PRIDENTON and the Fight to Belong
The Invisible Made Visible
The deadliest fire in New Orleans, LA's history occurred at a gay bar called the UpStairs Lounge on the night of June 24, 1973. The blaze, set by an arsonist, killed 32 people, three of whom were unable to be identified and buried in a potter’s field. There was even another person who was buried next to “the unidentified because authorities couldn’t easily locate his family who resided in California.” A bartender guided “at least 30 patrons out of an emergency exit.” The conditions caused by the fire, however, trapped 32 people inside including the bartender’s partner.
According to a Daily Beast article from May 2019, there were “few straight New Orleanians” who were willing to acknowledge the city’s large gay subculture in the wake of the disaster. Those catastrophic events forced many of the city’s residents to react to the plight of people in peril, people who were both invisible and hypervisible and people with whom they “could barely find common humanity.” The events of that night unfolded against a complex backdrop of both normalized racism and sexism and homophobia/queerphobia.
These issues were pervasive in the New Orleans gay community before the fire and for some time after. According to the article, one of the Lounge’s Black gay patrons recalled, “People think gay is one big loving family. No, gay is a microcosm of the real world. People were raised by who they were raised by. They still have those fears, those ‘isms.’ The only thing we have in common is we like the same sex.”
In the immediate aftermath of the fire, victims and survivors hadn’t received the proper acknowledgement, support, or respect they deserved from the community in which they lived. This included organizations, institutions, and people of influence. Survivors and their friends got together to look for and find ways to support themselves and one another. One of these ways was to redress and repair race relations within the New Orleans gay community. This included fundraising efforts, support groups, addressing and collectively working to get rid of “negative race-based terminology,” and rebuilding trust.
Decades later against a similar backdrop, in a small North Texas town, a queer organization called PRIDENTON would be founded. The people who are part of it would go on to provide methods and avenues that not only seek to widen the net of inclusion within the community, but also without it. When it comes to their goals for the future, when narrowed down to one, the organization’s vice president, Kamyon Conner, said in an interview, “I just hope for a future where we are supported and respected.”
“…It formed out of a want to create…”
PRIDENTON is the first local nonprofit organization of its kind in Denton, TX. Per its website, it’s “a Denton-based, grassroots organization that celebrates LGBTQ+ folks and hosts Pride annually, with a focus on QTBIPOC leadership.” The organization was founded in 2017 by Dr. Carmen Cruz. She moved to Denton from Miami, FL in 1997 and has since worked “to improve the lives of LGBTO+” Denton residents.
In 2000, while at Texas Woman’s University, she started a student organization called PRIDE and helped start a group for faculty and staff called TWQ. She co-founded OUTreach Denton in 2011, then PRIDENTON in 2017. Currently, Dr. Cruz is the Director of TWU’s Counseling and Psychological Services and is also their Director of Training.
Each member, focusing initially on throwing a Pride celebration, acknowledged their own and one another’s strengths and created a division of labor which allowed them to work together to create something unique. In an interview with members of the organization on the What The Femme!? Podcast, Conner said in the beginning, “it was an effort for a lot of organizations to throw Pride, in Denton, including performance organizations. So, we threw a Pride and started working together, and Cruz is such a visionary that she had trademarked that name, PRIDENTON, years before, because she liked it. I think it formed out of a want to create a Pride that felt like who we are and what Denton is. How it feels to live in Denton and how much we love living here.”
Conner is an activist, writer and social worker with a background in grassroots organizing and medical case management. She “served as the Vice President of the National Network of Abortion Fund’s Board of Directors until 2021.” Conner received her bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of North Texas, and her master’s in social work from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is also a human rights advocate, and an advocate for reproductive justice. Conner was one of PRIDENTON’s “Steering Committee members,” until 2019, and is currently “the Executive Director of Texas Equal Access Fund” and Vice President of PRIDENTON. When speaking about the annual Pride event during the podcast interview, Conner said, “We have tried to uplift the voices of every community every year. That has always meant centering the voices of BIPOC folks as well as folks with disabilities, as well as our trans siblings.”
There are several people on PRIDENTON’s committee who are either mental health professionals or are on their way to becoming mental health professionals. In the podcast interview, committee member Enedelia Sauceda said, “Mental health professionals, social workers, and educators were the four who were there in the beginning.”
“It’s not easy being a queer, trans, BIPOC, person,” Conner said, “but by golly we’re making things happen.”
The Fight for Protection
The real-world, economic impact of discrimination worsens those disparities which are already negatively affecting groups such as non-white persons, those of us who are impoverished and those of us with disabilities. An August 2021 US Census Bureau report, a Household Pulse Survey, asked about “sexual orientation and gender identity” for the first time. The survey found that “about 13.1 percent of LGBT adults lived in a household” that was food insecure over a seven-day period. This was “compared to 7.2 percent of non-LGBT adults.” The report also includes other data points such as: “8.2 percent of LGBT adults” reported living in homes where they “were not at all confident that” they would be able to make their rents or mortgage “payments on time.” This was “compared to 6 percent of non-LGBT adults.” Over a 4-week period, “19.8 percent of LGBT adults lived in a household with lost employment income.” This was “compared to 16.8 percent of non-LGBT adults.” “36.6 percent of LGBT adults” reported having “difficulty paying for usual household expenses,” over a 7-day period. This was “compared to 26.1 percent of non-LGBT adults.”
