I would tell anyone that if you have the slightest inkling to make a change, do it. It has offered solace during uncertain times. Since moving to Texas, music has been very cathartic. But I do feel like people pay more attention to you here.
It can be hard to make friends as an adult. I’m Latino and gay, but there haven’t been any instances where I felt like I wasn’t accepted. And people are very proud to be from this state. I’m not used to having friendly neighbors. I genuinely felt threatened until I realized they were just making conversation. I remember the first time I went to a grocery store here, someone started chatting with me. People are really friendly here in Texas. But I didn’t see myself staying there - I felt like my personal growth needed to happen outside of where I grew up. My family in Southern California is a big part of my life. I got lucky, because once the pandemic hit, the company began furloughing employees at the lower level. THE CROSSROADS CONTINUES TO SERVE THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND THE CITY OF DALLAS AS A SYMBOL OF SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ACTION AMONG THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY.I work for a major airline, and an opportunity opened up here in Dallas to become an instructor. WITH THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE AIDS CRISIS IN THE 1980s, THE CROSSROADS BECAME NOT ONLY AN ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT, BUT ALSO A CENTER FOR POLITICAL ACTIVISM, SOCIAL SERVICES AND MEDICAL TESTING.ĪS THE HISTORIC HEART OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY OF DALLAS, THE CROSSROADS REMAINS THE LOCATION OF THE OLDEST GAY BUSINESSES IN THE CITY AND AS THE PRIMARY GATHERING POINT FOR LGBTQ POLITICAL AND SOCIAL EVENTS, INCLUDING THE ALAN ROSS FREEDOM PARADE. MORE GAY-OWNED BUSINESSES AND BARS FOLLOWED, AND BY THE END OF THE 1970s, THE MAJORITY OF BUSINESSES IN THE AREA CATERED TO THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY. GAYS AND LESBIANS BEGAN MOVING TO THE AREA, DRAWN TO ITS BOHEMIAN IMAGE AND PICTURESQUE ARCHITECTURE. THE AREA SURROUNDING THE INTERSECTION OF THROCKMORTON STREET AND CEDAR SPRINGS ROAD HAS BEEN CONSIDERED THE CENTER OF THE DALLAS LGBTQ COMMUNITY SINCE THE EARLY 1970s AND IS KNOWN AS "THE GAY CROSSROADS" OR "THE CROSSROADS." IN THE LATE 1960s AND EARLY 1970s, THE CROSSROADS WAS A MAGNET FOR THE CITY'S COUNTERCULTURE MOVEMENTS. For decades it has been a place where men and women gather to celebrate when the news is good and come for help when things get bad.Ĭedar Springs at Throckmorton Street, where JR's sits, has always been especially important. The intersection had been known as The Crossroads since the late 1960s, but its legacy was forever cemented in 1980 with the opening of the namesake market there that became the community's bookstore and meeting place. We know it as the gayborhood, or what's left of it - the Resource Center, JR's, Sue Ellen's, Station 4 and the Round-Up Saloon.
He reached out to Doty and Robert Emery and Sam Childers of the Dallas Way, keepers of this city's LGBT history, who penned the necessary narrative, submitted the paperwork and raised the money for the marker.įor most of us, I imagine, this city's LGBT history begins and ends in Oak Lawn, along Cedar Springs, where people march in parades and in protests.
But in 2016 Dwayne Jones, a former Preservation Dallas executive director now in Galveston, thought it time to tell the "undertold story" of Dallas' LGBT community.