FORT WORTH, Texas — Fifteen years after a police raid on a Fort Worth gay bar, some in the city's LGBTQ+ community celebrated the progress made while others fear a backslide in the face of growing political opposition.
The raid by Fort Worth Police and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission on the newly-opened Rainbow Lounge on June 28, 2009, sent one person to the hospital and led to protests in the city's streets.
"We were all just in absolute shock," said Todd Camp, who was at the bar that night. He is the founder of YesterQueer, a group which chronicles queer history in Tarrant County.
"This was very out of the ordinary which is why it was so shocking to so many of us," he said, adding that demands protestors made in the days following have been implemented as policy changes in the years since.
"The level of progress the city has made still astounds me to look back," he said.
But some fear a slide backward as political rhetoric around the LGBTQ+ community becomes more charged across the country and in Fort Worth.
For the first time in years, the city council did not have unanimous support for -- and thus did not issue -- a pride proclamation, councilmember Elizabeth Beck said.
Instead, Beck orchestrated an alternative certificate process by which the council could recognize LGBTQ-serving organizations.
"I felt like it was incredibly important that we as a city recognized Pride month, she said. "They let folks know that our city officials support and recognize their contributions.”
But several city councilmembers declined to sign on to Beck's certificates.
"I think the difference is now that there is a sense of caution," said Jenna Hill, the owner of the Liberty Lounge in Fort Worth's LGBTQ+ neighborhood, called "The District."
Her bar is just steps away from the vacant lot where Rainbow Lounge once sat -- it burned down in a fire in June 2017.
Since the raid, she said her team has felt more wary.
"I think there’s more for us to lose," Hill said. "That may just be in the back of my mind, but our spaces now feel more precious."
She said that feeling drives her to fight for the bar as a community gathering space.
"I want to make sure that we still have places for our community that when you walk in you know you’re loved, you’re heard, you’re safe," Hill said.