In many ways, this gradual progression paralleled the gay struggle in the United States in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, but was also-in a number of respects-specific to Texas, the Southwest and “Cowtown.”īefore the turn of the nineteenth century and several decades thereafter, documentation of queer life was virtually nonexistent, due in large part to the criminalized status of being openly gay. Beginning with community standards that marked homosexuality as a crime, leading to an underground culture fostered in semi-gay spaces (such as theaters and nightclubs that at times employed female impersonators) and eventually explicitly openly-queer spaces such as gay nightclubs, the multi-decade evolution of LGBT life remained largely invisible until the rise of “out” culture with the community progressing to public activism and eventually modern-day acceptance. Effectively telling the story of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) life in Fort Worth and Tarrant County is a challenge for many reasons, the biggest obstacle being its slow transformation from unspoken secrecy to gradual acceptance and community visibility.
