In the wake of a highly publicized Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission raid on the Rainbow Lounge that took place June 28, a task force was formed to look into the complaints that arose from that contentious raid. Five people were arrested for public intoxication in that raid and one patron was taken to the hospital with a serious head injury. Complaints poured in about the use of excessive force during the raid as well as accusations that the Fort Worth police and the TABC targeted the bar because of its GLBT clientele.
The commission released its recommendations November 3 for giving Fort Worth's GLBT residents better access and equal treatment at City Hall.
Those recommendations are:
■ Extending the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance to include gender expression. A vote on the recommendation is scheduled for Tuesday.
■ Training for all city employees and elected officials on dealing with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Police, fire and front-line customer service representatives will be trained within two years.
■ Extending domestic partner benefits, shared pensions and family leave for gay and lesbian city employees.
■ Including a company’s record on domestic partner benefits when considering city tax breaks.
■ Including sex-change surgery in city health insurance coverage.
■ Posting nondiscrimination language on job notices, including a letter to police recruits.
■ Establishing support groups for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.
■ Holding educational fairs and using public events and media to increase awareness of the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance.
■ Pushing for state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
According to a Fort Worth Star Telegram article, Fort Worth council members appeared to favor most of the proposals. Councilman Joel Burns, who is gay, said, "I think everyone on this council wants to demonstrate that we’re committed to protect the full rights of everyone in our city."
Fort Worth City Manager Dale Fisseler concurred with the recommendations, although he asked for time to research the financial impact of some, such as the pension and healthcare changes.
The Fort Worth City Council will meet at 5 PM CST tomorrow to vote on those recommendations. Kelli Busey of Planet Transgender is asking all GLBT people in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area show up for this critical meeting because the haters definitely will.
Fort Worth back in the day was headquarters for several televangelists, and still has a fundamentalist streak running through it despite being the home of Texas Christian University.
The Forces of Intolerance have mobilized in an attempt to shut GLBT people out of City Hall and do a replay of this summer's nekulturny town hall behavior.
Their mission is to browbeat and either intimidate the Fort Worth City Council into voting against the recommendations or tabling it to give them more time to stir crap up and bring out of town reinforcements in.
It's up to you peeps who are drum majors for justice to stop them, stand up to the bullies and give the Fort Worth City Council the opportunity to hopefully hand them another embarrassing defeat.