Dallas' Oak Lawn 'gayborhood' be first Texas to get state historil marker

Contents:

• MOVG TO LGBT DALLAS, TEXAS? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!
• DALLAS GAY DISTRICT: OAK LAWN
• DALLAS' OAK LAWN 'GAYBORHOOD' BE FIRST TEXAS TO GET STATE HISTORIL MARKER
• THROUGH THE YEARS: DALLAS' GAY CULTURE
• DALLAS GAY DANCE CLUBS
• A YEAR GAY BARS
• [LETTER: DALLAS GAY ALLIANCE TO THIS WEEK TEXAS]

MOVG TO LGBT DALLAS, TEXAS? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT GAY NEIGHBORHOOD!

Dpe the predomantly nservative polil spe of Texas, s pal cy of Dallas is home to a vibrant gay muny which is not only active, but also embraced. Most of gay Dallas is centered around the Oak Lawn neighborhood, wh the majory of gay bars, gay clubs, and gay rtrants found on Cedar Sprgs Road and Oak Lawn Avenue.

‘The Strip’ on Cedar Sprgs Road is arguably the heart of Dallas’ gayborhood, and is a great place to start if you’re a first-timer to the cy. If you happen to vis Dallas September, you may be lucky enough to experience Dallas gay Pri, which is a fun-filled celebratn that tak place along Cedar Sprgs Road.

DALLAS GAY DISTRICT: OAK LAWN

As far as gay rtrants Dallas go, you should rise and she like a te Dallas gay lol wh bnch at inic Luckys Cafe. As wh most ci the USA, Dallas also has s own Woody’s gay bar, and s terpretatn of the cult name is pretty cent. Oakcliff has unrgone major renovatns the past startg wh the rtoratn of the Belmont Hotel, now the area is almost fifty percent gay-owned and s ma street is has bee a send gay strip Dallas.

Beg a big cy, there is a wi variety of gay-iendly venu and scen around town, so you are sure to fd what you more. Loted the heart of the gayborhood and spanng over 24, 000 square feet of space, the two-story nightclub boasts a bone-chillg sound system and world-class light and laser show. #1 Nightlife DtatnKnown as the gay mec for LGBTQ+ partiers worldwi, S4 is the hotspot to tch popular lol and ternatnally renowned DJs and even some A-List celebry sightgs.

"I first learned of the former Club Reno — "the first gay bar all of Texas, " acrdg to Karen Wisely's Universy of North Texas master of arts this — om the bronzed narrative that will appear on a historil marker set to be planted 7 p. It will make Dallas the first cy the state wh an official Texas Historil Commissn subject marker acknowledgg a longstandg gay and lbian muny.

DALLAS' OAK LAWN 'GAYBORHOOD' BE FIRST TEXAS TO GET STATE HISTORIL MARKER

" For a relatively new cy, Dallas has a lot of ancient history memorated 1991, when this photo was taken, the crossroads of Dallas' gayborhood was the tersectn of Cedar Sprgs Road and Throckmorton, where Crossroads Market and Unn Jack were loted. We know as the gayborhood, or what's left of — the Rource Center, JR's, Sue Ellen's, Statn 4 and the Round-Up Saloon.

The tersectn had been known as The Crossroads sce the late 1960s, but s legacy was forever cemented 1980 wh the openg of the namake market there that beme the muny's bookstore and meetg puttg the marker there, Emery said, "we hope n still some pri young people — all people, gay and non-gay, to know the cy which they live has bravely been forward standg up for s.

The young generatn hand all of the rights, we hope they will stop and enjoy reflectg on the brave people who chose to intify as early as the 1950s, " when gay men were picted this very newspaper as "sex perverts" out "rptg the morals of dozens of Dallas teenagers. "To get the marker, Chilrs wrote about how  the 1930s, gay men would meet the shadow of the Magnolia Petrolm Buildg at Commerce and Akard streets — "Maggie's Corner, " as was known.

THROUGH THE YEARS: DALLAS' GAY CULTURE

Ervay St., on Wood Street jt across om what is now the central years, downtown was filled wh wk-and-nod clubs bee was illegal to be gay Dallas. "Over time, the gay muny found a home out the open along Cedar Sprgs — amid the "bohemian atmosphere and picturque archecture, " scribed on the historic Police Chief U.

