LGBT Archives - Page 4 of 6

My year in Dallas

January 1, 2017

What a year!

Here are the highlights from my first full year in Dallas.

Work: After seven years at Thomson Reuters, I made the jump to The Dallas Morning News in July.

Home: This spring, I moved into a new apartment in the same building. My building’s original management company also had a very ugly decline which culminated in a sale. (Sadly, the new company isn’t much better.)

ilume Park’s small dog park, covered in poop.

Life: I turned 30 years old this year, but celebrations were muted because of the Pulse nightclub attack and downtown Dallas police ambush. Around that time I also came across a dead body on the morning dog walk. So there’s that.

This fall, I also bought a new phone which happened to be recalled.

A reporter at the scene of a suicide near Katy Trail.

Celebrations: Here are some of the events that I made it to this year:

Texas Bear Roundup (TBRU): including a performance by Willam on a hoverboard.
St. Patrick’s Day by SMU: Complete drunkfest, which was fun to attend sober.
Oak Cliff Mardi Gras: A cute neighborhood festival featuring a ton of beads.
Easter in Lee Park: A bizarre event featuring a puppy parade and some serious outfits.
Independence Day Weekend: Including a pool party.
Dallas Gay Pride: Massive, as always.
Fort Worth Gay Pride: A poorly organized, production.
Texas Latino Gay Pride: A small festival featuring some of the neighborhood’s most prominent gay leaders.
State Fair of Texas: Featuring lots of questionable food and a frightening moving cowboy puppet.
Oak Lawn Halloween Block Party: Which was insanely busy.

There were also countless drag shows and pageants, brunches with friends, and very long dog walks.

I’m probably leaving a lot out, but those were the high points of the year. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Crap and crime in the gayborhood

December 13, 2016

Here’s what I’m talking about this morning.

1. The shit field: The small dog park in my apartment building has become a chaotic biohazard. It’s generally too filthy to use, and we can hear dogs barking long into the night.

The number of dogs some tenants have contributes to the problem. You have to be paying really close attention when you have four dogs running around.

2. Bank of America: The bank by my apartment keeps getting robbed. It happened earlier this year, and apparently again yesterday. I wonder what the security situation over there is.

Daily / LGBT

Racism in Oak Lawn gay bars, winter in Dallas, Women Who Draw

December 12, 2016

Man at club by Soren Astrup Jorgenson via Unsplash.

Here’s what I’m talking about this morning.

1. Why some gay bars refuse to play hip-hop music: It’s usually because of racism.

We had an unfortunate situation in the gayborhood recently. The short story: A DJ at one of the bars allegedly complained about black customers requesting hip-hop music. Variants of the n-word were used to refer to the customers.

Of course this conversation happened via text, and screenshots were widely circulated on Facebook. Now people are outraged and some are boycotting that bar.

This is part of a broader tendency of gay bars to shy away from playing hip-hop music. The perception among some bars is that hip-hop music attracts an unsavory crowd that doesn’t spend much money and tends to get into fights.

The problem is that “we don’t play hip-hop because of the crowd” is often a veiled way of saying “we don’t want black people here.”

The result is that hip-hop (other than the stray Beyonce song) gets relegated to the bars with the worst standards, and stereotypes just reinforce themselves.

LGBT / Oak Lawn

Oak Lawn’s 2016 Halloween Block Party

October 31, 2016

We had a little gathering in the gayborhood.

Oak Lawn hosts the largest Halloween block party in Dallas. The block party was pretty huge this year, with several pop-up bars along Cedar Springs.

Krystal and some of our neighbors at the Oak Lawn Halloween block party.

A view of the crowds at the Oak Lawn Halloween block party.

These creepy cat costumes were the worst thing ever. Note the t-shirts.

LGBT / Oak Lawn

Texas Latino Gay Pride

October 9, 2016

We made it to Texas Latino Gay Pride.

The festival was held at Reverchon Park, which is at the edge of the gayborhood. There was lots of food, liquor, and some salsa dancing.

Mexican tchotchkes being sold at Texas Latino Gay Pride.

Mexican wrestler masks for sale at Texas Latino Gay Pride.

Dallas / LGBT

Straight Clubbing

October 7, 2016

Although Cedar Springs has a large number of gay bars and restaurants, there aren’t actually that many places to dance.

That is why we’ve found ourselves going to more straight bars. Here are our three favorite straight bars in Dallas right now:

1. Beauty Bar

1924 N Henderson Ave, Dallas, TX 75206 / Website

Who knew that chain dive bars were a thing? Beauty Bar is a bumping place in the Knox/Henderson neighborhood of Dallas. It’s a nail bar during the day, and a dance club at night.

Beautiful people at Beauty Bar in Dallas (Hi Walter!)

The No Requests sign at Beauty Bar in Dallas.

Beauty Bar is a small, single-room place with a retro setting. (It actually reminds me a lot of Liquor Lyle’s in Minneapolis.)

Fort Worth / LGBT

Tarrant County Gay Pride

October 5, 2016

We made it to the other side of town for Tarrant County Gay Pride.

The parade and festival was held in downtown Fort Worth. It was smaller and less organized than Dallas Pride, but still a lot of fun.

