Almost one year after the Texas Historical Commission approved a city of Fort Worth application for a historical marker recognizing the city’s LGBTQ history, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare shut down the project with a letter to the commission demanding that the application be rescinded, according to documents obtained by the Fort Worth Report.
Elected officials, former city staff, a former county historical commission chair and LGBTQ community leaders told the Report the county judge acted outside of his purview and warned that rescinding the application marked a shift in the standard process for recognizing local history.
In O’Hare’s letter to the state commission, dated May 12, 2025, he demanded the application be rescinded because it did not follow the Tarrant County Historical Commission’s “proper and thorough approval process” before being sent to the state for approval. Historical marker applications, whether submitted by localities or individuals, must be reviewed by the county’s historical commission before going to the Texas Historical Commission for approval.
“Due to (the) nature of Marker 24324, such a deviation from standard protocol is particularly concerning,” O’Hare’s letter to the Texas Historical Commission stated. “Allowing the marker to proceed under these circumstances risks generating unnecessary controversy and undermining the credibility of both the local and state historical commissions.”
Tim O'Hare's letter to the Texas Historical Commission Download
The Tarrant County Historical Commission is guided by the Texas Historical Commission’s marker procedures and does not have any written policies of its own for historical marker applications, the Tarrant County district attorney’s office confirmed to the Report. The commission’s local bylaws state that the body shall review historical marker applications “to determine the accuracy, appropriateness and completeness of the application.”
O’Hare wrote that county approval for the marker was given “unilaterally” by a single member of the county’s historical commission — an action he argued “bypassed established precedent intended to ensure fair, transparent, and collective review of historical marker submissions.”
Coletta Strickland served as the Tarrant County Historical Commission’s chair over historical marker applications at the time of the city’s application for the LGBTQ historical marker in July 2024. She denies O’Hare’s assertion that the application process was violated.
“There was nothing untoward or out of the ordinary that was done for this application,” Strickland said.
Fort Worth staff lead local history project
Todd Camp, founder of the LGBTQ history nonprofit YesterQueer, told the Report he was approached by city staff following his presentation to city leadership in summer 2023 about local LGBTQ history. He recalled telling city officials “it would be awesome” to have a marker honoring LGBTQ history, but noted that the effort for the project originated from staff. He said he couldn’t recall which staff members approached him.
“This would show, particularly for people who visit the state … that (Fort Worth) acknowledges its past, acknowledges its queer history, that we are part of the community just like everyone else, and that’s a good thing,” Camp said on the value of the historical marker.
Todd Camp, pictured in summer 2024, is the founder and director of YesterQueer, a project that aims to preserve the history of the LGBTQ community of Tarrant County. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report) The Texas Historical Commission issues historical markers to commemorate Texas history, including “the history and architecture of houses, commercial and public buildings, religious congregations, and military sites; events that changed the course of local and state history; and individuals who have made lasting contributions to our state, community organizations, and businesses,” according to the commission’s website.
Applications to the Texas Historical Commission for historical markers filter through a respective county’s historical commission. The county’s historical commission acts as a branch of the Texas Historical Commission, rather than of the county government, Strickland said.
Fort Worth staff initiated the application for Historical Marker 24324 in February 2024 with the intention to honor queer history and culture, according to application materials obtained by the Report through an open records request.
City leadership did not specify which staff member initiated the project. The Report contacted Lorelei Willett, the city’s historic preservation officer who oversees the historical marker application process, but she declined to comment without approval from her manager. When contacted to schedule an interview with Willett, a city spokesperson replied that they were coordinating a written statement from city leadership.
The marker was to be located at 651 S. Jennings Ave. in Fort Worth, the former site of the Rainbow Lounge, an LGBTQ bar that was destroyed in an accidental fire in 2017. The property, which is owned by the city, is currently vacant.
In 2009, members of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and Fort Worth police raided the then-newly opened Rainbow Lounge and arrested or detained several patrons. The incident is widely considered a key moment in Fort Worth’s relationship with the city’s LGBTQ community and led to a reckoning over gay rights.
