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Saturday, July 11, 2015 • Vol. 60 • No. 36
Local church embraces marrying local LGBT couples By Kim Hogstrom For The Leader
About Us 3500 East T.C. Jester Blvd Suite A (713) 686-8494 news@theleadernews.com www.theleadernews.com Facebook/THE LEADER.
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On June 26, the US Supreme Court passed down a historic ruling in favor of marriage equality, paving the way for many in the LGBT community to tie the knot with their life partners. For two Houstonians marrying at a local church, the news couldn’t have come sooner. For Billy Sullivan, 65, and Vern Johnson, 47, it was a long, eight-year wait to walk the aisle. After the ruling was announced, the two men quickly made their way to the North Shepherd Court House, and applied for a marriage license. On July 4, the two were married in 90-year-old Bethel United Church of Christ, located at 1107 Shepherd Dr., with their dog Duchess acting as the ring bearer and with many friends in attendance.
“We were overjoyed with the Supreme Court ruling,” Sullivan said. “We were very surprised and did not want to wait. We got married as soon as we could because we didn’t want to risk the possibility of appeals or amendments. We didn’t trust Texas. Neither of us ever thought we would see this in our lifetime.” Bethel United Church of Christ has functioned as a welcoming house of worship for members of the LGBT community for years, which isn’t the case in all the United Church of Christ congregations. “There are 14 UCC affiliates in Houston, and the beauty of our denomination is that we are locally governed,” Teddy Kissell, acting interim pastor, said. “We reflect the community. There are four of us in Houston performing same sex weddings. We four are See Marriage, P. 2A
Contributed Photo Billy Sullivan (right) and Vern Johnson (center) joined the growing number of men and women tying the knot with their partners across the nation.
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Three arrested after drive-by in Heights area Three men ended up behind bars Wednesday morning after they allegedly led police on a chase after opening fire on a home on Cortlandt and West 37th Street. The Leader news partner KHOU was at the scene early Wednesday morning with photos and video of the aftermath. According to the report, two people were inside of the home while about 30 bullets were fired into the residence from a dark sedan just after 2:30 a.m. A Houston Police Department representative said officers in the area were conducting patrols when they spotted the vehicle turn on 37th Street from North Main. The officers then saw the vehicle slow down and heard multiple gunshots from the direction of the vehicle. The vehicle then allegedly sped from the location toward Yale Street. Officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop, however the driver allegedly refused to stop and continued to flee at a high rate of speed. The driver attempted to cross the median on Yale near Tidwell where the vehicle crashed and the three occupants took off on foot. Officers immediately captured the driver, identified as Joseph Davis, 26, and he currently has pending charges of deadly conduct, felony evading and felon in possession of a firearm. The two other suspects were arrested a short time later with help from the
St. Joseph puts confusion to rest As part of this week’s contributed content in Our Health, officials with St. Joseph Medical Center in the Heights are reaching out to members of the community with a simple message - although the Select Specialty Hospital has closed, St. Joseph remains committed to serving area residents.
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Houston reaching out to cyclists for overhaul of city-wide Bike Plan By Jonathan Garris jgarris@theleadernews.com
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Red, White & Proud The Waltrip High School Ram Band returned from Washington D.C. this week after its performance at the National Independence Day Parade. While exhausting, students and parents alike say they have a new sense of pride in their accomplishments thanks to the eye-opening experience.
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While cyclists and motorists appear to forever be at odds with one another across Houston, city officials are hoping the region’s first comprehensive bike plan in more than 20 years will help modernize safe passageways for cyclists for safer, happier commutes. The Houston Bike Plan, a year-long effort to update the city’s Comprehensive Bikeway Plan adopted in 1993, kicked off this year and officials have been reaching out to everyone from hardcore cyclists, to morning commuters and families for input. Cathy Halka, a planner leader within the Planning & Development Department for the City of Houston, said the program just wrapped up its public meetings throughout June and online surveys will be available until July 20. While Halka says an inventory of public comments hasn’t been completed, many living around The Leader area have taken to the Bicycle Advisory Committee’s interactive map where users can pin comments and suggestions for officials. Among some of the ideas put forward by cyclists online include connecting the Heights bike trail to the Buffalo Bayou bike trails, adding a dedicated bike lane on Sawyer between Buffalo Bayou and the Heights bike trails and a desire to utilize Montrose Boulevard as a north-south connector for
Photo by Jonathan Garris (Top) Cyclists are enjoying improvements to the White Oak Bayou and other areas, but more improvements are coming to trails across the city. (Bottom) Some cyclists and motorists are hoping the city will also clarify what parts of the roadways should be occupied by bicycles and cars specifically.
the Heights, Montrose and Rice areas. “Some of the things we have heard is that people have a clear need for a better connection between Montrose and the Heights as well as a desire to connect the bayou trails,” Halka said. “We’ve also seen comments related to creating better clarity on streets where people on bikes and those driving cars should be specifically.” Changes like these represent an exhaustive effort to collect as much data as possible to update the aging bikeway system. For most people, Houston is a far different beast See Bike, P. 2A
See Arrest, P. 2A
Contributed Photo by KHOU Police investigate the vehicle belonging to three suspects believed to have participated in the drive-by shooting at a home in the Heights area. All three men were arrested and the driver currently faces multiple pending charges.
Leader-area sculptor goes down the rabbit hole By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com In July of 1865, Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) published a tale he first told to the three daughters of Henry Liddell during a boat ride down the River Thames in London. One hundred and fifty years later, Leader-area sculptor Bridgette Mongeon is bringing renewed attention to Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland through a bronze monumental sculpture of the Mad Hatter Tea Party. Lucky for Houstonians, the permanent site of the sculpture, once finished, will be in Bellaire’s Evelyn Park, itself still a work in progress. The Jerry and Maury Rubenstein Foundation is the sculpture’s patron in honor of their mother Evelyn. Now, with the sculpture’s home secured, Mongeon See Sculpture, P. 8A
Contributed Photo from www.creativesculpture.com Bridgette Mongeon’s 3D renderings of her sculpture show an attention to detail indicative of three years of hard work.
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