6 March 23-29, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents used to help guide ForwardDallas, the city’s comprehensive land use plan, which is com- ing up for review. The monitors measures particulate mat- ter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone. An impor- tant distinction to make, Bazan said, is that there are already air monitors set up in Dal- las-Fort Worth by various organizations, but the monitors the city is using in its program are more accurate, and they’re calibrated by city staff at the Texas Commission on Envi- ronmental Quality’s regional air quality monitoring station. “So the data that we’re going to get is as close to regulatory moni- toring data that you could get with a device like this,” Bazan said. Bazan said communities in Dallas deter- mine where these air monitors are placed. The city reaches out to community organi- zations and neighborhood groups to see if they’re interested in having these monitors. Then comes a community meeting, gener- ally hosted by the Office of Environmental Quality along with the district’s environ- mental commissioner. This is the communi- ty’s opportunity to share their air quality concerns. From there, they have an opportu- nity to pinpoint on a map where they’d like the air monitors to be installed. Staff with the Office of Environmental Quality will go to the area chosen by the community to determine where the moni- tors can be installed. Each community gets two air quality monitors. Bazan said the city is in talks with residents in Dallas’ Floral Farms, previously home to a mountain of shingles weighing between 60,000 and 100,000 tons, to install two air monitors in the neighborhood. Bazan thinks this program can help bring about a change that’s been needed for some time. “What these air quality monitors, and the data that we collect from the neighborhood, will do is help our elected officials make bet- ter policy decisions about not just land use,” she said. ▼ HOMOPHOBIA CASTING A DRAGNET NEWLY FILED TEXAS BILL COULD EMPOWER ‘DRAG BOUNTY HUNTERS.’ BY KELLY DEARMORE T he attention that drag shows are get- ting from conservative lawmakers continues to swell as the 88th Texas legislative session progresses. Even though a record number of LGBTQ lawmakers have their name on a Capitol office door in Aus- tin, bills taking aim at LGBTQ issues keep popping up with regularity. On March 9, state Rep. Steve Toth, a Re- publican from Montgomery County, intro- duced House Bill 4378, a measure that would make financial rewards possible for people who report drag shows that allow minors to attend. It’s necessary to note that all-ages drag shows are not currently illegal in Texas, although another bill filed recently, HB 1266, does seek to ban them. This proposed legislation is similar to Senate Bill 8 from 2021, the so-called “Abor- tion Bounty” bill, which makes room for in- dividuals to file a civil suit for up to $10,000 against anyone they say aids and abets an abortion procedure. Another more recent, conservative-led effort in Texas proposes a $10,000 lawsuit against librarians who keep books containing LGBTQ stories and themes on the shelves. According to Toth’s HB 4378, a claimant can bring action against a “person who knowingly promotes, conducts, or partici- pates as a performer in the drag perfor- mance that occurs before an audience that includes the minor.” Should the claimant prevail, they are eligible to receive an award for “actual damages, including dam- ages for psychological, emotional, eco- nomic, and physical harm; reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred in bring- ing the action; and statutory damages of $5,000.” Under this bill, it would not be acceptable for adults to bring their minor children to a daytime drag performance at a restaurant that operates as an all-ages establishment. “It is not a defense to an action brought un- der this chapter that the minor was accom- panied at the drag performance by the minor’s parent or guardian,” the bill reads. Trey Stewart, owner of Mr. Misster on Cedar Springs Road, is a veteran of the mod- ern battle over drag shows. Last year, as Pride Month began in June, Mr. Misster was the site of a widely reported-on protest when the bar hosted an all-ages drag brunch. According to The Dallas Morning News, Stewart and his staff had received death threats in the weeks leading up to the event. To him, HB 4378 only serves to fur- ther fuel the threat that already exists. “When you put something like this on the table, you’re also putting such a scary target on a community that’s already had a target on it for a long time,” Stewart told the Ob- server. “When you empower people that are al- ready putting our people in a vulnerable, dangerous situation to be police and to be- come bounty hunters,” Stewart says. “I think you’re setting the LGBT community up for failure; well, you’re setting everyone up for failure.” All-ages drag performances come in vari- ous forms in addition to drag brunches in non-nightclub venues, and they have grown more popular in