The LGBTQ historical marker would have been located at 651 S. Jennings Ave. in Fort Worth, the now-vacant former site of the Rainbow Lounge, an LGBTQ bar that was destroyed in a fire in 2017. (Drew Shaw | Fort Worth Report) Fort Worth staff sent a draft of the historical marker application to the Tarrant County Historical Commission in April 2024, then a final version on May 13, 2024. The Tarrant County Historical Commission reviewed the application and submitted it to the Texas Historical Commission on May 15, 2024, and Fort Worth paid the state $100 in application fees.
On July 30, 2024, the state commission notified Fort Worth and Tarrant County that the application was approved. The city paid $2,300 in fees for the marker and received a draft of the marker’s inscription from the state commission in March 2025. The city returned an amended version of the text — edited by Camp, the historian — in late April, and the state historical commission’s next step was to approve the text and order the marker be forged.
Intergovernmental relations manager Bethany Warner said via email that the $100 application fee is nonrefundable, but the city will contact the Texas Historical Commission to request a refund for the $2,300 marker cost.
State commission complies with judge’s request
In the days after O’Hare sent the letter, the Texas Historical Commission rescinded the marker at his request, according to emails obtained by the Report.
“Since your May 12 communication indicates that the local review process for this application was not correctly followed, we are rescinding the application as you suggest,” John Nau, chairman of the Texas Historical Commission, wrote to O’Hare on May 15, 2025 — exactly one year after the application was initially reviewed by the Tarrant County Historical Commission and sent to the state commission.
Nau's Email to O'Hare Download
Chris Florance, communications director for the Texas Historical Commission, told the Report via email that questions about O’Hare’s request to cancel the historical marker application should be directed to Tarrant County. He did not answer a request for comment on whether it is common for historical marker applications to be rescinded following approval from the state commission.
To Strickland, the former marker chair for the county commission, O’Hare overstepped his authority as county judge to rescind the application. She maintains that the “application process is very clear, and this was not outside of the scope.”
Rescinding the application “is not within his purview. He does not have the authority,” Strickland said. “I’d be really curious to see what documentation he has in place to make this claim. If you’re reviewing markers, tell me which other markers you’ve reviewed, and why is this one standing out for you?”
The Report contacted Ruth Ray, O’Hare’s chief of staff, with a list of questions asking what motivated the county judge to request that the application be rescinded and to clarify what procedures or policies the application violated. In response, Ray provided a written statement without answering specific questions.
“It should come as no surprise Judge O’Hare doesn’t support a historical marker glorifying radical gender ideology and drag performances,” Ray said via email. “People visit public spaces for recreation and relaxation, often with their children. As the vast majority of our nation agrees, transgenderism should not be pushed on our children.”
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare speaks during a commissioners court meeting June 3, 2025, at the Tarrant County Administration Building. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)
Partisan politics at play, council member says
After O’Hare submitted his letter to the Texas Historical Commission — and provided copies to Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Republican state senators Kelly Hancock, Phil King and Tan Parker — Ray, his chief of staff, also forwarded the letter to one Fort Worth official: City Council member Alan Blaylock.
Blaylock confirmed that he received the email, which he provided to the Report. After receiving it May 12, Blaylock forwarded the letter the next day to City Manager Jay Chapa and several assistant city managers with the message, “FYI.”
“The city manager, after reviewing with staff, asked for the application to be rescinded because there was no public process or external request for making the request and it did not follow the county’s procedures for historical markers,” Sana Syed, the city’s interim chief communications officer, said in a written statement to the Report.
Mayor Mattie Parker declined to comment on whether she had any direct communications with O’Hare regarding his letter or whether she would support an effort to resubmit the application for a historical marker.
Fort Worth City Council member Elizabeth Beck, who represents the area where the historical marker would have been located, said Blaylock “grossly overstepped his boundaries by interfering in the business of District 9.” Beck represents the district, which includes downtown, the West 7th entertainment district and the Near Southside area. Blaylock represents District 10, which includes the majority of far north Fort Worth.
Beck explained that, historically, council members alert each other about issues within each other’s districts out of mutual respect and deference for respective authority. She was not aware of O’Hare’s “interference” in the historical marker project until contacted by the Report for this article.
