7 protesters ousted from Fort Worth City Council meeting

By DEANNA BOYD

dboyd@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH -- Seven protesters were removed from Tuesday night's City Council meeting after they repeatedly demanded to be moved up on the agenda to speak about last month's police raid at the Rainbow Lounge.

"Hear us now! Hear us now!" five men chanted in a hallway outside City Council chambers. The men, believed to be members of Queer LiberAction, a Dallas-based gay rights group, were led out of the building by city marshals.

Inside the meeting, the group's founder, Blake Wilkinson, repeatedly interrupted Mayor Mike Moncrief.

"We're sick and tired of being put on the last of the list," Wilkinson said.

Moncrief, at one point banging his gavel to try to regain order, attempted to explain the "house rules" to Wilkinson, stating that the agenda would not be changed but that everyone who wished to speak would be heard.

Speakers representing Fairness Fort Worth, which formed after the June 28 raid on the Rainbow Lounge, a gay nightclub, were scheduled to speak before the council later in the meeting.

"Nobody is trying to put anybody last on the list for any reason," Moncrief insisted. "We have every intention of being here as long as you are. We're not going anywhere. Neither is this staff. We're here to listen to everyone who is here to speak to us."

When Wilkinson kept interrupting, Moncrief gave him a choice of either staying and participating in the meeting or being forced to leave. When he did not quiet down, Moncrief ordered city marshals to remove him. Two marshals then escorted him out by the arm.

A second man was also escorted out of the chambers after repeatedly interrupting the meeting.

Some in the audience applauded the men's removal.

Police chief's update

Earlier Tuesday, in the pre-council meeting, Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead gave the council an update on his investigation of the incident, when officers with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and Fort Worth police department conducted an inspection at the Rainbow Lounge and made six arrests, injuring one patron.

The episode has galvanized Fort Worth's gay community and grabbed national headlines.

Some key points from Halstead's presentation:

-- Internal affairs investigators have conducted interviews with 33 attendees at the Rainbow Lounge and expect to complete the investigation in about 30 days.

-- The Fort Worth police department considers the investigation a priority, taking some internal affairs investigators off other cases to focus on the Rainbow Lounge incident, he said.

-- Halstead expects to update the police department's policy regarding bar raids, after taking input from the community.

"I don't want a police officer to say, 'I've never been in that bar. Let's do an investigation,'" Halstead said.

Soon after the bar incident, Halstead said he decided he needed a police officer to serve as a liaison to the city's gay/lesbian/bisexual community, just as the department has people serving in a similar position for other minority communities. Officer Sara Straten, a neighborhood officer in north Fort Worth and 17-year veteran of the department, volunteered for the position.

"I plan to work hard to heal the community as a whole, both the police department and the GLBT community," Straten told the council.

Moncrief and council members praised Halstead, but said they still wanted the U.S. attorney's office to review the police investigation.

"While June 28 was a difficult day, I'm pleased to hear that we are moving forward and not backward," Moncrief told Halstead. "This city is an inclusive city. This is not an exclusive city."

Both Fairness Fort Worth and the ACLU encouraged their supporters to attend the council meeting. Many were expected to speak their mind to the council. John Nelson, an attorney with Fairness Fort Worth, arranged to make a citizen's presentation about the incident and the investigation.

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