Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, October 12, 1984 Page: 1 of 36
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tklXAS VOICE
Voice of the Gay Community
Vol. 1, No. 23_ Friday, October 12, 1984
FOR TEXAS-OU WEEKEND
Tips from the Jock
Dallas’ biggest sports weekend is here
with Texas-OU and Cowboys- Redskins
and, of course, the Piano-Piano East
game all on the agenda. For some, this
can be a very profitable and fun week-
end, if you know how to survive. Joe has
been in the trenches for these things for
the last six years and here’s some of his
tried and true tips:
1. If you are into submission, stand on
a downtown corner Friday night with a
sign that says, “BEVO IS GAY.” Bevo is
the Fonghorn mascot of Texas and sev-
eral years ago Oklahoma rooters started
the rumor. Personally, we have only seen
Bevo once during Texas-OU weekend
and that was on the Patio of The Hidden
Door. Nobody noticed.
2. Wait until Saturday morning, just
two hours before kickoff, and go to
Mary Thumb and buy all the Bean Dip
available. Stand outside and wait for all
the last-minute shoppers trying to find
some tube-side serving suggestions and
then make enough to finance the rest of
your weekend.
3. Saturday night, do not give the guy
$50 who says he snuck a camera into the
Oklahoma lockerroom and snapped a
few shots. Only a few individuals have
access to these sweat-filled quarters and
they are strictly guarded. It would be
much easier to go to the Baths, which are
having a $2 locker special for anyone in a
Texas or Oklahoma uniform.
4. Saturday night, wear a T-shirt from
the losing team in the Texas-OU game.
People will come up to you and be very
sympathetic and try to comfort you in
your hour of need.
5. Hang out at the Reunion Hyatt or
the Foews Anatole hotel bars. This is
where the teams are staying and while
they cannot leave the hotels, several
lonely players usually find there way
down to the on-premise watering holes.
6. Turn on the Cowboys-Redskins
game Sunday afternoon and every time
the cameras show a shot of Danny White
standing on the sidelines looking de-
jected, have a shot of Schnapps. It will
make for a very fun afternoon.
7. But foremost, have a good time. It
should make for a great weekend. Joe
Jock predicts: Texas 20, Oklahoma 17
and Dallas 24, Washington 21. Bury me
in red.
NEXT WEEK: Joe Jock tries to find
the meaning of life in the Texas Long-
horn lockerroom.
A Public Letter to Rev. Jerry
Falwell and the Gay Community:
from John Janus
I’m not completely sure why I feel
compelled to write this letter, but I sense
the need for a greater channel of flexible
communication and new thinking be-
tween the fundamentalist Christian com-
munity and the gay community.
This summer I visited 2 cities during
the same time you were traveling there,
Mr. Falwell...San Francisco and Dallas.
Being a Californian by birth who has
been living in New York City for most of
the past 7 years, my curiosity was too
great to ignore the apparent coincidence
of the Democratic and Republican Con-
ventions and the Olympic Games all
occurring in the western United States in
1984. This year has been depicted as a
turning point for our culture, but would
we make it an earthquake of conscious-
ness or a mindquake of anxiety? Would
we come together in these large gather-
ings to celebrate peace among men? Or
would we come together to tell our old
stories of fear and anxiety?
My intuition couldn’t predict the out-
come, but if anyone had told me at the
beginning of this summer that the major-
ity of the people I would speak to during
this 8,000 mile journey through the
Southwest would be preoccupied with
trying to interpret the Bible in a way that
made sense in the last half of the Twen-
tieth Century and that they would be
obsessing over “What about the Russi-
ans”...! wouldn’t have believed them.
When did the land of the brave and the
free become the land of the fearful and
the anxious? Why are Americans afraid
of the -.? The Republicans
afraid of the_?The Democrats
afraid of the_?The Christians
afraid of the_? Why are men
afraid of other men’s thoughts?...of other
men’s touch?...of other men’s race?...of
other men’s nationality?...of other men’s
religion?