There were also a ton of people from Dallas, so we ran into a lot of friends.

Dallas / Dallas Morning News / LGBT

Fall finally arrives in Dallas

October 3, 2016

Kennedy Davenport performs at Dallas Pride.

That picture sums up my September.

The past month whizzed by.

We had gay pride parades in Dallas and Fort Worth, long pool days, and trips to Six Flags Over Texas. I will cover everything in posts this month because I’ve promised myself to stop having a Truman Capote dilemma and finally start blogging again.

Dallas Morning News / Drag Shows / LGBT / Oak Lawn

Drag queens and buses

July 25, 2016

Last week I started my new job and it was exhausting.

Moving to The Dallas Morning News was a dramatic change for me.

Back in Minnesota, I worked on a 7,000-person suburban corporate campus. The Thomson Reuters campus was so huge that I had law school classmates who worked there for years before I ran into them. It was also common not to recognize anyone in the hallways if you didn’t work in that part of the building.

Since moving to Dallas, I worked from home and didn’t see coworkers in-person unless I was visiting a client’s office.

Now, I go to a downtown office every day. It’s nice being back in a real office because working from home started feeling like being under house arrest. I also had clients in every time zone, so there wasn’t a clear end to the work day.

LGBT / Oak Lawn

Independence Day in Dallas

July 7, 2016

I spent my first 4th of July weekend in Dallas.

There were pool parties, new brunch places, drag shows, and even a trip to Fort Worth.

It was fun, yet exhausting. I was relieved when the weekend was over.

Perry Heights lined with American Flags for the 4th of July.

LGBT / Oak Lawn

This is Bad

June 26, 2016

We started the evening with the mean girls at Alexandre’s cocktail lounge.

The mean girls are actually retirement-age men who park themselves at the bar in the afternoon and insult each other into the evening.

The quotes are amazing:

Statler: “Did Jack get a haircut?”
Waldorf: “No, it’s just falling out.”

Statler: “Can you hold your head up? You look like a turtle!”

Statler: “You guys are being nice for once. I’m suspicious. Is it my shirt?”
Waldorf: “No, that shirt is nice. It actually fits you for once.”

LGBT / memories / Oak Lawn

Last night, We marched

June 13, 2016

Last night, hundreds of people gathered at the Dallas LGBT Community Center to support the Pulse Nightclub shooting victims.

All of the important local politicians spoke – the mayor, the police chief, the county judge – and tried to reassure the Dallas gay community that we are safe. The crowd then marched the length of the gayborhood from the Resource Center to the Oak Lawn monument.

Cops and cameras were everywhere.

Mourners lay flowers and candles at the Oak Lawn Pulse memorial.

Best Week Ever / LGBT / memories / Oak Lawn

Best Week Ever 2: Oak Lawn After Pulse

June 12, 2016

The texts started flying early.

Notifications lit up my cellphone like a Christmas tree this morning – a gunman killed at least 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, and everyone was either sharing the news story or asking whether we lost anyone.

After confirming that our friends in Orlando were alive, we monitored the climbing death toll on our phones while walking the dogs through downtown Dallas. There were more than a dozen bicycle cops on the Katy Trail, and a few nervous security guards at Klyde Warren Park.

Later we brunched in the gayborhood while discussing escape plans for each gay club – would we climb on the roof from S4’s second floor balcony? Is there a back exit door at Havana’s? Would gay guys run to their cars and get guns? (This is Texas, after all.)

The morbid emergency planning was broken by a swarm of people who flooded the Oak Lawn bars. There were cocktails, uncomfortable laughs, and armed security guards. We were uneasy, but still out and supporting each other.

Increased police presence in Oak Lawn after the Pulse nightclub shootings.

The memorial in front of the Centrum building.

LGBT / Life

Why Celebrate Gay Pride?

May 23, 2016

Happy Pre-Pride!

Pre-Pride is that quiet period between the Gay Super Bowl (the RuPaul’s Drag Race finale) and the beginning of Gay Pride week.

Dallas Gay Pride Parade participants practicing in front of iLume Park.

Pre-Pride is a roughly 5-week period in which we make half-hearted attempts to diet and save money/liver energy for the hot mess festivities of Gay Pride weekend.

It’s like Lent without the righteousness.

Why do we celebrate gay pride?

The modern Gay Pride parades started as an annual commemoration of the Stone Wall Riots.

Police clash with rioters at the Stonewall Inn

The quick story – On June 28, 1969, New York City Police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. Although such raids were common, this time the bar patrons fought back and kicked off several days of rioting.

The riots generated enough press and communal energy to spark the modern Gay Rights movement.

There is an exhaustive Wikipedia entry on the riots, and the Columbia University website has some interesting primary material.

Last year, the riots were the subject of an “offensively bad” Hollywood movie, which is how you know that an event is culturally significant.

Gay Pride Today

In about 50 years, we went from police raids and street violence to legalized gay marriage and the nomination Eric Fanning, the first openly gay U.S. Secretary of the Army.

Homophobia is increasingly a social faux pas, although hate-crimes and issues like transphobia are still a huge problem.

