It’s June 1. Happy Pride month, Oak Cliff.
Our neighborhood is rich with LGBTQIA history.
AIDS Services of Dallas was established here in 1987 to house and help people living with AIDS, and it’s still operating on Zang Boulevard. There’s also Prsim Health North Texas, the healthcare provider whose fundraiser Life Walk turned 30 last year, is also based here.
Oak Cliff is the HQ of many LGBTQIA-owned small businesses.
And our neighborhood has fostered gay and lesbian politicians. It’s easy to forget how far we’ve come, considering the City of Dallas now has its seal on a Pride flag. But former City Councilman Ed Oakley was the first openly gay person to make it into a runoff election for Mayor of Dallas in 2006, the same year Lupe Valdez was elected Dallas County Sheriff. She was the first openly lesbian sheriff in the United States.
Watch them tell their stories in the videos below, courtesy of The Dallas Way oral history project.