(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)The days, the gayborhood is begng to disappear, on the verge of beg a long stretch of big-box apartments and cha eateri dottg Cedar Sprgs Road. Complete text of the historil marker:THE CROSSROADSDESPITE DALLAS'S REPUTATION AS ONE OF THE STATE'S MORE CONSERVATIVE CITIES, ITS LGBTQ (LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER, QUEER) COMMUNITY WAS AMONG THE FIRST IN TEXAS TO ORGANIZE POLITICALLY AND SOCIALLY.

DALLAS GAY DANCE CLUBS

IN 1947, THE CITY BECAME HOME TO ONE OF THE FIRST GAY BARS IN TEXAS, CLUB RENO, AND IN 1972 WAS THE SITE OF THE FIRST GAY PRIDE PARADE IN TEXAS.

IN 1980, THE PRIDE PARADE MOVED FROM DOWNTOWN TO CEDAR SPRINGS AREA SURROUNDING THE INTERSECTION OF THROCKMORTON STREET AND CEDAR SPRINGS ROAD HAS BEEN CONSIDERED THE CENTER OF THE DALLAS LGBTQ COMMUNITY SINCE THE EARLY 1970s AND IS KNOWN AS "THE GAY CROSSROADS" OR "THE CROSSROADS. MORE GAY-OWNED BUSINESSES AND BARS FOLLOWED, AND BY THE END OF THE 1970s, THE MAJORITY OF BUSINESSES IN THE AREA CATERED TO THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY.

A YEAR GAY BARS

WITH THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE AIDS CRISIS IN THE 1980s, THE CROSSROADS BECAME NOT ONLY AN ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT, BUT ALSO A CENTER FOR POLITICAL ACTIVISM, SOCIAL SERVICES AND MEDICAL THE HISTORIC HEART OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY OF DALLAS, THE CROSSROADS REMAINS THE LOCATION OF THE OLDEST GAY BUSINESSES IN THE CITY AND AS THE PRIMARY GATHERING POINT FOR LGBTQ POLITICAL AND SOCIAL EVENTS, INCLUDING THE ALAN ROSS FREEDOM PARADE. Gay-iendly rtrants, bars, f, and nightclubs will help you make an ia of what Big D’s gay scene is all about.

Loted at the tersectn of Cedar Sprgs Road and Throckmorton Street, this is one of the noisit and popular gay mercial districts the untry. One event you should fely attend is The Dallas Gay Pri – one of the biggt gay pris the southern half of the Uned Stat. ” Phil Johnson, whose rerd oral history rells early gay social life the cy, stated that the 1940s gay men Dallas equently met at the rner of Commerce and Akard streets, a spot referred to as “Maggie’s Corner, ” due to s lotn at the base of the Magnolia Petrolm Buildg.

In the early 1950s several terr rator shops, many gay-owned, opened along Cedar Sprgs Road the Oak Lawn sectn of the the next two s, LGBT bars and gatherg plac remaed ncentrated primarily the central bs district, though a few began to open the Oak Lawn area. The lotns of the gay bars were shared on a “need-to-know basis” to protect patrons om beg “outed” and bar owners om police raids. In 1964 the Dallas Police Department’s Special Servic Bure arrted 460 persons for beg “perverts, ” the mon term for scribg gay people at the time.

[LETTER: DALLAS GAY ALLIANCE TO THIS WEEK TEXAS]

That same year, Alv Buchanan filed a feral su agast the Dallas Police Department and claimed the police harassed and targeted gay men and women for arrt.

In 1975 the Dallas Gay Polil Cc (renamed the Dallas Gay & Lbian Alliance 1992), the first LGBT polil anizatn Dallas and the primary membership anizatn for the LGBT muny, was anized. Its print, Don Baker, a Dallas schoolteacher, had been fired for beg gay, and 1979 he sued, challengg the state’s sodomy law aga (Baker v. In June 1978 Dallas hosted the Texas Gay Conference and ved San Francis Board of Supervisors member and natnally-known gay rights activist Harvey Milk to speak, an ditor of the lol muny’s stature 1977 Reverend Jam Harris beme the first openly gay person to n for Dallas Cy Council, although he lost his race and me fourth out of five ndidat.

(“Bill”) Nelson, who was print of the Dallas Gay Alliance om 1984 to 1987, ran and lost both 1985 and 1987. Other openly gay office holrs have clud DISD School Board member Jose Plata (1995), Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valz (2005), Dallas County District Clerk Gary Fzsimmons (2006), and Dallas County Judge Jim Foster (2006) advanc ma polilly and socially the 1970s were tempered by the onslght of the HIV/AIDS epimic begng the early 1980s, but, as other ci across the natn, the disease uned the lol muny many ways.