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Speech before City Council 20221026 – Ed Sebesta 10/25/2022 Toppers are used to substitute a token gesture for a substantial action when minority groups attempt to rename the white racialized landscape as explained in a paper given to you. The Dallas Morning News has been pushing toppers to stop the renaming of streets. I went to photograph the token Don Maison signs as part of documenting how the Gay community was being exploited to normalize the use of toppers to block street renaming. What I found was a travesty as documented in the report given you. The only thing done right was the name wasn’t misspelled and the sign wasn’t upside down. Though I must admit that this botched job will be useful to discredit Dallas’ attempt to use toppers to block street renaming. However, I do have to bring it before City Council for three reasons. First editors will ask if I notified city hall. But more importantly, this Don Maison appears to have a been a good person and you are urinating on his memory with this botched installation. Further it is an insult to the Gay community. It may be acceptable to the Pre-Stonewall leadership of Dallas which brags how it kept Gay liberation out of Dallas in D Magazine, but I don’t think it is going to be acceptable to the Gay community at large which is post-Stonewall, indeed Post-Lil Nas X and thinks Gay liberation is a good thing. It maybe acceptable to some that Riverfront Blvd. was stolen from the Latino Community and denied the name Cesar Chavez, and that a Santos Rodriguez Street has been denied. It may be acceptable to some to have the hybrid monstrosity of a Lamar Botham Jean Street Boulevard instead of getting the rest of Lamar renamed. It isn’t going to be acceptable to the Gay community to have this travesty. Also, it should be a real street renaming. Bowser was a Klansman. Knight dealt in slaves. Hood Street is named after Confederate Gen. Hood. Throckmorton was a white supremacist governor of Texas. Then there is the Lee Parkway that needs renaming. Don’t scam the Gay community with toppers. Don’t exploit the Gay community to defend the white racialized landscape. Don’t subject Don Maison to insult.