Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, July 25, 2014 Page: 8 of 44
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■ texasnews
Attorney/activist
played a key role
in the early days
of many LGBT
organizations
ANGLIN FOR AN AWARD | Friends praised Mike Anglin’s legal expertise and commitment to the LGBT community, saying that he is ‘long overdue’ the recognition he
received in being named the 2014 Kuchling Award winner. Anglin was close friends with Ray Kuchling (inset photo), after whom the award is named.
BYTAMMYENASH I Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
Black Tie Dinner officials announced Thursday, July 24, that attor-
ney and longtime activist Mike Anglin is the 2014 recipient of the
Kuchling Humanitarian Award. Anglin's friends said this week that
the honor is long overdue.
The announcement was made during the annual Sneak Peek Party
at Park Place Motorcars in Dallas, underwritten by Morgan Stanley
"I am so pleased" that Anglin was chosen to receive the award this
year, said Dick Weaver, a dose friend of Anglin's and another longtime
activist in Dallas' LGBT community
"Mike Anglin is absolutely one of those people who never sought
attention for the things he did. He was always content to stay sort of
in the background. So most people don't realize the degree to which
he was involved" in the fight for LGBT rights, Weaver said. "That's
the beauty of Mike, and tha t's why I am so pleased he is receiving this
award."
Anglin is a decorated military veteran, having served in the U.S.
Navy in Vietnam from 1969 to 1972. He graduated from the University
of Texas School of Law in 1976 then moved to Dallas to began his ca-
reer as an attorney.
Anglin served eight years on the board of directors for the organi-
zation that was first called the Dallas Gay Political Caucus, then be-
came the Dallas Gay Alliance and is now known as the Dallas Gay
and Lesbian Alliance. He was the first chair of the organization's Social
Justice Committee and was among those who, in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, worked to stop harassment of LGBT people in Oak Lawn
by Dallas police officers.
He also chaired the Dallas Bar Association's "Goals for Dallas —
QC13" committee, which also directly confronted Dallas police re-
garding officers' unfair treatment of the LGBT community
Anglin was an original board member of the Texas Human Rights
Foundation, serving as vice president for nine years. His tenure on
the board encompassed the years during which the organization was
involved in Baker v. Wade, the first lawsuit challenging Texas' sodomy
law Anglin was co-liaison between THRF and the Lambda Legal De-
fense Fund as the case made its way through the justice system to the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Anglin was a founding board member of both Dallas Black Tie
Dinner, serving on that board for nine years, and of Razzle Dazzle
Dallas. He incorporated both of those organizations as well as the
Turtle Creek Chorale and served as legal counsel to the original
board of the Foundation for Human Understanding, now known as
Resource Center. Most recently, Anglin was a founding board mem-
ber of and incorporated the Dallas LGBT community history project
called The Dallas Way
Anglin has said that the accomplishment most important to him
was being a constant friend of and legal advisor to other giants in
the history of the Dallas LGBT community, including Bill Nelson,
Terry Tebedo, John Thomas, Ray Kuchling, Don Baker, Dick Peeples,
William Wayboum, Weaver and Lee Taft.
Weaver, praising Anglin's "brilliant mind," said his friend of more
than 30 years was, in those tumultuous early years "always the voice
of reason. His wisdom and his guidance were never to be ques-
tioned."
Louise Young, herself a former Kuchling Award winner, said she,
too, has known Anglin since the late 1970s when they both were
board members for the then-DGPC.
"I have always had so much respect for Mike, for his legal knowl-
edge and legal expertise. His contributions [in terms of legal advice
and expertise] were so very important to us in those early years,"
Young said. "I can't stress enough how important it was for us to
have such an outstanding legal mind so closely associated" with the
LGBT organizations and community
Young said that even though it happened 32 years ago, she still
vividly remembers Anglin standing up in a DGLA meeting after
Judge Jerry Buchmeyer ruled, in Baker v. Wade, that the Texas sodomy
law was unconstitutional, and reading from Buchmeyer's decision.
"I can see that so clearly," Young said. "I remember how Mike stood
there and said, 'Everyone needs to really pay attention to Judge Buch-
meyer's words.' Then he paused, and he said, 'IFs wonderful.' Every-
one was one the edge of their seats as he read that decision to us, and
that memory has always stayed with me.
"Mike so richly deserves the Kuchling Humanitarian Award, and
Vivienne [Armstrong, her wife] and I are just so thrilled that he has
won it," Young added. "He most certainly deserves not only this
award but, more importantly, the gratitude of our entire community"
Anglin said this week that he is "deeply touched" to have been
chosen as the 2014 Kuchling Award winner, adding that "the fact the
award carries the name of my old friend Ray Kuchling makes it all
the more meaningful and cherished."
Noting that he and Kuchling were among the founding board
members for Black Tie Dinner, Anglin said, "We were not only good
friends, but also colleagues and comrades in the bold undertaking to
launch and build the lasting tradition that is the Black Tie Dinner. I
served on the board for the first nine years, and I will never forget
the thrill of seeing the event evolve and expand into what it is today"
Anglin said that in the 32-year history of Black Tie Dinner, he has
missed "no more than three" of the dinners. Saying that John Thomas
is "rightfully recognized as the leading founder" of the annual
fundraiser, he and Kuchling thought of themselves as Thomas' "first
lieutenants in recruiting and organizing a proactive, highly compe-
tent board from the very beginning and advising and supporting
John in bringing his vision of this incredible event into being.
"What a blessing it is to us all that John and Ray, although no
longer with us, are still so widely remembered and beloved as part
of the continuing celebration that is the Dallas Black Tie Dinner," An-
glin said.
Ken Morris, co-chair of the 2014 Black Tie Dinner, said that Anglin
"very clearly represents the service and commitment to the LGBT
community that the Kuchling Award recognizes. So many of us have
been inspired to volunteer and become involved in the community
because of his example.
When you look down the long list of former Kuchling Award re-
cipients and realize just how many of these people have made our
community what it is today, we are humbled and honored that Mike
joins this distinguished group for his many selfless contributions,"
Morris said.
The 2014 Black Tie Dinner, presented by Turtle Creek Solutions,
will be held Nov. 15. Sponsorships and general table sales are avail-
able online at BlackTie.org. ■
8 dallasvoice.com 07.25.14
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, July 25, 2014, newspaper, July 25, 2014; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth706858/m1/8/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.