16 July 24 - 30, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Closet Confessions A new study says politics are changing the way LGBTQ+ people date. BY ALYSSA FIELDS A quarter of LGBTQ+ daters say the shifting political scene is changing how they date, and who can blame them? As the White House guts federal websites of any inclusive lan- guage, cuts resources for queer youths and enforces the recognition of only two gen- ders, it makes sense that LGBTQ+ daters would want to avoid closeted homophobes and transphobes. “Politics feels a lot more personal to young LGBTQ people who have made their identity a very central part of who they are and how they present themselves and how they navigate the world,” says Dr. Justin Lehmiller, a researcher tracking how poli- tics is changing queer dating. The study, which surveyed 2,000 singles between the ages of 18 and 91, was a collabo- ration between the Kinsey Institute and DatingNews.com. Roughly 35% of all re- spondents identified as part of the LGBTQ+ community. The findings were concerning. Almost 20% of queer respondents said they were taking more precautions to pro- tect their identity while exploring the dating pool. About 34.6% said they didn’t feel com- fortable disclosing their identity while dat- ing, and 10% said they were less comfortable visiting LGBTQ+ venues. Lehmiller notes that the study does not differentiate results by particular identity, and many of the respondents who are secre- tive about their identity could be bisexual. Bisexual people are the largest subgroup un- der the LGBTQ+ umbrella. “In the last 20 years, LGBTQ rights and acceptance have largely been on a positive trajectory,” says Lehmiller, one of the re- searchers leading the study. “But in the last few years, we’ve seen some backsliding of this, where public opinion polls are actually showing a slight decrease in support for cer- tain LGBTQ issues.” The result, Lehmiller says, is a genera- tional gap in portions of the LGBTQ+ com- munity that are openly out about their sexuality. About 44% of Gen Z queer singles say they don’t feel safe being open about their identity while dating, compared to just 5% of LGBTQ singles over 65. Lehmiller says the reason younger gener- ations are less open about their identities is “multifactorial,” but the changing economic landscape and mass rollback of progress are early explanations. “When you’re looking at young adults, Generation Z, who are in this very finan- cially precarious position on top of the polit- ical environment that we’re living in, there’s anxiety on multiple levels,” he says. “You’ve got the concerns about your personal safety, but then also in terms of your future and how you’re going to navigate that. It is a very different situation for younger versus older folks based on multiple factors.” But he also says the current moment is only temporary, and that the community has faced eras of fluctuating persecution before. “With the community, you’ve always seen this on a pendulum where things go back and forth, and these are hard-fought battles that take time in terms of advancing rights and causes.” Our local politicians have matched the moves of the federal government as closely as possible, resulting in a growing number of LGBTQ+ community members of all ages fleeing the state. According to Lehmiller’s study, 21% of Gen Z LGBTQ+ daters have moved to friendlier cities. Most large cities, even those below the Mason-Dixon Line, have a historically gay neighborhood, offering reprieve to the com- munities in less accepting locales. But Lehmiller says even gayborhoods are dwin- dling as time goes on. “[Gayborhoods] were designed inten- tionally to create a safe space and a sense of community for this minority group,” he says. “They serve their purpose well and also help in terms of creating political organization and strength within the community. But in the last couple of decades, we’ve actually seen a lot of these neighborhoods start to dwindle or disappear.” Take that as your cue to head down to the Cedar Springs Strip for a Tito’s shot on Texas Tuesday at Round-Up soon. ▼ OPENINGS Turning a New Page Fine Print magazine shop in Oak Cliff is opening the doors to a glossy world. BY SIMON PRUITT Y ou can call it a cliche. You can call it an exaggeration. But when you’re talking with Crystal Cobb inside Fine Print, her newly opened magazine shop in Oak Cliff, you get the sense that her entire life has led up to this. Tucked away on Madison Avenue, just steps away from the Texas Theatre, the all-white interior of Fine Print manages to bal- ance chic and underground in its own way. The shop houses an equal inventory of international rarities for collectors and entry point publications for someone who just stumbled into the shop. For some of the more popular titles, like Japanese menswear magazine Brutus, and the British culture magazine The Face, Cobb stayed up until the early hours of the morning to lobby and secure copies with international publishers. Fine Print is not a street-side magazine stand with cheap tab- loids and thin local works. If anything, it leans closer to a luxury store. Beautiful posters and prints hang above a collection of glossy magazines that make you feel bougie even looking at them. Everything is in its latest issue, save for a small curated vin- tage selection in the back. Our first visit yielded two contempo- rary film magazines, Little White Lies and A Rabbit’s Foot, neither of which are in circulation anywhere in Dallas. It’s those same things that everyone says as they enter Fine Print: “We’re so happy this is here.” “We never thought Dallas would have a magazine shop.” “We’ve al- ways wanted something like this.” Cobb is North Texas born and raised, spending her life surrounded by and ob- sessed with magazines, but without access to many of them beyond the usual options. Now, she is a web designer by day, art and magazine curator by night, and a part-time professor at the University of Texas at Ar- lington. “This is probably the longest-standing re- lationship I’ve had,” Cobb says of magazines. “It started as a child because it’s all we had. We didn’t have the internet. If I wanted to get my hair done, you’re gonna point to which one you want in a magazine. It never stopped. When I got into music, when I got into fashion, it was always around.” She attributes most of her artistic perspective to her relation- ship with her artist father, Otis. “That’s how we spent time together,” she says. “Going to gal- leries, or his other artist friend’s or bookshops and art supply stores. This is like the house I grew up in — it had art all over the walls. If you saw pictures of my bedroom in the ’80s and ’90s, it was wall-to-wall to ceiling posters. There was no white on the walls. My mom used to get mad [because] it was a fire hazard. Until I’m saying this, I don’t think I realized this is literally my child- hood. I just recreated it like posters all over the place.” Cobb’s col- lection of magazines eventually grew to thousands, but her love for the craft came to an abrupt halt in 2012 when her father died. Her life had changed, and she felt the need to dramatically alter her life on top of it, as if to take back control of the steering wheel. In doing so, she threw away a sizable piece of her collection, and nearly stopped pur- suing them altogether. “I got a little angry at life,” she says. “I think my creative world just crashed down on it. I felt like I threw the big- gest part of myself away.” But almost like a story of true love, Cobb’s visits to New York City, where shops like her’s are far less uncom- mon, re-centered her. She began to work on a business plan for Fine Print, as both a much-needed addition to the Dallas arts scene and as something of a tribute to her life surrounded by art. “I had a loss of community,” she says. “One of my friends was like, ‘You build a shop just so you can make friends.’ I kind of took that and ran with it. What’s wrong with that? I do want to be around other creatives. And there’s not a magazine place, a cre- ative source or hub where you can get inspiration.” Currently, Fine Print is only open on weekends from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sun- day. For the artist, the art lover or just the curious Dallasite want- ing to check out something that has long been missing in the city, a stop at Fine Print is surely in order. “I learned everything through magazines and books,” Cobb says. “Maybe it’s a little vain, but I just felt like we need to come back to what was originally there for us. As a creative, there’s just so much you can find in magazines.” ▼ Culture Kaspar Grinvalds/Adobe Stock Fine Print owner Crystal Cobb. Courtesy of Fine Print
