Organizers at Pride Center San Antonio are busy readying two fundraising events, the Emerald Ball on May 25 and the Icon Awards Brunch on June 2. The eighth annual Emerald Ball will be held this year at Woodlawn Pointe. The variety show, which is organized by photographer Julián P. Ledezma, who is on the Pride…
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. Even though the progressive majority on San Antonio’s city council appears to have survived Saturday’s municipal election, Mayor Ron Nirenberg — who steered much of its agenda — is headed to a June runoff to keep his job. At press time, and with most precincts counted, Nirenberg led…
State Rep. Dade Phelan added the provision to a Senate bill that would bar cities from enacting rules on how businesses schedule their employees’ shifts. LGBTQ groups worried that without the language, businesses could pick which employees get certain benefits. By Alex Samuels, The Texas Tribune Republicans’ legislative efforts to ban cities from mandating benefits…
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $8.67 million to Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio and Mymetics Corporation of Switzerland to collaborate on the development of an HIV vaccine. Mymetics, a Swiss-based biotechnology company which has a research lab in the Netherlands, focuses on the development of next-generation preventative vaccines for infectious and…
Mark Richter, the founding artistic director of the Alamo City Opera, died on April 28 at the age of 51. Over the course of his career, Richter produced over 100 operatic productions in San Antonio. During his life he led the Pocket Opera, the Lyric Opera of San Antonio, the Opera Piccola and the Alamo…
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. During a Fox News interview, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — who has a habit of making provocative statements on national TV — used a term usually construed as an anti-gay euphemism to describe Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. “He is so light in the loafers he floats off…
State Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) held a press conference at the State Capitol on April 29 to announce he is introducing a bill to add gender identity to the list of protected classes in the state’s hate crimes law. The James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act was passed by the State Legislature in 2001. The…
San Antonio artist Gene Elder who had a long career as an artist, writer, activist and most recently as the archivist at the Happy Foundation, died on April 28 at the age of 69 after a months-long battle with cancer. Elder revealed his cancer diagnosis to his friends in an email last September and kept…
Three bills that prohibit cities from regulating how an employer distributes benefits, healthcare, and paid leave, and which also contain provisions that could threaten the enforcement of local nondiscrimination ordinances, are slated to be heard by the Texas House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday, May 1. The three bills (SB 2485, SB 2486, and SB…
The LGBTQ Victory Fund, the only national organization dedicated to “electing LGBTQ leaders to public office,” has endorsed trans candidate, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe for the San Antonio City Council’s District 8 seat. Gonzales-Wolfe was one of 17 openly LGBTQ candidates who the Victory Fund endorsed during this election cycle. The endorsements represent the Victory Fund’s commitment…
