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Tag: LGBTQIA

LGBTQ Nation: Frisco, Texas Is Erasing Diversity & PrideIn a heated confrontation, Proud Boys in their yellow uniforms confront a group facing away from the camera. One in a yellow Proud Boys mask points angrily at us.
Flickr/Geoff Livingston
August 20, 2024
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LGBTQ Nation: Frisco, Texas Is Erasing Diversity & Pride

Posted in Journalism

When the municipal government of Frisco, Texas, made its only Pride declaration in June of 2022, the event made headlines for a different reason than that historic first: it drew out the Proud Boys. 

The extremist right-wing group has made opposition to LGBTQ+ expression – especially drag and Pride – a cornerstone of its violent movement. In Frisco, the Proud Boys harassed a key organizer and followed him and other supporters to a celebration at a restaurant after the proclamation. 

Justin Culpepper, 36, one-half of the married couple who founded the nonprofit Pride Frisco, said the extremist group threatened to assault him. “I went into the restaurant, and the people who worked at the restaurant protected me,” he recalled.

Read moreLGBTQ Nation: Frisco, Texas Is Erasing Diversity & Pride
GLAAD: Drag Show Celebrates LGBTQ SeniorsAn older white drag queen in black clothes clasps her hands in front of her as she dramatically lip-syncs, standing before a stone wall with the backdrop for the Austin Eagle leather bar behind her.
Kit O'Connell/GLAAD
April 16, 2024
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GLAAD: Drag Show Celebrates LGBTQ Seniors

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and LGBTQIA

We’ll always be bosom buddies, friends, sisters and pals. We’ll always be bosom buddies; if life should reject you, there’s me to protect you. If I say that your tongue is vicious, if I call you uncouth, it’s simply that who else but a bosom buddy will sit down and tell you the truth …

At first, you might think that just another drag show is taking place on a Sunday afternoon, in the small leather bar tucked away unobtrusively in the corner of a strip mall at the northern edge of Austin, Texas. It takes a lot to stand out in a city that’s in love with drag, where you can catch a different drag show, packed with talented young queens and kings, every day of the week. 

But there’s something different about the Absolutely Fabulous Sunday Brunch at the Austin Eagle, beyond just the retro choice to open the show with drag queens Minnie Bar and Martini DeVille dancing and lip-syncing to “Bosom Buddies,” from the 1956 Broadway hit Mame. The difference is that every queen that Sunday is a drag performer over 50.

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Review: The Queen vs. Texas (at SXSW)Drag queen Hermajestie the Hung holds a microphone under bright stage lights, in dramatic drag makeup and a red fishnet outfit.
Courtesy of Emil Lozada
March 14, 2024
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Review: The Queen vs. Texas (at SXSW)

Posted in Austin, Journalism, LGBTQIA, SXSW, and The Texas Observer

When the drag queen known as Hermajestie the Hung  reached her breaking point, she transformed into the Joker, becoming the  scourge of patriarchy, homophobic lawmakers, and anti-transgender  bigots everywhere.

“She’s that queen that’s just had enough,” Hermajestie told the Texas Observer.

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Before ‘Lawrence’: From Sodomy to Queer LiberationA man waits for customers behind the front desk of Dallas' historic Village Station gay bar, in this black and white photo.
(Courtesy of Dallas Gay Alliance)
February 9, 2023
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Before ‘Lawrence’: From Sodomy to Queer Liberation

Posted in Journalism, Media, Reviews, and The Texas Observer

On August 17, 1982, LGBTQ+ Texans celebrated “Gayteenth,” as activists called it at the time—a reference to Juneteenth, which commemorates news of slavery’s end reaching Texas. On that day in Dallas, a district court judge ruled in favor of plaintiff Don Baker in Baker v. Wade, declaring our state’s sodomy law unconstitutional. Baker, who lost his job with the Dallas Independent School District after coming out on TV, had sued the state for violating his right to privacy and equal protection under the laws.

“I want gay people in Texas to understand that this is their victory—that they should internalize this and feel good about themselves,” declared Baker, who became a figurehead of the struggle to decriminalize queer relationships.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision. The Supreme Court, which had recently ruled such laws constitutional in Bowers v. Harwick, declined to hear the case. Anti-sodomy laws in Texas and elsewhere would remain on the books and in effect until Lawrence v. Texas 21 years later.

Read moreBefore ‘Lawrence’: From Sodomy to Queer Liberation
A Tour of Texas BookshopsThe storefront for Bookwoman in Austin, Texas shows an angel with a halo of curly brown hair, reading a book, her wings outstretched and wearing a golden dress with white stars. She's flanked on either side by female symbols which are in flames or silver electricity.
Bookwoman in Austin, Texas is one of just a handful of feminist bookstores left in America. (Kit O'Connell)
November 28, 2022
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A Tour of Texas Bookshops

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and The Texas Observer

Big-city traffic and a resolution on New Year’s Eve of 2020 led Pflugerville resident Kelsey Black to become a bookseller.

An avid reader, she disliked the hour round trip required to get from  her suburb of 65,000 to downtown Austin to browse a bookstore. “OK,”  she told herself, “I think it’s just going to be easier for me to …  start my own bookstore.”

Turned out, it wasn’t easy at all, “but it’s OK because I have now found my calling,” Black said. The Book Burrow began as a pop-up and online business and finally, on August 6, opened  as a brick-and-mortar store. She said the 200-square-foot space has  become a haven for those who don’t feel like they fit in elsewhere,  drawn by the store’s motto: “Embrace your weird.” For her, the phrase  means cultivating love for whatever makes you unique: “Embrace your  gender identity; embrace your sexual identity; embrace your racial  background; embrace your spiritual path.”

Read moreA Tour of Texas Bookshops
Are You OK? Visiting With Young Trans TexansC smiles and looks directly at the camera. They have wavy blonde hair with dark roots showing and are wearing a red tank top with a cartoon bee on it, along with blue jeans. C's parents stand behind, each with a hand on C's shoulder.
The "Are You OK?" project features portraits of transgender young people. Jesse Freidin/Are You OK?
November 18, 2022
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Are You OK? Visiting With Young Trans Texans

Posted in Journalism, and The Texas Observer

In 2021, Jesse Freidin began traveling across the country to photograph transgender youth for a photo project called “Are You OK?” He’s been to more than half the states in the country, meeting with dozens of trans kids.

In August, Freidin made his second visit to Texas. In the intervening year, legal and policy-based attacks on LGBTQ+ people in the United States have reached feverish heights. Governor Greg Abbott even launched child abuse investigations into parents who seek gender-affirming healthcare for their kids. Though nonprofits like Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union have responded with multiple lawsuits against the policy, which has been partially blocked in court, it still left many families fearing for their safety. Kai Shappley, a trans girl known for her outspoken activism, fled the state with her family a month before Freidin planned to photograph her.

“I want to tell those stories before they disappear, before these families leave the country or state, before these families have to go underground,” Freidin said.

Read moreAre You OK? Visiting With Young Trans Texans