On December 27, 2014, the San Antonio Express-News ran an in-depth article by Michelle Casady chronicling the tenure of former Police Chief William McManus, who retired at the end of the year to take a job with CPS Energy. The comprehensive write-up included many of the chief’s accomplishments. However, it neglected to mention anything about…
The QSA
Trans dad misses his kids
It’s been over a year since Dino Villarreal has seen the two boys he helped bring up since birth. The boys he took care of when they were sick. The boys with whom he played basketball and rode bikes to the park. The boys who for their entire lives have called him dad. In 2011,…
UltraViolet and GetEqual protest rapes at Karnes detention center
Two groups are staging a vigil on Thursday, January 22 at the Karnes County Civil Detention Center, where undocumented immigrant families are housed and where evidence has emerged of ongoing sexual assaults of women detained in the facility. UltraViolet, a national group that is “mobilized to fight sexism and expand women’s rights, from politics and…
Mayor Taylor says political correctness is ‘frustrating’
In an interview published this week in the San Antonio Current, Mayor Ivy R. Taylor tells interviewer Jade Esteban Estrada that she finds political correctness “frustrating.” The interview was published on Wednesday, January 13. In it Estrada and Taylor discuss her time in office and the issues she’s been dealing with since she was appointed…
S.A. transgender dad seeks visitation rights
A San Antonio transgender man, who helped raise two boys while in a committed relationship with their mother, is seeking a ruling from the Fourth Court of Appeals that would allow him to see the kids on a regular basis. Dino Villarreal was coupled with Sandra Sandoval, the children’s mother. He helped raise the two…
Church of the Good Shepherd hosts ‘Reconciling Sunday’
By Rev. Charles Fredrickson, Guest Contributor San Antonio’s Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd is holding its annual Reconciling in Christ Sunday on January 25 at 10:30 a.m. Reconciling in Christ Sunday, typically held on the last Sunday in January, is recognized ecumenically throughout the welcoming church movement as the annual highlight of the shared…
Bexar Republicans strike down anti-LGBT resolution
The executive committee of the Bexar County Republican Party on January 8 voted down a resolution that sought the “repeal of our local governments’ pro-homosexual policies.” The resolution, which was circulated to local GOP precinct chairs in mid-December, called for the repeal of the nondiscrimination ordinance that was approved by the City Council last September…
Pro and anti-LGBT bills await opening of Texas Legislature
The 84th Texas Legislature opens its 140-day work session today with a Republican majority: Twenty Republicans and 11 Democrats in the Senate, and 97 Republicans and 52 Democrats in the House. There are bills filed to further restrict abortion rights, to terminate in-state tuition for children of immigrants, to outlaw sanctuary cities and to increase…
Van de Putte best choice for transgender community
In recent weeks I have attended events for the three major mayoral candidates for this spring’s city elections: former State Rep. Mike Villarreal, former State Senator Leticia Van de Putte, and former County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson. Even though I had spoken with Mike Villarreal as recently as the HRC banquet in November, when I went…
5th Circuit winds up same-sex marriage hearings
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans held center stage today while it heard appeals of same-sex marriage cases from Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. The three appeals were heard by Judge Jerry E. Smith (a Reagan appointee), James E. Graves (an Obama appointee) and Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham (another Regan…