Summaries

Synopsis

Fort Worth, Texas The fifth largest city in the state, 16th largest in the country. Its Where the West Begins.

Fort Worths relationship with the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community is made up of a history of highs and lows. Members of the community often remain in the closet, largely due to the citys small town feel and Bible Belt values. However, in recent years, an amendment to the citys anti discrimination policy to include protection for the gay community and the election of an openly gay city councilman, Joel Burns and openly gay school board member, Carlos Vasquez, signaled a possible shift in attitude.

Excitement grew within the community when it was announced that a large, trendy gay nightclub, the Rainbow Lounge, was planning to open in June 2009. Very few gay nightclubs or bars existed in Fort Worth and people waited with great anticipation.

The modern gay rights movement is often traced back to the Stonewall Riots. On June 28, 1969, New York City police raided The Stonewall Inn, a small bar in Greenwich Village that catered to gays and lesbians, and in doing so, helped launch a revolution. Many arrests and injuries occurred during the raid.On June 28, 2009 40 years later, almost to the minute seven Fort Worth police officers and two agents with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) raided The Rainbow Lounge, which had been open less than two weeks. The raid resulted in multiple customer arrests and serious injuries. The parallels to the raid of the Stonewall Inn were haunting.

Witnesses in the Rainbow Lounge at the time of the raid claim police officers and TABC agents stormed into the bar around 1a.m. with aggressive attitudes and pockets full of plastic zip-tie handcuffs. A patrol transport wagon was parked outside the bar, ready to haul patrons to jail.

According to multiple witnesses, one young man, Chad Gibson (26), was thrown against the wall and down to the floor by officers before his hands were cuffed behind his back and escorted outside. This was after, we would later learn, Mr. Gibson reportedly grabbed the groin of TABC Agent Chris Aller. Gibson was later transported by ambulance to the hospital where doctors discovered a fractured skull and bleeding on his brain.

Multiple witnesses believe Gibson was injured at the hands of officers when he was thrown against the wall and then to the ground inside the club. However, officers insist Gibson sustained his injury outside, when, while vomiting, he lost his balance and fell forward into the concrete.

Moments prior to Gibsons arrest, another patron, George Armstrong, experienced a similar confrontation with police. In total, five people were arrested for public intoxication and taken to jail. Mr. Gibson received an additional citation for public intoxication and a citation for assault.

Members of the community felt betrayed by the police and city officials they thought they could trust. Many questions remained unanswered. Why did they come to the Rainbow Lounge? Was the LGBT community targeted? Was the raid specifically timed to coincide with the raid of the Stonewall Inn? Was the raid meant to send a message to the LGBT community?

In a matter of hours, several highly visible protests were organized and this story captured the attention of the world.

At the same time, Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead stated to one reporter that the situation at the bar had escalated only after patrons made sexually suggestive movements toward officers who were there only to conduct a routine bar inspection. Witnesses were outraged at this accusation, calling it false and homophobic. As the events unfolded over the summer, TABC Agent Allers description of the alleged groping was inconsistent, casting doubt on the storys validity.

A controversial Fort Worth Police Department incident report (which was not filed according to protocol) would later reveal more allegations from officers, describing sexually provocative behavior by two other bar patrons aimed towards their officers. In response to the behavior of his officers at the scene, Chief Halstead defended them saying You're touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar that's offensive...I'm happy with restraint used when they were contacted like that. This quote resembled the gay panic defense and fanned the flames of outrage from around the world.

Within days, an activist group formed: Fairness Fort Worth. Its first goal, according to spokesman Jon Nelson, was to help police and TABC officials gather witnesses testimony. The groups long-term goal, Nelson added, was to bring together a broad-based coalition of community, civic, and government leaders to facilitate communication and cooperation between the different segments of the city to keep such incidents from happening again.Two weeks later at a Fort Worth City Council meeting, the raid was addressed, and LGBT citizens from across North Texas crowded the chamber. Queer LiberAction (a direct action group) founder, Blake Wilkinson and five others were ejected from the council chambers. Despite repeated warnings from the mayor, they continued to interrupt the proceedings by demanding that the council rearrange its agenda to hear comments on the Rainbow Lounge raid first.

Alan Steen, the TABC Administrator, publicly acknowledged that his agents committed clear violations related to the raid: a total of 19 policy violations, according to the results of an internal investigation. The two agents and a sergeant (who was not at the scene) were later fired, with an excessive force investigation still to come.

Chief Halstead presented to the City Council a preliminary report of the findings of his departments investigation, concluding that the problems resulted, at least in part, from flawed policies within the police department. He presented a very specific new policy outlining how the department would conduct all bar inspections in the future. He also used this opportunity to apologize for his initial comments, which infuriated so many.After several delays, Halstead released the findings of his departments internal investigations. Two officers, including the sergeant in charge the night of the raid, were given one-day suspensions for policy violations, and a third officer was suspended for three days. The investigation found that the officers did not use excessive force. Results of the excessive force part of the TABC internal investigation also concluded that the excessive force allegations were unfounded.

Although the uproar seemed at first to tear the city apart, many of those involved, including activists, officials in city government, the police department and TABC quickly stepped forward to transform what started off as a tragic incident into a shining opportunity to address issues and make improvements that could benefit the LGBT community and the city as a whole. Indeed, a night of fear gave a community its voice.

Today, Fort Worth is a leader in LGBT equality.

In the wake of the raid, the Mayors office created a Diversity Task Force, made up of 26 city employees and community leaders to address issues related to the LGBT community. The Task Force ultimately made an impressive list of recommendations. The City Manager unconditionally approved most of the recommendations, with the City Council later approving Domestic Partner benefits and the amendment of the citys anti-discrimination ordinance to include transgender, gender identity and gender expression. One of the major accomplishments of the Task Force was to mandate Diversity Training for the citys nearly 6,000 employees, including first responders.

Chief Halstead eventually progressed from his initial gay panic insensitive remarks, to take an active role in the LGBT community, appoint a LGBT officer liaison and join the citys newly formed Diversity Task Force. In addition, the events at the Rainbow Lounge brought about change in bar check policies. Bar owners, patrons, as well as officers, are further protected, hedging against an event like this from happening again.

The TABC also established a LGBT liaison and is now providing diversity training to all of the state agencys nearly 700 employees.