Police Raid Texas Gay Bar

On the anniversary of Stonewall, police raided a gay bar in Fort Worth Texas, arriving with zip cuffs and paddy wagons, in what they are saying was a routine check of local liquor establishments. Protests were held today. From the Star-Telegram:

Witnesses say that police arrived at the nightclub about 1 a.m. Sunday and arrested seven people and that one of those arrested suffered a fractured skull during the takedown and is at a Fort Worth hospital.

About 75 people showed up Sunday afternoon at the Rainbow Lounge to make signs for the rally. Some of the signs read: "Give us Answers Now" and "We Have Rights Too."

Fort Worth police released a statement saying that the Rainbow Lounge was not the only bar targeted by six Fort Worth police officers and two agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and a supervisor. The group first went to the Rosedale Saloon and Cowboy Palace on Rosedale Street. Nine people were arrested, police report.

A Facebook group has sprung up to relay information about the raid and the ensuing protests. Witnesses were given the chance to post their first hand experiences. One of the club's dancers reports thusly:

I was one of the dance entertainers last night at Rainbow Lounge. I was dancing on a box in the VIP lounge and was looking right at the first guy who was arrested. The male patron was standing at the bar doing nothing but having a having a drink and a fun time (like people do in bars) when an officer entered that section of the club and made a beeline straight towards him. The officer forcefully spun the man around, shoved him against the bar and placed plastic restraints on his wrists. The officer then marched the man out the club. The guy was stunned and obviously really scared.

I was still standing near the entrance to the VIP lounge with a friend when an officer approached a man standing there. The man had water in his hand. The officer asked him how much he had had to drink and the man said that he didn't have to answer that. The officer then said that he was going to arrest him for public intoxication. The man said,"You can't do that I am just standing here right now drinking water." At the time the officer shoved the man over towards the wall near the dressing room and then back to the rear wall near the men's restroom, then down onto the floor. Several other officers, made their way back there to hold that ONE MAN down on the ground as they placed restraints on him. At the time I noticed that all of them did not have FWPD uniforms on. Some of them were actually State Police.

I came out of my horrified daze at that moment and told my friend that we needed to get out of there quickly. I just felt like everything was about to go crazy. Outside the bar, there were officers standing all over the place. I did a quick scan and counted seven squad cars. I heard one officer telling a young woman who was complaining to him about being harrassed by them that they were only there to protect the citizens of Fort Worth and to keep drunk people from being on the roads.

Whoa, dude. This was a weird choice of days to do this (A) and (B) I thought we were done with this 40 years ago. There may be a plausible explanation, and I'll be very curious to hear what the PD has to say about this over the next few days.

Thanks to Change.org for the story!

Stonewall Anniversary

'We are the Stonewall girls
We wear our hair in curls
We wear no underwear
We show our pubic hair...
We wear our dungarees
Above our nelly knees!'

June 28th, 1969, 1:20am

Per Allen Ginsberg:

You know, the guys there were so beautiful—they've lost that wounded look that fags all had 10 years ago

Happy 40th anniversary, queer rights movement.

Oh and someone said it on Twitter the other day: Why do I feel like Stephen Colbert educated more of America on Stonewall the entirety of the American public education system?

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Stonewalling
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

We're here, we're queer, you'll get to us eventually. Priceless. BTW, did you happen to catch the study where both conservatives and liberals enjoy the Colbert Report because they perceive that he is on their side? Seriously, folks.

And don't forget to check out Wolfie at Back2Stonewall.com's article he reposted that originally appeared in CityBeat, this time unedited. You know, that boy isn't such a bad writer. :-)

GAY STUFF: America's Favorite Cities (part deux)

DUH. I didn't even see the "Gay Friendliness" Category until the very end of the last blog. I feel like it is important to post the list in toto, I don't think there are many suprises:

1) San Francisco -- 4.82 (out of 5)
2) New Orleans -- 4.60
3) Portland, OR -- 4.51
4) Seattle -- 4.45
5) Minneapolis/St. Paul -- 4.42
6) Austin -- 4.39 SURPRISE 1
7) New York -- 4.37 SURPRISE 2
8) Miami -- 4.34
9) Chicago -- 4.22
10) Santa Fe -- 4.21
11) Philadelphia -- 4.21 SURPRISE 3
12) Los Angeles -- 4.18 SURPRISE 2
13) Washington, DC -- 4.08
14) Boston -- 4.05 SURPRISE 2
15) San Diego -- 4.05
16) Denver -- 3.97
17) Atlanta -- 3.95
18) Honolulu -- 3.85
19) Orland -- 3.81
20) Las Vegas -- 3.80
21) Charleston -- 3.69
22) San Antonio -- 3.57
23) Phoenix/Scottsdale -- 3.27
24) Dallas/Fort Worth -- 3.26 -- SURPRISE 1
25) Nashville -- 3.19

SURPRISE 1 -- I'm shocked by the Austin/DFW placement because I had always heard that Dallas was tres gay, and Austin, being the capital, leaned more conservative. I would have thought the two were reversed.

SURPRISE 2 -- New York, Boston, and LA -- I just would have thought they would have been right under San Fran. NYC because it is where the gay right's movement began (see next surprise, also), Boston because Massachusetts is the only state where same-sex marriage is legal, and LA because ... well, come on, it's Hollywood. (But, I suppose, there are a lot to these cities that we don't see... LA has a huge immigrant population, and NYC has, well, the Bronx.)

SURPRISE 3 -- Did people confuse this with Pittsburgh -- the setting of Queer as Folk? *Shrug* But it was the site of the first gay protest ever (a caveat: this event, with 40 conservatively dressed gays and lesbians outside Independence Hall will probably be downplayed in history, and seems to be so online, with people preferring to remember Stonewall in a more friendly manner... but I thought I'd at least post a picture as it seems to be nameless and, therefore, difficult to find information on)