YesterQueer

22/08/2026

I've carried this photo to TGRA’s annual rodeo for years, hoping someone would recognize a face. These are early members of the Fort Worth chapter of the Texas Gay Rodeo Association — and until this week, I couldn't tell you who or when.

It came to me years ago in a box of keepsakes after the death of Billie Moon (No. 15). I always sensed it mattered. I just couldn't prove it.

Today I stumbed across some prints from that same roll and found a caption handwritten on the back of one. It's not complete, but it's the closest we've come. It was taken March 1, 1987, outside the 651 Bar on South Jennings — the building that later became the Rainbow Lounge, before a 2017 fire took it.

Let us know if you can fill in any blanks or anyone is misidentified: 1. Gerald Ford (former 651 manager), 2. Donnie ??, 3. Dannie ??, 4. Roy Boy, 5. John Clizbee, 6. Unknown, 7. Marvin Casey, 8. Michial Robinson, 9. Keith Barbee, 10. Carolyn Ho**er, 11. Louise Murphy, 12. Jack Guthrie, 13. Sue Martin, 14. Rosie Vines, 15. Billie Moon, 16. Unknown (photo says “Crystal”), 17. Unknown, 18. Tom ??, 19. Bob Jackson, 20. Rod Rodriguez

Every person here mattered — and some, we suspect, we lost early to the AIDS crisis that had just started to ravage Fort Worth a couple of years earlier. Without names, this is just a nice photo of strangers in cowboy hats. With names, it's history.

If you're sitting on photos of your own q***r community, do us all a favor: write down who's in them. Someday, someone doing this work is going to need it.

19/08/2026

There's a nondescript little white house off the I-35W access road at Allen Street that I can't drive past without something in my chest tightening. In the early 1990s, it was home to Over the Hill, Inc., a street outreach program doing HIV education and testing with a focus on drug users. The testing was anonymous, not just confidential. There was no name attached to your results, just a number, which mattered enormously in an era when a positive test could cost you your job, your housing, or your family.

I got tested for the first time there in the early ’90s. I remember the sketchiness of the neighborhood, the invasive (yet non-judgmental) questions about my sexual activity, the quick prick of the blood draw and the two interminable weeks that followed — waiting for results that could impact the rest of your life.

I got my answer along with some post-counseling advice ignored in my exuberance for having received a negative result. Plenty of people who walked through that same door didn't get the answer they were hoping for. Both outcomes happened inside that little house, and it's now a decaying reminder of a darker, earlier era of the AIDS crisis.

Fittingly, today is the anniversary of one small turning point in that era: On Aug. 18, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Ryan White CARE Act, the first major federally funded program for people living with HIV/AIDS. Ryan White was an Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS in 1984 through a tainted hemophilia treatment and died at 18, but not before changing how the country saw people with this disease.

11/08/2026

New Orleans historian, writer, and LGBTQ+ advocate
Frank Perez has died at 58. Perez dedicated much of his life to documenting LGBTQ+ history in New Orleans.

29/07/2026

I was wonderfully surprised to have been recognized by Imperial Court monarchs King Father 1 of the Americas Terry Sidie and Queen Mother 1 of the Americas, Nicole the Great, for an Outstanding Activist medal along with a $1,000 grant for YesterQueer. The honors, presented this weekend at Coronation 46 of the Imperial Court de Fort Worth/Arlington, were both unexpected and greatly appreciated. Congratulations to this year’s newest monarchs, Regent Emperor 46 Jason Bernard and Empress 46 Jerica Tailar!

29/07/2026

Arlington’s Bobby Quave posed for the cover of This Week in Texas (aka “The TWiT”) in the May 23, 1986 issue. Sadly, Quave passed away three years later. You can read his obituary at texasobituaryproject.org/092989quave.html. Explore the complete run of TWiTs at J.D. Doyle’s incredible online archive site at https://houstonlgbthistory.org/.

26/07/2026

We were honored to display many of the items in our archive representing the Imperial Court de Fort Worth/Arlington at this year’s Coronation XLIV. I’ve met so many wonderful people and we’ve already received several donated items for our archive with promises of more to come. The work continues!

22/07/2026

We’re sad to share the news of the recent passing of Tony “Beth” Eads. Tony was elected the second Emperor of the Imperial Court de Fort Worth/Arlington (which celebrates its Coronation XLVI on Saturday). Friends and family will gather for a celebration of life at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 22, 2026, at the Redd Dawg Saloon, 3321 E. Lancaster Ave. Attendees are invited to bring a covered dish, and share stories of Tony with her longtime partner, Robin Michele Babcock, and other friends. The bar offers BYOL set-ups and beer.

08/07/2026

I was sad to read about the passing of actress Louise Lasser at age 87 yesterday. Lasser was the star of Norman Lear’s mid-1970s experimental soap opera/sitcom “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” Not only did the show feature one of TV’s first gay couples (who were even trying to get married!), it was one of the earliest gay bar watch party shows, attracting audiences for weekly catch-up screenings at the 500 Club in Fort Worth long before other bar favorites like “Dynasty,” “Queer As Folk,” “The L Word” and “Ru Paul’s Drag Race.” Sadly, the original 500 Club building was recently razed to make way for expansion of the Moncrief Cancer Center on Magnolia Avenue, but thankfully, YesterQueer was able to rescue a few artifacts for our archive before the bulldozers moved in.

27/06/2026

Really enjoyed recording this piece for KERA today. Please come and check out the exhibit tomorrow at Amphibian Stage during Trinity Pride 6-11 p.m. and escape the heat with a little fun in the dark.

Q Cinema started as a film discussion group in Todd Camp's living room. As part of Trinity Pride this weekend, he's bringing his memories of the festival out of the archives.

26/06/2026

We hope to see you tomorrow. The exhibit is up and the curtain rises tomorrow at 6 p.m.!