Queering the Lone Star State

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 legislature’s approval of an even more di...

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? Could the state sodomy law really ...

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 city’s police chief. Could he convi...

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 policies were discriminatory against quee...

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 of this case? And how did this even...

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. But would the favorable ruling wi...

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 Texas university for official recog...

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 that the sodomy law violated the state...

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 to the U.S. Supreme Court. Would th...

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 to the U.S. Supreme Court. Would th...

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 opposed using a lawsuit against what t...