Posted on 05/10/2010 12:33:01 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Eli Olivarez realized the only way to achieve the equality he wanted was to work for it.
As a lifelong Democrat frustrated by what he viewed as repeated infringements on gay rights in Texas, Olivarez formed the Rio Grande Valley chapter of the Stonewall Democrats, a national organization that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.
Then he set to work.
In the year since he formed the chapter, Olivarez, 53, has forged the group into a strong voice for the Valley’s LGBT community. But if he’s successful in his bid for a seat on the State Democratic Executive Committee, Olivarez will have a greater role in shaping his party’s agenda as the first openly gay man elected to the board.
“By having a seat at the table, that’s going to give you an even bigger voice,” said Olivarez, who runs an interior design company. “If you don’t have an opportunity to make an impact, you can’t and you won’t.”
Olivarez is running to represent Senate District 20 on the committee, which carries out party activities between state conventions and consists of elected representatives for each of the state’s 31 Senate districts. Another Stonewall Democrat, Ricardo Contreras, is mulling a run for a Senate District 27 seat.
The state committee bids are a small part of the role that the Stonewall Democrats have steadily built in the county’s Democratic Party in the past year.
With the ranks of the county’s Stonewall Democrats topping 50 people, members took active roles in the party’s convention for the state Senate district seats in Hidalgo County. The group shepherded through resolutions in favor of repealing the state’s ban on same-sex marriages, passing non-discrimination legislation and three other issues of importance to the LGBT community.
And in June, about 15 percent of the county’s delegates to the Texas Democratic State Convention will be from the Stonewall Democrats.
The group’s influence in the party has been a welcome addition as it has worked on civil rights issues for everyone, not just the LGBT community, said Dolly Elizondo, chairwoman of the county’s Democratic Party. A resolution supported by Stonewall Democrats at the convention calls for statewide standards for the prevention of bullying and harassment in Texas schools.
“Policy should not be set in place just for the few. It should be for everyone,” Elizondo said. “We all want the same dignity and rights afforded to everyone.”
At its core, the Stonewall Democrats’ agenda is to promote equal rights for all segments of society, said Contreras, an officer in the Valley’s chapter who works in county government. While the chapter has kept a broad vision of equality, it also has worked on gay awareness in a part of the state where those LGBT issues were often ignored.
Building up the Valley’s chapter won’t always be easy in an area of Texas that has a reputation as a Democratic stronghold but which remains socially conservative, said Bill Ruppert, who is in the real estate business and serves as the chapter’s treasurer. But without vocal people working on those issues, he doubts anything would have been accomplished at all.
“We believe that everyone should have equal rights regardless of race, color, creed or sexual preference,” Ruppert said. “Everyone deserves equal rights and equal respect.”
The fact is that the LGBT is not at all for civil rights but is instead for forcing their perverted morality upon other people and our children as well. They are against giving all people equal representation on issues of how sexuality is dealt with in public and instead seek to dictate their views to all. The LGBT alliance is a fascist entity that cannot not be trusted and should be strongly opposed by anyone who loves freedom and does not want to see our children and future generations become corrupted. If they are not stopped then the next agenda they will promote will be to dictate the age of consent.
Folks using your name along with queers ping.
Well, knock me over with a flaming feather, I do believe this life form has broken free of a crippling stereotype.
So much for Mexican morality they pretend to have.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
“We all want the same dignity and rights afforded to everyone.”
And he has them: he can marry any single woman who will have him. What’s the problem? And why don’t I see Hidalgo County as a bastion of homosexuality?
Colonel, USAFR
Gay Latinos trying to take over Texas.. wow.
Just more of the Something-for-nothing tribe!
Ain’t got nothing against gays, inferior decorators are another issue entirely though.
Norm on Cheers pretended to be gay in order to get a job from a yuppie couple.
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