“Acting as Tim O’Hare’s flunky in this matter is a great example of how the right-wing members of council are bringing partisanship to Fort Worth,” Beck said. “Acting on behalf of Tim O’Hare’s bigotry saddens me, personally — by any of my colleagues or any staff member in the city of Fort Worth because the city of Fort Worth is better than that, and y’all means all.”
Blaylock declined to comment on the merit of the project or Beck’s accusation, noting that he was not involved in the project until receiving an email from the county judge.
“I was informed the county pulled the application for not following proper process. I forwarded email to staff, which is the extent of my involvement,” Blaylock said in a statement.
Beck said she has been “incredibly supportive” of the staff-led effort for the historical marker since learning of the project, adding that it was not out of the ordinary to want to recognize an aspect of Fort Worth’s history. She noted that Fort Worth honors various aspects of its history with markers across the city, “even when that history is unsettling to some.”
She believes O’Hare intended to stifle local LGBTQ history with his letter to the commission because he wants Tarrant County to be a county “where we all look, think and sound the same.”
“I am not surprised that a man of such small character and stature like Tim O’Hare would continue his acts of hatred and bigotry in our community,” Beck said.
Process, authority remains uncertain
In the month since O’Hare’s letter, some community leaders have questioned how the county judge had the authority to terminate the project, which never fell under the purview of either Fort Worth City Council or the Tarrant County Commissioners Court for approval.
Fernando Costa, a recently retired Fort Worth assistant city manager, said the lack of clarity in the existing procedures opens the door for things to go awry with marker applications.
He said any application would have a firmer foundation had it originated from an advisory body like the city’s Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission or Human Relations Commission, rather than city staff. During his tenure in the city manager’s office, Costa oversaw the city’s planning department, which oversees the historic preservation division, and the diversity and inclusion department, which oversees the Human Relations Commission.
“That would be a logical way for the (application) to proceed, and then for the City Council to endorse it,” Costa said.
However, since the city’s historical marker procedure “is unclear at best,” he said the track of the LGBTQ marker should follow the precedent of other historical markers, which it appears to have done.
Costa said he doesn’t believe city staff intended to advance any political ideology by initiating the project, as Fort Worth has established rules in place to minimize “inappropriate interference” from staff’s personal priorities or agendas.
The marker’s inscription would have summarized the history of the LGBTQ community dating to local touring vaudeville revues that featured drag acts in the late 1800s, according to a draft obtained by the Report. Drag performances continued to be regular occurrences through the first half of the 1900s, albeit subject to “routine harassment” from law enforcement, the drafted inscription states.
The inscription recognized that South Jennings Avenue was home to the city’s longest consecutively operating LGBTQ bar, while the surrounding neighborhood was home to many other LGBTQ night clubs, businesses and organizations. The text would have been inscribed on a 27-by-42-inch plaque.
O’Hare’s demand to rescind approval of the historical marker is a break from precedent, said Randy Hutcheson, who served as manager of Fort Worth’s preservation and design division, which oversees historical marker applications, during his 18-year employment with the city.
“During my time as a city of Fort Worth employee, I don’t recall any city or county official ever blocking, or asking to block, a historic marker application,” Hutcheson said. “This decision sets a troubling precedent, raising concerns about how our community chooses to tell its collective story.”
Hutcheson, a transplant from Nashville, said he was struck by the state’s “can-do” spirit when he moved to Texas. He believes that spirit channeled energy into “progress rather than cultural division.”
“Sadly, today, that focus has shifted,” Hutcheson said. “Instead of fostering unity and innovation, attention has turned to divisiveness, neglecting the very pillars that keep us economically competitive — transportation, education, design and innovation.”
The Report asked city leadership if they intend to resubmit an application for an LGBTQ historical marker. Syed, the city’s interim chief communications officer, said via email that historical marker applications are typically led by community members or elected officials, not city staff.
“If community members would like to resubmit the application, they are welcome to work through the process with the Tarrant County and Texas Historical commissions,” Syed said.
Beck said she would fully support an effort to resubmit the application and plans to initiate conversations with city leadership on the best path forward.
“I don't know what the next steps are,” Beck said. “But obviously, the ideal outcome is to honor our city’s history, no matter whose history it is.”
Cecilia Lenzen and Drew Shaw are government accountability reporters for the Fort Worth Report. Contact them at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org and drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org.
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