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| Don Sneed, a black gay Republican, supported President Bush’s
reelection and opposes marriage rights for gay couples. (Photo courtesy of Dallas
Voice)
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: JOE CREA COMMENTS
 
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a three-foot sword,
according to a news report in the Dallas Voice, a gay newspaper.
Sneed dismissed the EEOC complaint of racism, noting that his organization
is comprised primarily of African Americans.
Regarding the assault charges, Sneed said, “anyone in this country can
make such accusations but must go to court to prove them.”
A hearing for the assault charges has been set for Jan. 6.
“These folks who make these accusations will have to go to court and
prove them,” Sneed said. “You cannot just besmirch a person’s
hard-earned reputation.”
Sneed made national headlines in October when he publicly chastised the Log
Cabin Republicans, a gay partisan group, for not endorsing President Bush’s
reelection. While Sneed’s group opposes a constitutional amendment banning
gay marriage, it does not support marriage rights for gay couples.
In October, Sneed was kicked out of JR’s, a popular gay Dallas nightclub,
after he complained that the men’s restroom needed cleaning, according
to an ALBRC press release.
But Rick Espaillat, media director for JR’s parent company Cavern Enterprises,
said Sneed has a confrontational history with the club and was known to organize
Sunday evening protests outside the bar, a night when the club is patronized
by a large number of black customers. The basis of his protests was that black
customers should be going into a club owned and operated by other blacks, Espaillat
said.
“We have had an antagonistic history with him and don’t welcome
him inside the club,” Espaillat said. “He came into that club looking
for confrontation and sought out a manager who was coincidentally in the process
of seeking him out.”
Sneed claimed his critics do not like the issues he raises, notably “the
great racial divide in America.”
“There is no wonderful happy rainbow of inclusion in this country,”
he said. “When you have a man like me who is not afraid to speak up and
speak out, people will want to silence you. I challenge people who don’t
want to be challenged.”
Sneed also garnered media attention in late October when his group distributed
a DVD entitled the “Emancipation of the Homosexual — The End of
the Gay & Lesbian Rights Movement,” which claims that gays are “misguided”
and argues against marriage rights for same-sex couples.
He said his gr
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