The body of a transgender woman was found floating in White Rock Lake in Dallas on June 1 marking the fourth case of violence against trans women in the city in the last eight months. All four victims are African American. The latest casualty is 26-year-old Chynal Lindsey, a resident of Arlington. At a press…
Matthew Shepard’s Parents Coming to San Antonio for ‘Stay Proud, Be Loud’ Event
Judy and Dennis Shepard, of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, will be in San Antonio on March 20 for an event dubbed “Stay Proud, Be Loud” which will emphasize the importance of reporting hate crimes. In 1998, the Shepard’s 21-year-old gay son, Matthew, was brutally attacked and tied to a fence in a field outside of…
FBI Statistics for 2017 Show Rise in LGBT Hate Crimes in Texas
Statistics released by the FBI on November 14 show a rise in hate crimes against LGBT people residing in the state of Texas during 2017. In 2016, 45 LGBT hate crimes were reported statewide — that number rose to 49 in 2017. The breakdown shows a 16 percent rise incidents motivated by sexual orientation and…
Intimacy in the Face of Fear
I had been planning a column on rebuilding relationships after a particularly heinous election year. “Elephants Need Love, Too” or something silly like that. But something happened that I didn’t really expect. Donald Trump won the election and the already-strained relationships surrounding his candidacy began to fracture and crumble. I was working out of town…
Judge Denies New Trial for Man Who Assaulted Lesbian Couple, Killed One
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…
San Antonians Report Post-Election Hate Speech
Originally published in the San Antonio Current By Alex Zielinski For Drew Galloway and his partner Martin, the hardest thing about finding a homophobic slur scrawled on the side of their car was explaining it to their sons. “My oldest, who is 12, already knew what the word ‘faggot’ meant, but my 10-year-old had never…
Texas Man Found Guilty of Shooting Lesbian Couple, Killing One of Them
David Malcom Strickland has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a lesbian couple, shooting them, killing one of them and leaving them both for dead in Violet Andrews Park overlooking Corpus Christi Bay in Portland, Texas. The crimes were committed in 2012. Strickland’s trial began on September 19 in San Patricio County. The verdict came…
Trial Opens for Accused Shooter of Texas Lesbian Couple
The trial has begun in San Patricio County, Texas for a man accused of raping and shooting a teenage lesbian couple in 2012 in a park near Corpus Christi. David Malcom Strickland of Helotes is accused of sexually assaulting Mollie Judith Olgin (who was 19 at the time) and Kristene Chapa (who was 18 at…
Trial Begins for One of Three Accused in Murder of Texas Gay Man
A trail has begun for one of three men accused in the 2014 murder of a gay Dallas man, who the trio met online and allegedly lured to Beaumont for sex but instead ended up violently murdering him. According to Jefferson County prosecutors, the defendant, Arthur Harmon, and his boyfriend Yiannis Mihail, along with their…
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…