen with us.
-: Yes Sir.
-: All right.
We have screening sessions on Wednesday night to the 25th,
this coming Wednesday night and Thursday night, the 26th.
Now, I have, do you have a preference
as to Wednesday or Thursday night?
-: Okay, let me look.
Which committee are you with now?
-: I'm with the Lesbian Gay Political Coalition.
-: Okay,
that's not the Dallas Gay..
-: Not the Dallas Gay Political Caucus
-: No, that's a different group.
-: Okay. I wanted to make sure.
You have a Wednesday night, right?
-: That's correct.
-: I think that's the one that I asked to..
I sent my..
-: All right. Well,
of course I don't have those letters.
They just gave me your names and telephone numbers.
-: Okay, I asked for..
-: For Wednesday night.
-: Uh hmm.
-: All right. Now, we do this,
we set an actual time,
which we try to adhere to.
-: Okay
-: So as not to hold you, you know,
any longer than necessary.
I have a 7:45 period open, and 8:15, 8:30,
8:45 and a 9:15.
-: Okay. What about a 7:45?
-: The 7:45? That'll be fine.
Now the format, Mr. Williams,
is that we allow you to make a 3 minute statement
about whatever you want to say
and then we question you for 12 minutes.
-: Okay. At 7:45 PM?
-: Right. 7:45 PM.
Now that will be in the Religious Education Building.
-: Okay. Unity?
-: The First Unitarian church.
-: Unitarian.
-: Right. And this building is at the corner
of St. Andrews and Preston road.
-: It's not on Normandy?
-: No, that's the Sanctuary.
That's where the Sanctuary is.
This is the Religious Education Building.
-: Okay.
-: And actually, St. Andrew's is the street
between Normandy and Mockingbird.
-: St. Andrew.
-: Right, now there's a parking lot right there
at the corner of Preston road St. Andrew's.
You can't miss it.
-: Okay.
-: And park there,
and the Religious Education Building
is right in front of it.
And just come up to the second floor,
then room 206.
That would be to your right
after you get to the top of the stairs.
-: Okay. Second floor.
-: Right.
-: Okay.
-: Room 206
-: Okay, got it.
-: Well, thank you so much, Mr.Williams.
-: Okay, thank you very kindly. God bless you.
-: We'll be seeing you.
(phone dialing)
(phone ringing)
-: Hello.
-: May I speak to Ronnie LaRouge please?
-: I beg your pardon?
-: Ronnie LaRouge?
-: You have the wrong number.
-: Oh I'm sorry.
(dial tones)
(phone dialing)
(phone ringing)
-: Hello?
-: May I speak to Ronnie LaRouge please?
-: No, what number are you trying to call Sir?
-: 943-5149
-: I think they gave you the wrong number.
-: That is the number there?
-: Yes it is.
-: Oh I'm sorry.
-: Okay, thanks.
-: May I speak to Ronnie LaRouge please?
Ronnie, this is Jack Crout
from the Lesbian Gay Political Coalition of Dallas.
I'm making the screening dates
and Wednesday and Thursday will be the screening days.
Would you rather come on Wednesday or Thursday?
I think, did you say Thursday? I thought you said..
That'll be fine.
I've got open times at 8:15, 8:30, 8:45
and 9:15 on Wednesday.
All right, 8:15.
All right, I'll put you down for that.
Now, the way our screenings go, you have 3 minutes
to make a general statement, whatever you want to say.
And then we question you for 12 minutes and,
your name sounds familiar.
I've been in political org in Dallas for about eight years.
Have you run for office before?
You have?
I don't think so.
No. I know that woman, Gibson, is the LaRouge candidate
down there in District 10.
That's what I connect to you with,
it's a socialist workers party and I don't know what..
Well I have uh, 'cause you've run candidates before,
that I have..
I used to be with the Dallas Gay Political Caucus
and in their work.
And whoever your candidates are then,
I've met them at least, you know, in the past.
Yes. As I said, and I don't know why it was
when I saw your name I immediately thought of
Socialist Workers Party. (chuckles)
Gee, there must be some telepathy going on here.
Well, listen, Ronnie, we'll be glad to see you
at 8:15 and on Wednesday.
All right, Bye-bye.
-: May I speak to John Price, please?
Hello, Mr. Price?
Are you still an active candidate for Mayor?
Well, I didn't see your name on the list
that came out in the Times Herald.
Uh huh.
Uh huh. Well, I'll tell you who I am.
I am the chairman of the screening committee
of the Lesbian Gay Political Coalition of Dallas.