Gay Pride has also evolved from a somber civil rights march to the closest thing that most U.S. cities have to carnival – an event with floats, elaborate costumes, and lots of booze.

A float at Miami Beach Pride in South Beach

Twin Cities Pride 2015 outside of Union Restaurant.

Dancing at the iLume Block Party at Dallas Pride.

A drag queen performing at the iLume Block Party.

A drag queen wearing a rainbow dress at the iLume Gay Pride block party.

Alyssa Edwards at the Dallas Gay Pride iLume block party.

Drag Queens on a float at the Alan Ross Gay Pride Parade in Dallas.

In places like Dallas, Gay Pride can sometimes feel like “just another event.”

Dallas is fortunate enough to have a large gay neighborhood and strong network of LGBT community organizations. Oak Lawn routinely attracts tourists for drag pageants and events like Texas Bear Round-up and the Gay Rodeo.

Dallas celebrity and lifestyle guru Steve Kemble was the gay rodeo’s Grand Marshal.

Texas Bear Roundup weekend at Station 4 nightclub in Dallas

National Showman Pageant at the Round-up Saloon in Dallas, Texas.

A jazz talent number for at the Miss Texas FFI drag pageant.

A jazz talent number for at the Miss Dallas FFI drag pageant.

That is why Pride can seem like “just another drunken street parade” on par with St. Patrick’s Day.

Pride Parades still play an important role in small and midsized cities.

In places without established gayborhoods, Gay Pride is often the only public gay-friendly event.

Participants at Iowa City Pride 2013

Small-town Gay Pride parades attract tourists from the greater metro area (or state) and show the community that gay people do exist outside of dive bars. This is often crucial support for isolated young people.

The importance of small-city prides and gay tourism is why I am making an effort to travel to more Pride parades. My last small town pride was a while back in Iowa City. This year, I plan on hitting up some of the lesser-parades in Texas.

Iowa City Pride 2013

Thebiggest float at Iowa City Pride 2013

Counter-protestors at Iowa City Pride 2013

LGBT / Oak Lawn / TV

Purse First

May 17, 2016

The Gay Super Bowl was last night

The bars in the gayborhood were packed on Monday night for the season finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

We watched the finale at Alexandre’s while sitting between an underweight boy who kept screaming “YASSS COME THROUGH!” and an overweight man who kept asking whether every drink he ordered “had carbs.” (The bartender lied to him, of course.)

After much anxiety, tweeting, and YAS!, we learned that Bob the Drag Queen won the title of America’s Next Drag Super Star.

Thank god!

The top 3 contestants were very similar to last year’s finalists – two younger Instagram-famous queens and a slightly older queen who prioritized comedy over glamour.

Finalists Bob the Drag Queen, Kim Chi, and Naomi Smalls.

Last year, one of the pretty girls won.

This year, RuPaul made the right choice.

Drag Shows / LGBT / Oak Lawn

Miss Dallas FFI Pageant at the Rose Room

May 13, 2016

An intense "creative" look at the 2016 Dallas FFI drag pageant.

Another Day, Another Pageant

We started the week with a drag pageant, and we ended the week with one too!

Yesterday, the Rose Room hosted the Miss Dallas FFI drag pageant and it was… colorful.

A contestant for Miss Dallas FFI at Large.

A very yellow look for the Dallas FFI drag queen "creative" competition.

A very yellow look for the Dallas FFI “creative” drag competition.

A video posted by Dennis (@lowertownjnsn) on May 12, 2016 at 11:34pm PDT

Drag Shows / LGBT / Oak Lawn

2016 Round-Up Turnabout Pageant

May 9, 2016

There was a pageant of sorts at the Round-Up Saloon last night.

I have attended many gay bar employee drag shows, but this was by far the most entertaining. The event was hosted by Anesta Roches and one of our favorite bartender as “Peaches.”

There were inventive costumes, high-glamour, a bearded queen, and a lot of surprisingly good live singing by the employees who normally host the Round-Up’s karaoke nights.

Dallas Gay Pageant at the Round-up Saloon

All of the contestants at the 2016 Round-up Saloon employee drag pageant.

We go to a lot of drag pageants, but few are this good.

As a charity pageant, the expectations were very low – most employee pageants are half-assed comedy events featuring a lot of burly guys in Goodwill dresses. That is why we were pleasantly surprised by the effort that everyone put into their looks and acts.

Dallas / LGBT

My First Time at the Rodeo

May 3, 2016

There are certain stereotypes associated with Texas – and particularly Dallas – such as Instagram-famous cheerleaders, oil rigs, and cowboys everywhere.

I try really hard to dispel these stereotypes and convince my friends that Dallas is a modern, progressive, and huge city (instead of a country backwater).

…and then I spend my weekend cowboy boot shopping for a rodeo.

At least it was a gay rodeo.

We went to the Texas Gay Rodeo Association‘s Rodeo & Music Festival last Saturday. It was held at Texas Horse Park, which I’ve never been to before.

It was my first time at the rodeo, which reminded me of that epic Pepsi scene from Mommie Dearest:

The rodeo and boot-shopping experience was a tad less dramatic than that, but still fun.