Everything is Crazier in Texas

If you look back, Texas has never really wanted to be a part of the United States. Instead of becoming a state, it first tried being an independent republic. After deciding to join the Union in 1845, Texas jumped on the Confederate bandwagon in 1861. Talk has come up from time to time about declaring its independence, just recently after legislators balked at stimulus funds from Washington. Of course, they love to accept pork and other projects, but when a Black Democrat gives them something.. well, that is different.

I think they should go.

What prompted this Texas rant is the recent raid on a gay bar in Fort Worth, on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Raid and Riots in New York that spawned the modern gay rights movement. Seems in the separate world of Texas, raids on bars are still common place. Now I live in the hardly progressive state of Missouri, but in all my nights in bars here (and trust me there have been many in the past 26 years I have been in and around Missouri) I have never witnessed a raid looking for drunks. Hello! There they are.

According to news reports, Fort Worth (a bastion of Texas mentality) police went to the newly opened Rainbow Lounge with Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents early Sunday as part of routine alcoholic beverage code inspections. They first went to two other bars, where 10 people were arrested, I assume for being drunk.

At the Rainbow, they encountered two drunk people who made “sexually explicit movements” toward officers and another who either grabbed or grabbed at (the reports vary) an agent’s groin, according to the police report.

Oddly, despite patrons being thrown to the ground, trampled and injured (one with brain damage, police said he was drunk and fell, patrons said he was thrown to the ground), no one was arrested for assault but about half a dozen people were arrested on charges of public intoxication, according to police records.

Yes, in a bar.

Lots of my gay friends love Texas and either have moved there, visit or dream of a life in the big D or some place like that. Texas may be a beautiful state, Dallas may be a wonderful city, the beaches sandy and warm and San Antonio tony and chic; but until Texas decides to join the rest of the world in civilizing its laws (such as the draconian and blatantly unfair "Law of Parties" which is essentially guilt by association), and moves into at least the 20th century in fairness, I will stay right here...thank you.