A transgender woman named Passion Star was granted parole on December 6 after serving 14 years of a 20 year sentence at all-male detention facilities, most recently at the Telford State Prison in Bowie County, Texas. “Passion’s experience in custody has been punctuated by acts of interpersonal and institutional violence,” Demoya Gordon, an attorney with…
A judge has denied the motion for a new trial for a convicted killer who sexually assaulted a lesbian couple, shot them, killing one of them and leaving both for dead in Violet Andrews Park overlooking Corpus Christi Bay in Portland, Texas. On December 8, visiting Judge Philip Kazen from San Antonio denied the motion…
Thirty years after it began providing medical care to those who were sick and dying of AIDS, the San Antonio AIDS Foundation announced on December 9 that it will close its nursing and hospice care unit at the end of the year. It was in 1986, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in San…
Imagine being a 33 year-old man working as an elf in a green velvet outfit at a Macy’s department store. Screaming children, impatient customers, and the chance of being recognized by friends and family are all you have to look forward to. Sounds like fun? That’s a synopsis of The Santaland Diaries being presented by…
Despite warnings from companies across Texas that a “bathroom bill” would be bad for business, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick remains steadfast in his plan to support the proposed law in the upcoming legislative session. The bill would prohibit transgender people in Texas from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. Dubbed the Women’s Privacy and…
On December 6, State Senator Jose Menéndez of San Antonio filed Senate Bill 269 which would increase the number of patients who would have access to medical cannabis under the Texas Compassionate Use Program. Current state laws only allow patients suffering from intractable epilepsy the use of specific strains of medical cannabis. “Doctors, not politicians,…
The Human Rights Campaign released the results of their 2017 Corporate Equality Index on December 5. Of the six companies ranked in San Antonio, one company, the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) received a score of 100. USAA’s score this year is up from the 85 it received last year. Two other San Antonio companies…
On December 7, the Austin-based choral ensemble, Conspirare, will present a concert of holiday favorites at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. Now in their 24th season, Conspirare’s programming blurs the line between pop, classical, and folk. Under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson, this year’s concert will feature West Coast singer/songwriter Matt Alber and percussionist Thomas…
When the Live Oak Singers take the stage for their holiday concert on December 10 and 11 it will represent a bittersweet milestone marking the retirement of the ensemble’s founder and first artistic director Ron Casola. Casola moved to San Antonio from Phoenix in 2014 to be near his family after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.…
The Alamo Area Resource Center has taken the occasion of World AIDS Day to announce plans to award three fellowships to students pursuing degrees in nursing, medicine and social work. The three fellowships will begin in 2017 and provide $5000 per semester to three university students who will work at AARC’s LGBT Health Equity Clinic.…
