2008 Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade takes place Sunday

by Tammye Nash of Dallas Voice

Former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller and leatherman and former nightclub owner Mark Frazier are grand marshals for the 25th annual Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade that takes place on Sunday, Sept. 21.

Gay former Marine Jeff Key is honorary grand marshal for the event, and Youth First Texas is the sole parade beneficiary this year.

Miller, who in 2002 was honorary grand marshal and the first sitting Dallas mayor to ride in the gay Pride parade, said that she is “extremely flattered” to have been asked to be grand marshal, “especially since I am no longer mayor. It is a real honor to be grand marshal in such an important year.”

Miller said she rode in the parade in 2002 “because I was asked to,” and because the Dallas LGBT community was “very pivotal in me being elected mayor. I had two people on my executive committee, Kathy Hewitt and Ann Fay, who were gay. Another person who was instrumental in my election was Mark Shekter.”

Miller added, “The first thing, literally the first, that I worked on after my election was getting the non-discrimination ordinance passed. It was just a natural thing for me to want to be in the gay Pride parade. I wanted to be in the parade.”

Miller also said “a lot of the credit” for not only her participation in the parade that year but also for the strongest contingent of Dallas City Council members and city officials to ever ride in the parade is due to gay former Council member Ed Oakley.”

She also said that the parade has become an important event not just for the LGBT community but for the city as a whole.

“I think there are lot of people who come in from outside Dallas for the parade. The gay Pride parade is one of the best-attended in the city. The St. Patrick’s Day parade and the Pride parade always draw the most people,” Miller said. “It brings a lot of people out; it’s very fun and it’s a great thing to help promote Dallas.”

Frazier also said that he is very honored to have been chosen as grand marshal.

“When they first asked me, it was really a shock. I mean, there are so many people in our community who could have been chosen,” Frazier said.

To Frazier, the parade’s biggest significance is its role as a joyful celebration for a community that continues to struggle for equality.

“It’s a celebration of our lives and our lifestyles,” he said. “It’s also a reflection of where we were, where we are today and where we will be tomorrow.

“Every year you see the difference, how the parade and the community have grown,” Frazier continued. “It really has gone from being just a celebration for our community to being a celebration for everyone. Politicians, clubs, organizations — you see them all in the parade now. It shows we are growing. We are making inroads toward acceptance.”

Miller started her professional life as a journalist, working as a staff writer for The Miami Herald and The Dallas Morning News before becoming a columnist for The New York Daily News and then The Dallas Times Herald.

In 1991, Miller became an investigative reporter for the Dallas Observer and then a columnist for D Magazine. She left journalism for politics and in 1998 was elected to her first term on the Dallas City Council. She was elected mayor in 2002 and held the office until 2007 when she chose not to run again.

Miller is currently director of projects in Texas for Colorado-based Summit Power. She is married to lawyer and former Texas State Rep. Steve Wolens. They have two daughters and one son.

Frazier has been active in the leather community and the LGBT community for more than 20 years and has held various local, regional and international leather titles. Among his awards are Pantheon of Leather’s Man of the Year Award in 1996, Pantheon’s Reader’s Choice Man of the Year in 1995, the National Leather Association-International’s 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award, Pantheon’s South Central Award for 2004 and Pantheon’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

He is a member of NLA-International, NLA-Dallas and Discipline Corps, and is an Associate Member of the Chicago Hellfire Club, and he has held leadership positions in the Dallas chapter of the Texas Gay Rodeo Association, the Discipline Corps of Dallas, NLA-Dallas, NLA-International, Pegasus Slowpitch Softball Association and Dallas Diablos Rugby Football Club.

Frazier retired in 2007 after 13 years as co-owner of the Dallas Eagle leather bar and Dallas Woody’s and has gone back to school to get a master’s degree in health care and certification as a registered nurse.

He is also co-owner SouthPlains Leather Event, the International Master/slave contest, Mr. Texas Leather Contest and the International Leather Sir/boy and Community Bootblack Contests.

Key, while still a lance corporal in the Marine Corps, came out as a gay man on CNN where he also spoke out against the war in Iraq. He has since been discharged from the Marines and is now working as a playwright and activist. He is also the subject of the award-winning documentary “Semper Fi: One Man’s Journey.”

Youth First Texas is the only non-profit organization in Dallas committed exclusively to providing social services, educational opportunities and recreational activities to LGBT and questioning youth ages 14-22.

Youth First provided services for 1,000 LGBTQ youth in 2007, and between 125 and 150 youth come to the organization’s center to access services and activities, according to Bob Miskinis, director of programs for and one of the co-founders of Youth First Texas.