Delia Jasso has long been an ally to the LGBT community. One of her first major initiatives upon joining the City Council in 2009 was to organize the LGBT Task Force. More recently, she was among the first to put her name to a resolution in support of gay marriage.
The good will her actions fostered in the gay community went up in smoke last night after the Dallas Voice reported that she pulled her name from the gay-marriage resolution.
Omar Narvaez, president of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas and a member of her LGBT Task Force, summed up the feelings of many in a Facebook post excerpted by the Voice.
I am thoroughly disappointed, hurt and surprised. I had a long long long phone call with her tonight, and her reasons are her reasons, and she will have to deal with them. As one of her most staunch supporters, I withdrew any and all support for her. This is not the end all of everything, but merely a bump in the road. Sadly, Dallas will be behind on history.At the end of the day losing my support and the support of so many may mean nothing as she is leaving office, but more than anything she has lost my respect. I have never been so disappointed or felt so betrayed by an elected official and ally as I am now.
See also City Council Likely to Pass Gay Marriage Resolution, and Mayor Rawlings isn't Happy
Jasso's decision leaves the resolution one signature shy of the five that would require Mayor Mike Rawlings to put it on the agenda. Rawlings, the day after announcing his support for the resolution in a sit-down with the Morning News' Jacquielynn Floyd, has decided to pull it from not to place it on the June 12 agenda. (Rawlings' chief of staff, Paula Blackmon, points out that the item was never on the June 12 agenda because the agenda hasn't actually been created yet. Rawlings, who would prefer to spend his time on other matters, will not put it up for discussion.)
Jasso's not talking publicly at this point. She didn't respond to the Voice's requests for comment, and she hasn't yet returned our calls to her office, but the inescapable conclusion is that Jasso's support for LGBT issues was a jaw-droppingly cynical ploy to court gay voters in North Oak Cliff. When those voters instead chose Scott Griggs, she got mad. It's hard to think of any other explanation.
