Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) has filed House Bill 1748 that would make it a misdemeanor for a transgender person to use a public restroom that matches their gender identity and would punish business owners who would allow them to do so. Punishment for breaking Riddle’s bathroom law would be up to one year in…
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…
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,…
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,…
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…
Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni on One Drop of Love
Saturday, January 17 $34.50 ($20 students), 2pm & 8pm Carlos Alvarez Studio Theatre at the Tobin Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni brings her multimedia, one-woman show One Drop of Love to the Carlos Alvarez Studio Theatre at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts this weekend. Produced by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Cox DiGiovanni, the…
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…
Exit interview: Police Chief William McManus
Last July, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus announced he would be leaving the department at the end of the year to accept a position at CPS Energy heading up the utility’s security operations. McManus, a native of Philadelphia, came to San Antonio in the summer of 2006. He spent 23 years on the Washington…
Dear John Willie: The Complete Reprint of John Willie’s ‘Bizarre’
In olden days, a glimpse of stocking/Was looked on as something shocking/ But now, God knows/Anything goes Cole Porter, seeing the world changing before his eyes, wrote “Anything Goes” in 1934. It felt like a sexual revolution. It wasn’t; humans more or less behave like humans no matter what era you pick. The differences…
Opening hearts and minds, one episode at a time
Round and round and round she goes. “Come on, dad. Just do it.” I’m no fun, I guess. At least if fun includes signing up for every get-rich-quick or everyone’s-a-winner contest. But there we were, licking our wounds after a dispiriting Rampage rout at the AT&T Center, looking for some fun. Our youngest son, D,…