5. The State of Texas v. Richard Schwiderski

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 event become known as “Dallas’s Stonewall?”

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 Collections Division, and the departments of history and media arts at the University of North Texas. You can find more episodes, a selection of our sources, and a teaching guide at our website, https://www.queeringthelonestarstate.com/. The series is produced and edited by Sarah Lyngholm. Clare Robnett and Rodrigo Triana are our research assistants. Morgan Reese designed our website. Our theme music was composed by Nicolas Neidhardt.

Audio of Michael Cline Interview by Wesley G. Phelps and Morgan Davis Gieringer provided courtesy of the University of North Texas Libraries Special Collections.

Audio of Don Maison provided courtesy of The Dallas Way.

Audio from KXAS-NBC 5 provided courtesy of the University of North Texas Libraries Special Collections.

Additional music for this episode was composed by Charles Blaker and Kevin Hiatt, Jon Hansson, and William Jay Bergman.