Welcome to our third annual Pride issue. It’s the least we can do as a plausibly respectable rag in a formerly red now apparently purpling part of North Texas. We hope our issue especially helps the closeted members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Maybe they can see that a 27-year-old media outlet with a print circulation of 35,000 and with 42.5K followers on Instagram and 23K on Facebook has their back. And we most certainly do.
Some advertisers may slam their doors in our faces and some places of business may toss our newspaper stands out into the street. But it’s not for those people that we do what we do. We do what we do, including publish a Pride issue every year during Pride Month, because it’s the right thing to do. “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” That’s Matthew: 25:40 from this little book called the Bible. You should read it sometime.
And while we’re not questioning the strength of LGBTQIA+ people, we know they have never been more vulnerable than they are now. The 2022-2023 National Crime Victimization Survey reveals that LGBTQIA+ people are five times more likely than non-LGBTQIA+ people to be the victims of violent crime and that LGBTQIA+ people are nine times more likely to experience violent hate crimes than non-LGBTQIA+ people.
Anti-LGBTQIA+ hate crime is rising across the country but particularly in the states rolling back LGBTQIA+ protections, like Texas. Based on national data, 61 anti-LGBTQIA+ incidents, including physical assault, occurred here last year. The only other states with as many or more incidents were New York (61) and California (125), according to the Anti-LGBTQ+ Extremism Reporting Tracker (ALERT) Desk, a project of the LGBTQIA+ advocacy nonprofit GLAAD. Our issue is not going to stop the violence, but perhaps it may encourage the most vulnerable LGBTQIA+ people to seek intellectual solidarity with us and, more importantly, emotional solidarity with others.
Like the Rev. Alan Bentrup, the priest of St. Martin-in-the-Fields who is opening his Keller church to a Pride festival in October (pg. 5). Or Jennifer Zooki Sturges, whose annual Riot Girl Festival brings together femmes and the LGBTQIA+ community over hard rock and punk (pg. 22). Or everyone at Trinty Pride Fest on Sat, Jun 28, on the Near Southside (pg. 13). As the recent No Kings rallies have proven, the bad guys in charge can’t arrest all of us, but that’s only if we stick together. Be loud, be proud. — Anthony Mariani, Editor
Photo by Wyatt Newquist
