Ana Alicia Perez says she’s often asked what possessed her to turn her annual birthday party into a fundraiser. Her response: “I don’t want want or need anything, so donate instead.” Over the past five years, Perez’s birthday events have helped support a pet rescue group, the San Antonio AIDS Foundation, the Children’s Hospital, Battered…
News
Lesbian couple in Austin get marriage license, wed at county clerk’s office
Updated: Feb. 21, 2015, 11:35 a.m. The Austin American Statesman reports that a lesbian couple in Austin got married this morning after a state district judge ordered the Travis County clerk to issue the women a marriage license. The couple was married by a rabbi in front of the county clerk’s office. This first same-sex…
Why the marriage equality argument might be premature
There’s something terribly wrong with the way we report and respond to LGBT hate crimes in this country. Maybe the fight for marriage equality has distracted us from the fact that in an overwhelming majority of the U.S., the struggle to simply be a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans individual trumps the struggle to marry…
Town Hall to address housing discrimination
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has played a leading role in administering the Fair Housing Act which was adopted in 1968 and prohibits discrimination in the sale or rental of housing to racial minorities, women, and other groups. The Fair Housing Act does not expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender…
A community that’s about inclusion: Interim Police Chief Anthony Treviño
Anthony Treviño, the former chief of staff to outgoing police chief William McManus, was named interim police chief last December and began his new assignment January 1. Treviño, is a native San Antonian and an Air Force veteran who has been with the SAPD for 20 years. He started out as a patrol cop and…
Travis County judge rules Texas marriage ban unconstitutional
The Austin American Statesman is reporting that a probate judge in Travis County, Texas has ruled that the state’s ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. According to the American Statesman’s report: [Judge Guy] Herman ruled as part of an estate fight in which Austin resident Sonemaly Phrasavath sought to have her eight-year relationship to Stella…
Robert Salcido reports on Creating Change 2015
The National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change convened in Denver, Colorado, February 4-8, 2015, for it’s 27th annual conference. Those in the movement and social justice circles may very well know exactly what Creating Change is all about. For those not in the know, it is the largest gathering of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,…
Net Neutrality: SA needs to lobby its reps for an open internet
If you could go back in time, on this day, to decide how homes would be connected to water, what would you change? If you could rewind time back to those city planning meetings when decisions where being made about our roads and sidewalks, what would you tell them about our needs today? Out of…
Faith Advocacy Day planned at state capitol
(Via Equality Texas) — Clergy, faith leaders and people of faith from across the state will gather at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 17, to issue calls – rooted in faith and Texas values – for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. The event, Faith Advocacy Day,…
Previtera supporters try to smear Bernal with anti-LGBT flyer
A group of supporters of Republican candidate Nunzio Previtera, calling themselves Tejanos Against Politicos, is distributing a flyer to voters in Texas House District 123 that shows two men kissing and former City Councilman Diego Bernal, Previtera’s Democratic rival in the race, depicted as “El Diablo,” the devil. The text of the flyer reads: Diego…