Queering the Lone Star State

In 1988, the Dallas Gay Alliance, the city’s largest gay and lesbian rights organization, sued Parkland Hospital over its treatment of people with AIDS, claiming that the county-funded public hospital was failing to live up to its mission of providing healthcare to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Their action caused a rift in the Dallas gay and lesbian community, as many activists opp...

In 1988, the Dallas Gay Alliance, the city’s largest gay and lesbian rights organization, sued Parkland Hospital over its treatment of people with AIDS, claiming that the county-funded public hospital was failing to live up to its mission of providing healthcare to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Their action caused a rift in the Dallas gay and lesbian community, as many activists opp...

In 1998, Harris County sheriff’s deputies arrested John Lawrence and Tyron Garner near Houston for allegedly violating the state sodomy statute. The two working-class men, who were not activists and lived very private lives, quickly became the public faces of one final effort to eradicate sodomy laws across the country. Lawrence and Garner pursued a constitutional challenge to the law all the way...

In 1998, Harris County sheriff’s deputies arrested John Lawrence and Tyron Garner near Houston for allegedly violating the state sodomy statute. The two working-class men, who were not activists and lived very private lives, quickly became the public faces of one final effort to eradicate sodomy laws across the country. Lawrence and Garner pursued a constitutional challenge to the law all the way...

In 1989, five plaintiffs launched a new legal challenge to the Texas sodomy law, but this time they argued that the law violated the state constitution. Texas district and appellate courts agreed and struck down the sodomy statute for violating state constitutional guarantees of privacy and equality. But then the case reached the Texas Supreme Court. Would the state’s highest civil court agree tha...

In 1976, Texas A&M University students created an organization called Gay Student Services and applied for university recognition. When administrators rejected their application, arguing that its goals were not consistent with those of the university, the students filed suit in federal district court in Houston. The case marked the first time that a gay and lesbian student organization sued a...

In 1979, Dallas activist Don Baker filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state sodomy law, which he claimed violated the privacy and equal protection rights of all gay and lesbian Texans. Three years later, the case made headlines when it became the first time a federal court determined that a state law was unconstitutional based on the rights of gay and lesbian citizens...

In October 1979, Dallas police officers raided the Village Station nightclub in Oak Lawn and arrested ten patrons for public lewdness. Unlike most gay bar raids before 1979 when arrestees would quietly plead guilty and pay a fine, this time eight men fought their charges in court. One of those defendants was Richard Schwiderski, whose trial attracted the most media attention. What was the outcome...

Richard Longstaff immigrated to the United States from England in 1965 and soon settled in Dallas as a small business owner in the predominantly queer neighborhood of Oak Lawn. But when he applied to become a naturalized US citizen in 1976, INS officials rejected him because he was gay. Longstaff appealed the INS decision, but could he convince a federal judge that the country’s immigration polici...

In June 1974, Fort Worth activist Ken Cyr organized the first Texas Gay Conference, a gathering of queer rights organizations from across the state. The Fort Worth Police Department also took notice of the conference, and they recorded the license plates of attendees for their surveillance files. Infuriated and unwilling to accept this continued harassment, Cyr filed a federal lawsuit against the...

In 1974, Mary Jo Risher, a mother of two boys who lived with her partner Ann Foreman in Garland, received notice that her ex-husband was challenging her custody rights. Her ex-husband argued that Mary Jo was a serial violator of the state sodomy law and therefore incapable of providing an acceptable home environment for children. Would this be enough for a court to revoke Mary Jo’s custody rights?...

In 1969, Dallas police officers arrested Alvin Buchanan twice for having sex with another man in violation of the Texas sodomy law. After being sentenced to a five-year prison term, Buchanan challenged his conviction through a federal lawsuit. But could he convince a federal court that the sodomy statute violated the US Constitution? And how did Buchanan v. Batchelor contribute to the state legisl...

Introducing Queering the Lone Star State, a podcast about the struggle for queer equality in Texas. Hosted by historian Wesley Phelps. Queering the Lone Star State is funded in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support is provided by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Willis Library’s Special Collection...