4 June 4 - 10, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Ditching Its Pride UNT withdraws support for Denton Pride ahead of festival’s 10th year BY EMMA RUBY T he University of North Texas has backed out of plans to sup- port Denton’s 10th annual LG- BTQ+ Pride celebration, saying that the collaboration was ar- ranged outside of the university’s proper channels and that participation would vio- late state law. Event flyers published earlier this month showed that the UNT Eagle Engagement Center, the office created after anti-DEI leg- islation resulted in the closure of the univer- sity’s Multicultural Center and Pride Alliance, was acting as a sponsor for a Pride- themed sidewalk chalk event and a vendor’s fair. Within a few weeks, UNT had been re- moved from the flyers. “The university has withdrawn its in- volvement in the PRIDENTON event. Uni- versity processes were not followed, and it has been determined that UNT’s participa- tion would violate state law. As a public in- stitution, we strictly adhere to all state law,” a statement provided to the Observer by the university said. “UNT will continue to prioritize our values, our students and our people, while ensuring we follow the law.” While a spokesperson for the university did not specify which law would be vio- lated if UNT were to participate in Pride events, 2023’s Texas Senate Bill 17 has been a source of tension for public colleges across the state. The legislation required public universities to shutter their diver- sity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and outlawed diversity training. Many univer- sity faculty members have expressed frus- tration that the law’s vague language resulted in sweeping, anti-DEI implemen- tation across the board. The bill has resulted in professors leaving higher education, and just last month, Attor- ney General Ken Paxton launched an inves- tigation into whether UNT was violating SB 17 by incorporating DEI initiatives into its curriculum. The investigation has resulted in at least one faculty member being fired. According to Anjelica Fraga Escalante, an organizer with PRIDENTON, this latest confusion over UNT’s involvement in Pride has also resulted in a university employee losing their job. The university did not re- spond to a request for verification. “From my understanding, all of the cor- rect channels were used to get the approval [for the UNT office] to participate in the part- nership,” Fraga Escalante told the Observer. “We’ve worked with UNT since the very be- ginning. This is our 10th Pride, and we’ve had an ongoing partnership with UNT since 2017, even in the wake of SB 17’s passing. So it was very sudden, and very disappointing.” By the time PRIDENTON organizers were made aware that there was an issue with UNT’s participation, the university had already received a refund for the Civic Center reservation meant for the vendor fair, Fraga Escalante said. The Pride events are sched- uled to run throughout Pride Month in June. She added that the dissolution of LG- BTQ+ services at UNT has been “incredibly heartbreaking for the community” and has ramped up the demand other Denton orga- nizations are seeing for pride events and LGBTQ+ outreach. With so many organiza- tions and businesses willing to “take up the mantle,” Fraga Escalante said there is enough support for pride that UNT’s back- ing out “isn’t the end of the world.” Even as state legislators bear down on any semblance of diversity, Fraga Escalante says those are the types of events that people want. Throughout June, the PRIDENTON events aim to include people from “all walks of life,” so LGBTQ+ community members who identify as transgender, are immigrants, or are people of color will find programming that fits their experiences. What stands out to her is that Denton’s welcoming culture wouldn’t be possible without UNT’s decades-long participation in the community before SB 17. “The affirming nature of UNT’s campus really, I think, put Denton on the map, es- sentially in Texas, as a friendly city for LG- BTQ+ people to be,” Fraga Escalante said. “The closing of the Pride Alliance is going to have a ripple effect for the rest of the com- munity because a lot of people, I think, would go to UNT as a student and then choose to stay in Denton because they found such a special place.” ▼ POLICE TECHNOLOGY IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE, IT’S A CRIME-FIGHTING DRONE! DPD DEBUTS ‘DE-ESCALATING’ DRONE FIRST RESPONDER PROGRAM. BY AUSTIN WOOD W hen Dallas residents call 911 in the future, a drone may be the first on the scene — or over it — as part of a new police program. DPD representatives recently announced the launch of the Drone as a First Responder Program. The initiative creates a task force of eight remotely piloted aerial drones that will respond to calls faster than ground units and may be able to de-escalate situations be- fore officers arrive at crime scenes. The eight drones will be based at Dal- las-Fire Rescue stations across the city and will be able to respond to calls within a 2-mile radius of their launch points. Sta- tions were selected based on 911 call vol- ume, according to a DPD release, which also includes a link to a video showing em- ployees installing the drone units and launch platforms. Police Chief Daniel Comeaux has touted the program as a way to shorten the depart- ment’s response times, which lag far be- hind the city’s goals. According to the latest publicly available DPD data, it takes the de- partment an average of close to 50 minutes to dispatch an officer to Priority 2 calls, which include robbery, suicide and major Vera “Velma” Hernandez | UNFAIR PARK | June is Pride Month in North Texas Amazon Drones of all sorts now regularly buzz around North Texas.