In the gay community, these observa-
tions are also prevalent, yet beginning to
break the species old pattern of men fear-
ing other men is one of the things that
makes me appreciate the gifts that the
community offers to contemporary
society. While we are groping for ways to
make peace among nations...maybe one
of the most radical things we can do is to
“make peace among men.” And, if we
add to this the exploration of “making
peace among women,” we are almost
witnessing the consciousness of a new
theology emerging.
Continued on page 14
DGA Prepares for
Dallas Anti-
Discrimination
Ordinance
by Don Ritz
At the general membership meeting of
the Dallas Gay Alliance (DGA) on
Monday, October 8, president Bill Nel-
son outlined the plans for an amend-
ment to the city charter which will pro-
tect individuals on the basis of age,
physical disability, marital status, politi-
cal affiliation, and sexual orientation.
Each of the categories will be combined
as one amendment.
The proposed amendment would ad-
dress discrimination of individuals in the
public workplace, such as the City of
Dallas, and both private and public
housing. The amendment, which would
not be an affirmative action demand,
would simply provide for non-discrimin-
ation. It would not address employment
discrimination in the private sector.
Nelson traced the history of the devel-
opment of relations between the City of
Dallas, the Dallas Police Department
and the gay community.
Nelson explained that while the Dal-
las gay community is on good terms with
the patrol units of the police department,
the police department will not hire an
individual who is known to be homo-
sexual.
The concept of a city ordinance which
would protect gays is one which has been
discussed on many occasions in the past,
said Nelson. However, he explained,
that the Alliance had never felt that there
had previously been a “right time” to
pursue such an ordinance.
He said that when a “Goals for Dal-
las” meeting was held with members of
the DGA last Spring, a city ordinance
protecting gays from discrimination
became the major topic that was dis-
cussed by those present.
When the DGA Board of Directors
held a recent retreat, the issue was dis-
cussed and “by a unanimous vote, we
decided to pursue the issue. We felt that
the organization could handle all the
ramifications the issue could bring,"said
Nelson.
The board decided to proceed “as
soon as possible with the ordinance” but
felt that it was “good idea to avoid the
possibility of a referendum on the ordi-
nance during the November election,”
explained Nelson.
The issue had purposefully been kept
quiet in order to prevent forces opposed
to gay rights issues, such as Dallas Doc-
tors Against AIDS and Alert Citizens of
Texas, from having the opportunity to
prepare a battle against the amendment.
“We’re not trying to put anything over
on the city,” said Nelson, “but we didn’t
want the issue argued in the media
before it’s argued in the City Council.”
DGA President BUI Nelson
Nelson said that members of the DGA
have discussed the issue with all the
members of the Dallas City Council
except Mayor Starke Taylor. Council
members Holcomb, Fielding, Strauss,
Goldblatt, Hart, Lipscomb and Rags-
dale were supportive.
Council members Vanderbilt and
Richards were non-committal, while
Rucker was non-supportive.
Nelson said that Rucker was “extrem-
ely insulting. We were surprised by the
low level of understanding he has for
what we represent.”
Another meeting with each of the
council members and possibly with
Mayor Taylor will occur soon said Nel-
son.M Nelson reported that Levi
Davis, Assistant City Manager, said that
the City Manager’s office would proba-
bly oppose the proposed amendment
based on advice of the police chief.
Nelson said that DGA members con-
tacted Camille Barnett, also Assistant
City Manager, who responded that the
City Manager’s office did not have a
position, but that both the police chief
and the gay community would be heard
before a position would be taken.
Nelson said, “Following the (City
Council) vote, we may or may not be
faced with one of our greatest chal-
lenges—a referendum. We will take
every effort to see to it that a vote (the
referendum) doesn’t come, but should it
happen, we are up to the challenge.”
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Ritz, Don. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, October 12, 1984, newspaper, October 12, 1984; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth615950/m1/1/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.