Originally published in the San Antonio Current. On Tuesday, the Texas House could debate and vote on a bill that would give state-funded adoption agencies the “religious freedom” to turn away LGBTQ parents. Other measures waiting for approval by Texas lawmakers would let county clerks deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples if doing so conflicts…
Guess Whose Political Forums Mayor Taylor Has Been Skipping
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. Mayor Ivy Taylor has earned a tense relationship with San Antonio’s LGBTQ community. The rift dates back to the 2013 battle over an equal rights ordinance here, when homophobic and transphobic backlash from religious-right groups failed to stop City Council from passing protections against discrimination based on sexual…
‘San Antonio Four’ Documentary Named Finalist for Peabody Award
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. A documentary exploring the dramatic case of four San Antonio women wrongly convicted of gang-raping two children in the 1990s has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious Peabody Award. For years, Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four, by documentary filmmaker Deborah Esquenazi,…
Rick Perry Really Doesn’t Like That Texas A&M Elected First Gay Student Body President
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. Sure, former Texas governor Rick Perry is now charged with overseeing the nation’s nuclear arsenal as head of an agency he once proposed eliminating. But guv goodhair still has plenty of time to weigh in on the things that really matter in his home state. Like Texas A&M…
LGBTQ Activists Disrupt, Walk Out of WOAI “Debate” on Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. On Thursday night, WOAI’s Randy Beamer tried to host a “town hall” on Texas Senate Bill 6, the anti-trans measure that started to wind its way through the legislature this week. It did not go well. After about 15 minutes of discussion, LGBTQ activists and allies had heard…
SA Already Losing Business Because of Texas Anti-Trans Bill
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. The big business argument against the anti-trans bill brewing at the Texas legislature has been that businesses and organizations will stop coming to a state whose leaders openly discriminate against a whole group of people. While Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick, the bill’s main pusher in Austin, has called…
Texas Conservatives Are Still Fighting Marriage Equality
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. On Wednesday, March 1, the Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments over a lawsuit that not only targets the rights of married gay couples in the state but also seeks to blunt the impact of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that granted marriage equality nationwide in the…
Richard Linklater Directs Ad Targeting Texas’ Anti-Trans “Bathroom Bill”
Originally published in the San Antonio Current Fear is at the heart of Texas conservatives’ push for a bill that would block transgender Texans from using the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity — a baseless fear that equal rights for transgender people will endanger women and young girls in public restrooms. So in…
The San Antonio Four Are Finally Declared “Actually Innocent”
Originally published in the San Antonio Current The claims were always fantastic – as in difficult to believe. The girls, ages 7 and 9, told police and child protection workers that a weeklong visit to their aunt’s Westside San Antonio apartment in the summer of 1994 had turned into a sadistic, orgy-like nightmare. They said…
Suspect Arrested in Ambush Killing of SAPD Detective
Originally published in the San Antonio Current San Antonio police have arrested a suspected cop killer less than 48 hours after a detective was gunned down in broad daylight outside the city’s police headquarters. In his second press briefing Monday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus identified the man suspected of ambushing and killing Detective…