Tag Archives: Texas

A law requiring the offering of Bible education in Texas public schools is about to go into effect. Books are a common sight in classrooms around the nation, but the Bible is one book that is not. Come this fall, a Texas law says all public schools must offer information relating to the Bible in their curriculum. “By the end …

The investigation of the raid of Fort Worth’s Rainbow Lounge has uncovered numerous violations of procedures and the involved TABC agents and their superiors will likely face discipline. “There were so many violations that one could readily assert that they had no business walking through the door,” said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, who met with Texas Alcoholic Beverage …

After suffering poor national press due to a group of gay men threatened with arrest for kissing in a local restaurant, last week the El Paso, Texas city council voted to extend domestic partner benefits to the city’s gay and unwed employees. Right on cue, Christiantists showed up at last night to scream their heads off. “If our government starts …

Sen. Kay Hutchinson (R-TX) is running for Texas governor against incumbent Rick Perry and her campaign staff thought it was a good idea to embed thousands of invisible search term meta-tags on her campaign site, including “rick perry gay.” Oh, hilarious! The folks at Google and Yahoo didn’t like that so much and have given Hutchinson the “death penalty,” completely …

The El Paso city council has unanimously approved a resolution reaffirming the city’s dedication to “acceptance, tolerance, and diversity.” The resolution was necessary after a confrontation between five gay men and security guards at a Chico’s Tacos restaurant June 29, City Council members said. Police were called, and an officer initially tried to charge the gay men with “homosexual conduct,” …

Christianists in Texas are trying to create a history curriculum for public schools that says the United States would not exist were it not for the divine intervention of God. Members of a panel of experts appointed by the [Texas school] board to revise the state’s history curriculum, who include a Christian fundamentalist preacher who says he is fighting a …

The head of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission yesterday admitted that his agents violated their own procedures in their raid of the Rainbow Lounge in Fort Worth. The Dallas Voice has an exclusive interview: The administrator of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said this week that two TABC agents involved in a raid of the Rainbow Lounge on June 28 …

Fort Worth police have released more information about the raid of the Rainbow Lounge. According to the report, police returned to the bar two days after arrested a departing patron for public intoxication. That weekend, officers returned to the lounge with TABC officers for a bar check. A police radio recording revealed that an officer called for help after they …

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief has issued an apology for the raid of the Rainbow Lounge. About 250 people packed council chambers and another 150 watched on televisions in the hallway or overflow rooms as officials briefly discussed the June 28 joint raid by the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission and the Fort Worth Police Department at the Rainbow Lounge, which …

LGBT protesters staged a kiss-in outside of Chico’s Tacos in El Paso, Texas on Friday after a group of gay men were booted from the restaurant because two of them kissed. El Paso police made the situation worse by telling the men that it was against the law in Texas for two men to kiss. The head of Chico’s Tacos’ …

In what some patrons are describing as a continuing harassment of Texas gay bars, yesterday the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission closed the Dallas Eagle during its grand re-opening due to the presence of a minor. TABC agents had visited the club earlier in the evening and forced the suspension of sales because an inaccurate address on the liquor license. (The …

A group of gay men were thrown out of an El Paso, Texas restaurant last week after a security guard objected to a kiss between two of the men. The cops were summoned and the ejected men were stunned when police told them they were liable for a citation as homosexual activity was illegal in Texas. At about 12:30 a.m. …

Rainbow Lounge bar raid victim Chad Gibson wants the cops involved in his arrest prosecuted and says the city is covering up the real details of the incident. Although the city has asked the U.S. Attorney General to review the investigation, Gibson said he has lost all confidence in law enforcement. “You used excessive force and that’s why I got …

Continuing to backpedal from their involvement in the raid of the Rainbow Lounge, the Fort Worth police department says they are suspending “bar checks” in conjunction with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. The announcement by Chief Halstead came four days after a raid at the Rainbow Lounge by six Fort Worth officers and two Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents left …

The Texas Alcoholic Beverages Commission has begun an investigation into the raid of the Rainbow Lounge in Fort Worth, Texas. The agency is conducting an internal investigation of the incident at the Rainbow Lounge on Jennings Street, according to a news release issued Wednesday afternoon. The TABC also conducted inspections at two bars on Rosedale Street. Meanwhile, the man who …

The above is Dan Savage’s translation of the Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead’s defense of his officers in the beating of Chad Gibson during a raid of the Rainbow Lounge on Saturday. Halstead: “You’re touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar, that’s offensive. I’m happy with the restraint used when they were contacted like that.” …

The Dallas Morning News doesn’t seem to believe the Fort Worth cops. The Fort Worth Police Department still has some explaining to do about what happened early Sunday at a southside gay bar called the Rainbow Lounge. Or some clarifying or some illuminating or some supplementary detailing – anything to mitigate the apparently self-administered public-relations shot-to-the-foot it suffered after what …

Up to 200 people protested outside of Ft. Worth’s police headquarters yesterday after a Saturday raid on a gay bar brought charges of harassment and brutality by police. One patron was hospitalized with a brain injury. Arrests were made for “public intoxication”…inside of a bar. Witnesses say that police arrived at the nightclub about 1 a.m. Sunday and arrested seven …