Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 2009 Page: 1 of 44
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Gay music from north of the border
aising the Rufus
Wainwright is just one of several out musicians performing in Dallas this weekend.
■ MUSIC, Page 20
dallas
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Issue
Established 1984
Friday, November 13, 2009
FW approves trans protections
Vote comes after almost 4 hours of
testimony from an overflow crowd of
supporters, opponents of proposal
to amend existing ordinance
TAMMYE NASH I Senior Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
FORT WORTH—Tory Van Fleet was one of the
dozens of LGBT rights advocates who stood, smil-
ing widely and applauding loudly, in the packed
Fort Worth City Council chamber Tuesday night,
Nov. 10, in the moments after the council voted 6-
3 to add specific protections for transgender peo-
ple to the city's nondiscrimination ordinance.
But for Van Fleet, the vote was not just a victory
in the LGBT civil rights movement. It was a very
personal victory.
"This is something I have been asking for since
2006 when news of my plans to transition came
out at work," Van Fleet said after the meeting. "It's:
something we've needed for a very long time."
Van Fleet works as a senior forensics analyst for
the Fort Worth Police Department. Although she
has said previously that her own experience in
transitioning while an employee of the city was
relatively smooth, she said Tuesday night that she
has friends who faced many more problems and
discrimination.
"I have a friend who was fired from her job at
an airport owned by the city of Fort Worth. She
and another transgender person were the only
ones fired, and it was pretty obvious that it was
because they were transgender/' Van Fleet said.
"This ordinance will stop that kind of stuff.
"We're not saying you can't fire someone for not
doing their job or that you have to hire someone
who isn't qualified. We just don't want people to
be fired just because they are transgender," Van
Fleet said. "This is not about special rights for a
few. This is about the same rights for all."
The three councilmembers voting against the
I ORDINANCE, Page 10
0
s
FACEOFF | Queer LiberAction's Rick Vandersiice, left, confronts an anti-gay Christian counterprotester
outside Fort Worth City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 10, prior to the council meeting. (John Wright/Dallas Voice)
Tyler man sues
Texas AG's office
for discrimination
Attorney says precedent set in Mica
England case gives Vic Gardner
standing, even though Texas law
does not protect LGBT people
JOHN WRIGHT I News Editor
wright@dallasvoice.com
AUSTIN — A Tyler man is suing the Texas At-
torney General's Office, alleging that he was
forced out of his job for being gay.
Vic A. Gardner, 37, who'd worked for the AG's"
child support division for about three years, re-
signed in February after repeatedly being unfairly
disciplined as a result of his sexual orientation, ac-
cording to Gardner's attorney, Jason C.N. Smith
of Fort Worth.
"I think it's so un-Texan to discriminate based
on someone's sexual orientation, because Texas is
a place where we celebrate the individual and not
throw rocks at people just because they have the
courage to take another path," Smith said. "I think
it violates our constitution to discriminate against
people because of the way they were born."
Smith noted that Texas is not one of the roughly
20 states with laws prohibiting anti-LGBT em-
ployment discrimination. But he said gay and les-
bian government employees in Texas are
protected by constitutional principles such as pri-
vacy and equal protection. He said this was estab-
lished by a 1993 state appeals court ruling in City
of Dallas v. Mica England, in which England suc-
cessfully sued to overturn the Dallas Police De-
partment's ban on gay and lesbian officers.
"The Texas Constitution protects government
employees from being discriminated against
based on their sexual orientation," Smith said. "I
■ LAWSUIT, Page 12
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 2009, newspaper, November 13, 2009; Dallas, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239090/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.