the past several years. Stew- art says the backlash against events like these is likely attached to the fact that gay marriage has been legal for a few years now, another major concern that was fought out through the courts and in legislative ses- sions for years beforehand. We reached out to Rep. Toth and were asked to submit our questions via email. Toth did not reply to the questions we sub- mitted. Stewart sees a disconnect between what he says is really happening at an all- ages drag performance and what lawmakers and protestors who are opposed to them think is happening during one. “You have so many people that are misin- formed and have no idea what is really hap- pening,” he says. “When I think about drag story time or drag bingo, there’s nothing more provocative at an event like those than what goes on at an Ariana Grande concert. The outfits aren’t any more scandalous, the signs aren’t any more provocative. It’s the same. Look at children’s cheer and pageants. Those need to be more heavily scrutinized, but they’re not since they’re not tied to the LGBT community.” More than a dozen bills filed for this ses- sion are aimed toward the LGBTQ commu- nity. Prospective laws regarding the content of library books and school lesson plans and a bill that would give property tax relief to straight married couples with kids are being rolled out. Last week, following the an- nouncement that the Texas Comptroller’s Office was investigating a North Texas bar after it hosted a drag brunch, Rep. Venton Jones, a gay Dallas Democrat, expressed his displeasure with his colleagues. Jones told the Observer, “As a state legis- lator and member of the LGBTQ commu- nity, it makes me sad that tactics like this are being used in retaliation against venues hosting drag shows,” he said. “We must not continue this war against LGBTQ people and their families, pitting Texans against other Texans right now.” Stewart says that drag shows are all about creative expression, not grooming children to “be gay or to convert them to a different gender.” He says the debate involving all- ages drag performances serves a different purpose than what the conservative law- makers filing the bills would have us believe. “It’s a distraction. It’s a distraction from passing laws that need to be passed,” he says. “If we’re really looking at ways to keep children safe there are many other ways we should be focusing our resources on. Let’s keep them safe in schools and safe from guns. Drag queens have never been the is- sue. If they [conservative lawmakers] get people riled up over things like this, they don’t have to address the real issues.” ▼ CRIME TURNING OFF THE SOURCE POLICE HAVE MADE YET ANOTHER ARREST OF ANOTHER MAN THEY SAY SUPPLIED FENTANYL TO CARROLLTON TEENS. BY KELLY DEARMORE A uthorities have arrested a Flower Mound man who they allege served as the main source of supply of fen- tanyl to a trafficker linked to at least one teen overdose in Carrollton. Stephen Paul Brinson, 18, was arrested on March 8 and made his first appearance be- fore a U.S. magistrate judge on March 10. Brinson is charged with conspiracy to dis- tribute a schedule II controlled substance and is the fifth adult arrested in connection with the rash of fentanyl-related juvenile deaths and overdoses in the Carrollton- Farmers Branch Independent School Dis- trict. In a press release from the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Leigha Simonton, Carrollton police Chief Roberto Arredondo stated, “Taking this dealer out of the network puts a significant dent in the dealers’ ability to sell drugs to all DFW-area children. We remain committed to arresting those who put the lives of our children in danger.” Brinson’s arrest comes one week after the arrest of Donovan Jude Andrews, the man law enforcement says Brinson supplied with fentanyl pills. Andrews was apprehended after being seen marketing drugs via social media and during in-person transactions with teens from R.L. Turner High School and Hebron High School. On March 3, a stu- dent was found unresponsive on the R.L. Turner campus after ingesting a pill, police said. The student recovered. Authorities allege that Andrews was working to fill the drug-selling gap left by the February arrests of Luis Navarrete, Magalo Cano and Jason Villanueva. Na- varrete and Cano were allegedly managing their illegal pill operation out of a rental house only a few blocks away from R.L. Turner High School. The ages of the victims police say either died or overdosed from pills bought from Navarrete, Cano and Vil- lanueva range from 13 to 17 years old. According to the press release, as Carroll- ton police searched Brinson’s Flower Mound home, they were greeted by a 19-year-old woman believed to be Brinson’s girlfriend who was “apparently under the influence of fentanyl.” With her help, offi- cers located a pair of safes in the house, where they found multiple bags containing more than 1,000 counterfeit blue M30 Unfair Park from p4 Conservative lawmakers keep aiming at the LGBTQ community. Dennis Jansen >> p8
