October 2015 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1Texas Lawmaker Sponsors Far-Right Rally Against ‘Far-Left Violence’

2‘Stalwart Battler for Justice’: Remembering Babe Schwartz (1926-2018)

3In Their Rush to Appear Pro-Israel, Texas Lawmakers May Have Stepped on Free Speech

4How Anti-Abortion Activists are Training Their ‘Next Generation of Pro-Life Leaders’

5In New ‘Spray Box’ Decision, Sid Miller Dances Himself Right Back to Where He Started

6The Christian Right’s Politics of Cruelty

Most Recent in Environment:

1The Making of the ‘Magic Valley’

2Bordering on Empty

3Climate Change is Making Texas Summers Worse. Here’s Who That Hurts the Most.

4Out of Sight, Out of Water: The U.S. and Mexico Have Only Just Begun to Grapple with the Aquifers They Share

5Trump’s Border Wall Could Decimate These Rare Species

6The Texas-Mexico Border Wall Comes with a Dangerous, Costly Side Effect: Flooding

Most Recent in Border:

1The Making of the ‘Magic Valley’

2Bordering on Empty

3Out of Sight, Out of Water: The U.S. and Mexico Have Only Just Begun to Grapple with the Aquifers They Share

4The Texas-Mexico Border Wall Comes with a Dangerous, Costly Side Effect: Flooding

5In a Warming World, the Fight for Water Can Push Nations Apart — or Bring Them Together

6100 Ways to Draw a Line

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1In Texas, 3 Out of 4 County Jail Inmates Haven’t Been Convicted of a Crime

2Who Gets Mercy on Death Row? Chris Young’s Execution Raises Questions of Racial Bias

3Zero-Tolerance Policies Meant to Protect Against School Threats May Lead to Misguided Arrests

4Legislation to Abolish ICE Indicates Movement is Gaining Mainstream Traction

5College Degree Options Are Disappearing for Women in Texas Prisons

6After Years of Working with ‘Ritmo’ Detainees, I Know the Inhumane Facility Doesn’t Deserve a Second Chance

Most Recent in Education:

1In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren’t Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

2Amid Record Youth Suicide Attempts, Texas Lags in Prevention Training for Teachers

3Cash-Strapped Rural Texas Schools Look to Universities for Help

4What’s in a Name? Texas SBOE Tentatively Approves ‘Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies’

5SMU Just Lost Its Independent Student Newspaper. Is Your College Next?

6Lawsuit: Texas Art Teacher Suspended Because She Told Students About Her Wife

Most Recent in Health Care:

1How Anti-Abortion Activists are Training Their ‘Next Generation of Pro-Life Leaders’

2Professor Trill

3Tinkering with the Human Heart in ‘Ticker’

4Amid Record Youth Suicide Attempts, Texas Lags in Prevention Training for Teachers

5Will Hurricane Harvey Recovery Sink or Save a Texas City Already Fighting for Survival?

6Documentary Follows a Family’s Fight to Change Texas Law that Turned Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman into an ‘Incubator’

Most Recent in The Interview:

1The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

2Redistricting Guru Michael Li on Texas’ Gerrymandered Maps

3Senfronia Thompson Says #MeToo: Texas Lawmaker on 45 Years of Sexism, Racism at the Capitol

4Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Sanctuary Cities, Police Unions and Tommy Guns

5Meet Nueces County’s New DA, a Self-Professed ‘Mexican Biker Lawyer Covered in Tattoos’

6The Interview: Joaquin Castro Says Texas Democrats are Poised for a Comeback

Most Recent in Books:

1‘American Hate’ Author on Hate Crimes, Free Speech and Alex Jones

2‘I Can’t Date Jesus’ Chronicles Growing up Black, Queer and Catholic in Houston

3Tinkering with the Human Heart in ‘Ticker’

4In ‘Homelands,’ Alfredo Corchado Punctures the Myth of the American Dream

5Announcing the Eighth Annual Observer Short Story Contest

6A Vampire Book That Does Not Suck

Most Recent in Postcards:

1The Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Lower Pecos

4Field Notes from Santa Ana

5The King of Pulp

6Ride Like a Girl

Most Recent in Essay:

1The Day the Windows Shook

2Women’s Work

3I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

4Somewhere It Hides a Well

5Drinking the Kool-Aid at the Garden of Eden

6The Road to Huntsville

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Gentrification in East Austin

2Eye on Texas: Transgender Youth in Texas

3Eye On Texas: Hurricane Harvey

4Eye on Texas: Fantastical Taxidermy

5Eye on Texas: Runners Take on 170-Mile Race in Big Bend

6Eye on Texas: Liberty Hill Hosts Texas Firearms Festival

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

2Parallel Planes

4Poem: ‘Resistance’

5Poem: ‘Screenplay for a Homemade Movie’

6Poem: ‘To Be One with the All’

The Magazine: October 2015

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

Up Against Homophobia

by Ashley Hope Perez

Fri, Sep 25, 2015 |

Queer Brown Voices documents the Latina/o queer community’s encounters with homophobia and intolerance from fellow Latinas/os as well as racial and ethnic marginalization in mainstream LGBT circles.Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

Nueces County Sheriff Wants Internet-Enabled Tablets in Jail

by Patrick Michels

Over 900 Texas School Districts Quietly Ban Anti-LGBT Bullying

Dan Patrick: Cops’ Lives Matter Most of All

by Christopher Hooks

News

Strangest State: Peacocks Run Amok, a Dancing Granny and a Rattlesnake Resurrection

by Patrick Michels

CULTURE

Private Eyes are Watching Beaumont in ‘The Do-Right’

by Nico Vreeland

In ‘My Unsentimental Education,’ a Professor Finds a New Path

Anatomy of a Dylan Fan: ‘In Dylan Town,’ Reviewed

by Michelle Nijhuis

‘The Hundred Year Flood,’ A Search for Self in Prague

The End is Nigh: What Now?

Returning Southern Cuisine to the Women Who Created It

by Nancy Nusser

Go Wild in Suburbia with ‘Texas Lizards: A Field Guide’

by Asher Elbein

Renaissance Tejana: ‘Rant. Chant. Chisme.’

Texas’ Strangest Son: The Exile and Creativity of William Goyen

Poem: ‘Nouns at the Border Are Not to Be Trusted’

by Linda Marie Cossa

Columns

The Grimes Scene: White and Wrong on Racism in Texas

by Andrea Grimes

State of Texas

Are Texas’ ‘Miracle’ High School Grad Rates Just a Magic Trick?

by Patrick Michels

Loon Star State

Ben Sargent’s Loon Star State: Donald Trump’s Wing-Man