And I understand that you want to screen with us.
All right. Well, fine.
Well, we just wondered if you were still a candidate
because your name was not on the list.
Yep, but you are on the official list of candidates?
Okay.
Yeah.
Uh huh.
Are you, or you're considering yourself in other words
as a ride in candidate?
Oh, I see.
Uh huh, uh huh.
All right. I was asked to call you
by our executive committee.
So I will pass the information along to them.
Yes.
Is there a what?
Well, because our screening sessions are in a church,
we don't of course.
Okay. Well, after I talked to them, well,
then they will tell me whether or not to get back with you.
Thank you.
(dial tones)
(phone dialing)
(phone ringing)
-: Hello?
-: May I speak to Marvin Steakley Sr. please?
-: Just a moment.
-: Hello?
-: Mr. Steakley this is Jack Crout
of the Lesbian Gay Political Coalition.
-: Yes.
-: I believe you wanted to screen with us.
-: Yeah.
-: Would you want to screen on Wednesday or Thursday,
this week?
-: Well let me go back where I've got my calendar.
-: Okay.
-: There are two different groups who had sent me invitations
and I have trouble.. Hello?
-: Yes?
-: I thought we lost one another.
-: No.
-: Well let's see. You said we had a choice of what now?
-: Well, Wednesday or Thursday,
the 25th or 26th.
-: Well, I would like to do it on the 26th if I could.
Is that the Unitarian church?
-: That's correct. The Religious Education Building
of the First Unitarian church.
-: Well, I didn't know whether there was to be
a specific time so I just blocked in 7:00 and 9:00 there.
-: Well, now what we do is this.
We give each candidate 15 minutes.
The first 3 minutes for a general state
of whatever they want to say
and then 12 minutes for questioning.
So we set up a specific time.
And the reason is to keep candidates
from having to hang around, you know?
-: Well sure
-: And so,
on Thursday at anytime you want.
So far everybody's wanting to screen on Wednesday.
-: Well, I'd like to do it as late as I can
because somebody from the Citizens Coalition,
and it's over on Record Crossing
which is not too far away for eight o'clock.
So when I finish that one, I'd like to come over.
-: Well, of course our last screening session is at 9:15.
So we, like we've got them at 8:15, 8:30, 8:45,
9:00 or 9:15.
-: Well, I don't have to do it quite that late, I guess.
I think it'd be safe to say 8:45.
-: 8:45, all right.
-: That's room 206?
-: That's in room 206 of the Religious Education Building.
Now that building is actually
back of the main building where the sanctuary is
and it's really on St Andrew's and Preston road.
-: Well, I think I've been there before.
-: You probably have.
Seems like everybody in Dallas
has been in that church once, or at least once.
-: I've got some dear friends who are members there.
-: Oh I see. Uh huh.
-: So 8:45. I can scratch out the other.
-: What you can do is,
there's a parking lot at St. Andrews
and Preston road there.
And just to come into the building and go up the stairway
and take a ride room 206.
-: I don't have your invitation handy here
but was there another time
or another function as well as this?
Or is this the only one?
-: Well then on March 3rd, we'll have candidates night.
Anybody that gets missed or
has something they forgot to say
and you know, that sort of thing.
We'll have a meeting
in that same room on March 3rd at 7:30.
-: Well, let me ask you this question then.
Would you think it would be desirable to come both times
or is that pretty much..
-: It's not necessary.
If you come to a screening, that's all that's necessary.
-: Okay. Well, I didn't want to let anyone assume
that I was not interested
in having as closer interface as I could in the group.
-: Uh huh. No, the screening really is all that's necessary.
-: Okay. Well I'll mark out the 3rd then.
If you think that'll take care of it.
Now, there's one that's on the ninth or something
that somebody is having.
You all have any connection with that?
-: No, there are two Gay political groups in the city.
One of them is the Dallas Gay Political Caucus
and then.. which is the older of the two groups.
And then my group,
the Lesbian Gay Political Coalition Dallas.
-: Well, it's a fair question to ask,
is there harmony between those two groups?
-: Yes, there are and I'll just give you
a very brief reason as to why there's two groups right now.
This group was founded last August
and it's composed primarily of the veterans
of the Dallas Gay Political Caucus.
The reason for it is this, that the Dallas Gay Alliance,
the DGPC is the political action committee
of the Dallas Gay Alliance.
And the board of directors of the Dallas Gay Alliance
runs the DGPC, of course
and they have become so deeply involved in the operation
of the Aids Resource Center and all of its many arms
that they don't really have time to do a political activity
to the way it should be carried on.
