EDGE Philadelphia

The president of the principal LGBT organization in Ft. Worth, Texas, was found dead in a park in what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Fort Worth Police Department has implemented diversity training classes and hired a full-time LGBT liaison since its officers and others from the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission conducted a controversial raid on the Rainbow Lounge on June 28, 2009.

As Queer LiberAction’s Joe Remsik prepares to meet with Fort Worth police chief Jeff Halstead next month, the department is slated to hire a permanent LGBT liaison.

Members of the Metroplex-based Queer LiberAction, which is known for their aggressive blend of street theater and political rhetoric, complained counter-protestors from a nearby church threatened them at a Nov. 1 protest in Fort Worth.

Queer LiberAction and other area LGBT organizations continue to organize protests and other actions in the wake of a long-awaited report that concluded Fort Worth police officers who raided the Rainbow Lounge earlier this year did not use excessive force. The department’s decision to discipline only three of the seven officers who participated in the sting--including a one-day suspension for the sargeant who supervised it--have sparked further outrage.

The Ft. Worth, Texas, Police have an officer to deal with LGBT issues as part of outreach after the disastrous Stonewall Anniversary bar raid.

Members of Queer LiberAction held a "kiss-in" at the Fort Worth Stockyards on Oct. 17, but the event took on a more somber and even confrontational tone after protestors and even Cowtown Coliseum Rodeo manager Hub Baker implied gays and lesbians should "get a whipping" if they "didn’t behave right among cowboys."

City Councilmember Kathleen Hicks, in whose district the Rainbow Lounge is located, has joined others who have called for an independent investigation into the conduct of the officers who conducted the raid.

Forth Worth’s mayor has apologized for a June raid on a Texas gay bar that sparked claims of brutality and procedure violations.

Queer Liberaction and other groups plan to hold a rally outside the Tarrant County Courthouse in Fort Worth on Saturday.