{"id":52639,"date":"2025-07-09T23:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T23:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52639\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T23:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T23:42:11","slug":"tarrant-historical-commission-gets-5-new-members-after-lgbtq-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52639\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarrant historical commission gets 5 new members after LGBTQ controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tarrant County\u2019s volunteer historical commission gained five new members in early July, just weeks after County Judge Tim O\u2019Hare attracted scrutiny for derailing a project meant to recognize local LGBTQ history<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Republican Commissioner Matt Krause appointed four Republicans: Anne Gebhart, Tammy Nakamura, Mona Puente and Thomas Schlueter. Democratic Commissioner Alisa Simmons appointed one Democrat, Marisela Aramino.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The five-member commissioners court voted unanimously<\/a> to approve the new members without commenting on the appointments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Krause told the Fort Worth Report \u201cthere was a lot of discussion\u201d regarding the LGBTQ history project and, during the course of that discussion, he reviewed the county historical commission\u2019s makeup and saw there were four at-large seats that needed new appointments. He said each county commissioner gets to appoint three members to the 19-member historical commission, and the remaining four seats are considered at-large.<\/p>\n

Krause\u2019s appointments were to fill the vacant at-large seats on the commission. Although recent controversy prompted his review of the commission\u2019s members, Krause said he would have made the same appointments three months ago, had he been aware of vacancies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese four people weren\u2019t picked in response to that. These four people weren\u2019t picked because of, necessarily, their stances on that issue,\u201d Krause said. \u201cThey were picked because they\u2019re all people that I know, that I\u2019ve worked with for a long time in politics, and each of them I know have a passion for history and want to work hard for Tarrant County.\u201d<\/p>\n

The July 1 appointments came after the Fort Worth Report reported June 12 that O\u2019Hare wrote a letter to the Texas Historical Commission chair, John Nau, asking that the commission rescind its approval of an application<\/a> for a state historical marker to recognize LGBTQ history in Fort Worth. In the May 2025 letter, O\u2019Hare wrote that the application did not follow the county historical commission\u2019s \u201cproper and thorough approval process\u201d \u2014\u00a0an assertion denied by the county commissioner chair who oversaw the application.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The historical marker would have commemorated Fort Worth\u2019s Jennings Avenue and the surrounding neighborhood in the Near Southside as the center of Fort Worth\u2019s LGBTQ community. It was set to be located at the site of the Rainbow Lounge, an LGBTQ bar raided by members of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and Fort Worth police in 2009 and widely seen since as a local LGBTQ landmark.<\/p>\n

Applications for state historical markers, which may commemorate various topics in Texas history, must be reviewed by a county\u2019s historical commission before getting submitted to the Texas Historical Commission for approval. A county\u2019s historical commission acts as a branch of the state commission, rather than of county government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The LGBTQ historical marker application originated from city of Fort Worth staff and was reviewed by the county commission before getting final approval from the state commission in July 2024, according to documents previously obtained by the Report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Simmons told the Report her appointment of Aramino to the commission was not in response to the controversy over the historical marker but to fill a seat that had been vacant for several months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a vacancy on the historical commission, and I filled the vacancy,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI identified someone who had the time and interest to fulfill the obligations of an appointee to the historical commission. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons speaks during a commissioners court meeting June 4, 2024, at the county\u2019s administration building. (Alberto Silva Fernandez | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

Aramino is one of the three paid Tarrant County Democratic Party staff members who were laid off in April<\/a> as the result of a \u201cstrategic decision\u201d to restructure the party. She also serves as a Democratic precinct chair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nakamura was a Grapevine-Colleyville ISD board member but narrowly lost her reelection campaign in May, despite garnering endorsements from the Tarrant County Republican Party, local Republican activist groups and prominent Republican PACs. She was one of several Republican-backed candidates<\/a> to lose their election bids for local nonpartisan offices in a campaign season marked by heavy partisanship.<\/p>\n

Schlueter is the pastor of KingdomGate, a \u201cstrategic house of prayer\u201d in Arlington and serves in leadership roles for prayer networks across the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gebhart and Puente are Republican precinct chairs, volunteers who work on the grassroots level to mobilize voters within their party. Gebhart is also a co-founder and the director of Heart of Texas, a regional homeschooling organization.<\/p>\n

As of July 9, the commission\u2019s other members are not publicly listed on the county\u2019s website<\/a> about the commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The county commission meets six times per year, on the fourth Wednesday of January, March, May, July, September and November, according to the website. Commission meetings are held at 200 Taylor St.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Krause said he\u2019s hopeful that his commission appointees will look at future projects from \u201ca proper historical framework, from a conservative worldview,\u201d regardless of the nature of each project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would only want to put people on that board who followed along the same kind of ideological lines that I have,\u201d Krause said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth historical marker would have been the second historical marker in Texas to recognize LGBTQ history, in addition to a marker in Dallas erected in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fort Worth City Council member Elizabeth Beck, who represents the Near Southside, and LGBTQ community leaders previously told the Report they intend to resubmit an application<\/a> for the historical marker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n

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