And, you know, they've cut back on their political activity
in other words.
And we have the ones to be the type
that are very much political types, you know.
We liked to work in the campaigns and do,
and most of us are active in either
the democratic or Republican parties.
And so..
-: Well this is the worst city election I've ever seen.
We've hardly started.
-: So I have.. so I, and other veterans,
I've been active in the gay political scenes since 1980.
And so we just felt that the DGPC just couldn't do the kind
of electoral job that we thought should be done, you know,
on behalf of the gay community.
-: Well, I was asking..
-: That's what it amounts to.
-: I was asking for information so in case
there was any strained relation there
I surely don't want to step on anybody's toes.
-: No, no, absolutely not and uh..
-: I take it you're aware of this Citizens for Dallas group.
-: Yes, I am.
-: Well, when I first got that thing,
I thought it was the worst questionnaire
I'd ever seen in my life.
(laughs)
-: They're pretty far out of the field, shall we say.
-: Well, let me tell you this.
I answered the thing over, and one of the questions,
I forget which one I have to dig it out.
I answered it with nothing but questions.
So rather than mail it,
I decided I would hand carry it over there,
and then express my disgust
with whoever threw that thing out.
Particularly with some of the names around there.
Before I had a chance to deliver it of course,
the story came out in the paper.
A lot of folks disavow it.
-: Disavowed any connection with the group.
-: I had no reason to doubt it, to start with,
well, some of these folks are maybe of that Stripe, but uh..
-: In other words, you doubted it.
-: anyway, when I went in to hand deliver it,
the place was wide open.
There was not a soul in there
except a cleaning woman who spoke nothing but Spanish.
(Laughs)
And I couldn't make her understand even why I was there.
So I left it on the receptionist desk
and I got another one Saturday, I guess it was.
-: Uh huh.
-: And it's got almost exact. One question is exact.
It's called the Dallas Eagle forum.
-: The Eagle forum is an extreme right-wing women's group.
Phyllis Schlafly, are you familiar with that name?
-: Oh yeah.
-: She's organized the Eagle Forum years ago.
-: well, I'm going to go
but I'm going to talk like a Dutch uncle town.
-: Yeah, well I'm sure that would be appreciated
by many different groups in the City. (laughs)
-: The second question says,
should a homosexual be given legal minority status?
I'm going to ask him who's going to head up
Birkenau, or Auschwitz or Treblinka.
(laughs)
-: Yeah, they're pretty wild.
-: Well, they're going to hear it from me.
I'm probably going to take along my honorable discharge
from the Marine Corps too.
-: That would impress them.
-: I asked him how many, how many of them
are veterans of world war II.
-: Yeah, yeah.
-: And I'm not going to get any votes anyway,
but I'll be darned if I want to ignore the uh..
what the hell is this comparable word thing
they're yelling about?
-: Comparable word?
Well, there used to be another term for it.
"Equal pay". Equal pay for equal work.
That's basically what it is.
This is something that feminist
and the women's groups are real hot on.
They feel like that the government and industry
hasn't been giving women an equal shake
in terms of the same pay for the same jobs,
so on and so forth.
That's basic idea.
There are some frills to it, but that's basically it.
And we, we in the gay community, of course,
the female element, the lesbians,
they're very much into the feminist agenda, you know.
And the Women's Rights Movement and all that sort of thing.
And we have to, uh..
what shall we say,
play along with some of their agenda. (laughs)
You know, to keep peace in the community.
-: Well for me, yeah, of course it's private individual.
You pretty much chew your own course
-: Right.
-: But for a candidate, you've got to fish your cut bait.
-: Right.
But for my part,
I think answering the questions are really very simple.
It is, do you really believe what you believe?
-: Right? That's true.
-: If you're a darn hypocrite,
then give two different folks two different answers.
So as far as I'm concerned, I want to give them one and all.
I don't really yanked up a Republican meeting the other day
about this police situation too.
I was the only, my emotional voice there.
I said, "maybe they ought to read Shakespeare.
I believe it was him."
He said, "me thinks thou protested too much."
(laughs)
I said, when when we pay the taxes
to support an organization then if we want to look into it,
no one needs complain.
-: Uh huh.
-: If it's a private group that's another matter.
But public function, we all own it.
And if we want to look at it,
no one should say we shouldn't.
-: Right. Right.
That was the end of the discussion on that.
-: That was the end of that.
-: Nobody had any way to come back,
even Jim Collin's mouthpiece.