In July 2019, a Denton City Council member organized a community discussion “about the idea of a city-wide ‘ordinance to protect’ Denton’s ‘LGBTQ community from discrimination.’” In the lead-up to the conversation which took place within the council’s chambers, the mother of a transgender child pointed out that “LGBTQ people are not protected against discrimination in housing, employment, or public accommodations by either federal or state law.” In February 2020, a grassroots group “had been petitioning” Denton City Council to enact an LGBTQ non-discrimination ordinance. There were similar ordinances in place in Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano and a few other cities, but there wasn’t one in Denton.
Council members met to go over “non-discrimination ordinances in place in cities around the state.” They also discussed and offered “staff direction on” what the city could do “including whether to draft its own ordinance.” When people came to Denton City Hall to raise awareness of the city’s need for a non-discrimination ordinance, their stories came along with them. These were stories of people who had been discriminated against “just because they” were “queer or trans.”
The mother advocating for her child and the local LGBTQ+ community was in attendance with the group. She mentioned her family had “faced discrimination when seeking medical treatment for her son.” Her children were treated for the same ailment “on the same day.” When she received a bill from their doctor, it was “hundreds of dollars more.” She said, “same children, same test, same doctor. Different bills, different experiences.” When speaking about the effects of discrimination she said, “By getting married, same-sex couples are outing themselves.” She pointed out that when “they come home from their honeymoon,” both people can find that “they have both lost their jobs” and “have been evicted from their apartment,” which is legal in the state of Texas. Should a queer or trans person lose their job or home by virtue of who they are, they would “not have any legal recourse to remedy this.” This mother and advocate would not only continue fighting for Denton’s LGBTQ non-discrimination ordinance, but she would also run for a seat on the city council for a second time.
The fight for the ordinance didn’t end there. Soon thereafter, Denton City Council met to discuss the matter. Some were “hesitant,” however, because of a pending Supreme Court ruling regarding employment discrimination against LGBTQ+ workers. Fortunately, they wouldn’t have to wait much longer.
On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protected LGBTQ+ workers from employment discrimination. In its decision the court said, “An individual’s homosexuality or transgender status is not relevant to employment decisions. That’s because it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.” It would be about two years after the court’s decision that the city council would adopt Denton’s own non-discrimination ordinance. Denton’s ordinance “prohibits discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations based on a person’s race, color, national origin, age, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
“… A space for ourselves and those of us who are less visible”
George Ferrie, a PRIDENTON coordinator, said in the podcast interview, “One of the main purposes of PRIDENTON is to raise enough money to create a community center here, for LGBTQ+ folks, as well as other communities.” He went on to say the organization wants to provide people “with mental health resources,” assist “with job placement” and “trainings,” and even go “into the community” and provide training for businesses and their employees. He made clear the many things the organization wants to offer “from a community center here in town.”
Raising the funds needed to achieve this goal is difficult, because their committee is “all-volunteer,” Conner said in an interview, and “ensuring that all-inclusive Pride is put on every year has taken priority. We are very far away from realizing that goal of a community center.” Other Denton-based nonprofit organizations have stepped in to help them raise funds. They also receive local support and sponsorships. They’ve even collaborated on projects with the Denton Black Film Festival, Spiderweb Salon, and TEA Fund.
When it came to acquiring local support, committee members took a very direct approach. In an event called A Night OUT on the Square, they and members of the local community went into businesses in and around the Square and asked them to visually show their support for Denton’s queer community. “We have gone into the stores and asked them to do so,” Conner said. “We’ve handed out fliers, because there’s nothing like putting it in the shop owner’s hands and ask[ing] them to reaffirm their commitment to supporting our community. We definitely got our steps in.”
When it comes to their annual Pride event, their approach, while different, is still a much-needed change of pace. Each year, they acknowledge and celebrate the various communities that exist within the queer community. “The first groups to be spotlighted were trans and BIPOC people,” Conner said. The idea of going about their Pride event in this way was “to create a Pride and a space for ourselves and those of us who are less visible,” as well as one “that feels affirming to those who feel less visible.”
If you would like to assist PRIDENTON in achieving their goal(s) or become a sponsor, click here to see how. If you are interested in participating in or knowing more about A Night OUT on the Square, click here. If you are a vendor and would like to know more about how you can participate in A Night Out On The Square, click here. If you want to contact PRIDENTON, click here and fill out the webform.
Sources
Fieseler, R. W. (2019, May 13). The Upstairs Lounge Fire killed 32 people. its legacy still haunts Black Gay New Orleans. The Daily Beast. Retrieved April 24, 2022, from https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-upstairs-lounge-fire-killed-32-people-its-legacy-still-haunts-black-gay-new-orleans
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File, T., & Marshall, J. (2021, August 11). Household pulse survey shows LGBT adults more likely to report living in households with food and economic insecurity than Non-LGBT respondents. Census.gov. Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/lgbt-community-harder-hit-by-economic-impact-of-pandemic.html
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