[6] Since then, both the Dallas and Fort Worth metropolitan divisions of the Metroplex have held their own separate gay pride festivals.
[7] The Oak Lawn/Cedar Springs Road area serves as North Texas' largest gayborhood and is home to Dallas' vibrant gay nightlife.
[8] The first LGBT-oriented business to open there was Union Jack, a clothing store operated by an expatriate from the United Kingdom,[9] Richard Longstaff.
[20][21] Due to the high HIV/AIDS infection rate among young black gay men in Dallas County, the University of California, San Francisco researchers in partnership with original project coordinators Venton Jones, Terrance Anderson, and community organizer Chaaz Quigley decided to establish the United Black Ellument in Dallas.
The program includes social coffee hours every week, discussion panels, worship services, fashion shows, safer sex promotions, support groups, and picnics.
[23] In 2002 the Dallas City Council passed an anti-discrimination ordinance protecting LGBT persons.
[25] John Wright, a former editor of the Dallas Voice,[26] stated that the city is not complying with its own anti-discrimination ordinance and that "It's unbelievable to me that in 2014, the city of Dallas is still treating its LGBT employees unequally when it comes to basic benefits like pensions, family medical leave and transgender health insurance.
[27] After she began her first term in the Dallas City Council in 2007,[28] Vonciel Jones-Hill, who is also a Methodist preacher,[29] stated that she would not and never will attend the gay pride parade; she argued that God does not approve of homosexuality.
[34] Mayor of Dallas Mike Rawlings criticized the proposal, arguing that because the city has no political power to enact gay marriage, it would be a "waste of time" to vote on this bill; Rawlings stated that he supports same sex marriage.
In response,[36] Jones-Hill stated that the billboard presents same-sex conduct among African-American men as acceptable as long as they safeguard their health.
[24] Established in 1982, the Black Tie Dinner has become one of the largest fundraiser events in the nation for the LGBT community.
Jose Plata, an openly gay Dallas Independent School District (DISD) board member, and Pat Stone, the president of the Dallas Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), advocated for adding LGBT students to the DISD anti-discrimination ordinance.
The Oak Lawn Library in Oak Lawn, Dallas has a 1,729-item collection of LGBT-related literature; it had a circulation of 3,748 as of 2012, and that year Angie Bartula, the branch manager, stated that it was one of the largest LGBT-related collections in the United States.
That year, the Tavern Guild moved the celebration from June to the third Sunday of September in honor of Baker v. Wade.
[46] QueerBomb Dallas organizes their own Pride rally, march and party on the last weekend in June.
Around 1981 a drag queen established the annual Tarrant County Pride (Fort Worth and Arlington) event.
The celebratory event has grown to be the largest of its kind in Texas and continues to be held every fall.
The Texas Latino Gay Pride event began in 2014 and is held annually every early October in the Oaklawn district.