-: (chuckles) Oh, Mr. Collins, that stone face.
-: If he were heading North,
he had a prominent Southern exposure.
(laughs)
-: You were talking about taking your Marine Corps discharge
to the Eagle forum meeting.
You know, one of the really sore points
in the gay community is the attitude of people
toward gays who have served in the armed services.
I'm 64 years old.
I may not sound like it,
-: No, you don't.
-: but I, I was in World War II
and then I was an enlisted man and I made the mistake
of taking a reserve commission as an officer.
And I was called back in the Korean war.
And there were just millions of gay people like me.
We've served our country, very honorably.
We don't particularly like being treated
as second class citizens, you know, for that reason.
But, so I understand your feeling
about some of these people.
-: Well, maybe it was going to be a labor of love
because it may cost the votes
but I can't think of a better opportunity
to confront people with their bigotry.
-: Well, all you've got a fertile ground for confrontation
here in Dallas believe me.
-: If it cost me a few votes,
it'll have to cost me a few vote, but uh..
-: well by the same token,
it would probably get you some votes too.
-: But when I lie down to go to sleep at night,
I don't want to lay there and think,
"you son of a bitch hypocrite!"
-: (chuckles) Yeah. I know how you feel.
I know how you feel, I know the feeling.
-: I'd rather take my legs and go on and face tomorrow.
-: Well, thank you so much, Mr. Steakley
for screening with us and we'll be looking forward
to seeing you.
-: Well since you and I are contemporaries,
I hope that you will drop the Mr.
(laughs)
-: Well, I'm being my formal politician.
-: Because how can I call you Jack,
if you're going to call me Mr?
(laughs)
-: Okay Marvin.
-: Even the people that I work with, even the students
at SMU know that they can call me by my first name.
-: All right, Marvin.
-: Some of the other folks take a damn view of that.
-: We will remember that (laughs)
bye bye.
(phone ringing)
-: Go ahead.
-: Could you give me the campaign headquarters'
phone number for Mr. Gonzales?
-: I certainly can.
It is 368
3661.
-: 3661. Thank you very much.
-: Yes.
(phone ringing)
-: Hello Dallas City Council.
-: This is Jack Crout
from the Lesbian Gay Political Coalition of Dallas.
Is Mr. Gonzalez, there?
-: No, he's not at the moment. He will be shortly though,
can I have me return your call?
-: Yes. Would you please?
-: Okay, now how do you spell the last name, Jack?
-: C R O U T.
-: Oh, Jack Crout, okay, the number?
-: Is 343-4502.
-: 0402, okay I'll have him return your call.
-: Thank you so much. -: Uh huh.
(phone ringing)
-: Hello.
-: May I speak to Irene Young, please?
-: This is she.
-: This is Jack Crout
from the Lesbian Gay Political Coalition of Dallas.
I believe you'd indicated
that you wanted to screen with us for endorsement.
All right.
Let's see.
Now we're going to have screening sessions,
Wednesday the 25th.
That's this coming Wednesday, and Thursday, the 26th.
I have openings at 8:45,
9:00 and 9:15 on Wednesday.
And then on Thursday from 7:15 to 8:30.
I have openings.
Now, the way we work this is
we give the candidates 3 minutes
to make a general statement, say whatever they wish to.
And then we question you for 12 minutes.
-: Uh hmm, okay.
-: Which of those times would you like to have?
-: Thursday, 7:15 to 8:30.
-: Well, you'll have from 7:15 to 7:30 then.
15 minutes in other words.
Okay? It's 7:15.
-: All right then.
-: All right, I'll put you down Irene.
-: All right, well I appreciate it.
-: Bye bye.
(phone ringing)
(phone dialing)
(phone ringing)
-: City Council, may I help you?
-: May I speak to Mr. Lipscomb please?
-: Okay, that line is busy.
Would you like to leave a message?
-: Yes, this is Jack Crout,
C-R-O-U-T.
And I'm with the Lesbian Gay Political Coalition Dallas.
-: Can I put you on hold for just a moment, Sir?
-: Okay.
-: Thank you for holding.
Hello?
-: Yes. Okay, now my phone number is 343-
4502.
-: All right.
-: And I'd appreciate it if he'd give me a call.
-: Thank you. -: Thank you.
(phone dialing)
(phone ringing)
-: City council, may I help you?
-: May I speak to Laurie Palmer please?
-: Okay, there's no one in her office right now,
would you like to leave a message?
-: Yes, I would.
-: Can you please just hold for just a second, Sir?
-: Okay.