The Lubbock City Council voted to cut support for The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts’ First Friday Art Trail, citing LGBTQ+ art displays such as drag shows in front of minors, that some on the council believe should not be supported by tax dollars.
The Cultural Arts Grant Program (CAGP) draws funds from the Hotel Occupancy Tax to award grants to non-profits that support West Texas artists and promote tourism in Lubbock.
The grant program board and the Civic Lubbock, inc. board of directors recommended 30 applications, four of which came from the Underwood Center for the Arts, including the First Friday Art Trail.
This year’s recommendation allocated almost $30,000 for the First Friday Art Trail out of the almost $550,000 provided by the program for project grants.
According to a letter from Jim Douglass, the president of Civic Lubbock, inc. (CLI), all 30 applicants were approved by the board in a June meeting and are “in good standing with the City of Lubbock and CLI.”
At Tuesday's city council meeting, District 3 representative David Glasheen singled out the art trail, saying he believes tax dollars should not be used to promote family activities that include LGBTQ+ themes, calling them “not appropriate.”
Glasheen and four other members of Lubbock’s city council, Mayor Mark McBrayer, District 4's Brayden Rose, District 5's Dr. Jennifer Wilson, and District 6's Tim Collins, voted in favor of this proposal.
The CLI website provides guidelines for applications to the grant program, saying projects that are trying to get funding must directly promote tourism and the convention and hotel industry; and involve “the encouragement, promotion, improvement, and application of the arts, including instrumental and vocal music, dance, drama, folk art, creative writing, architecture, design and allied fields, painting, sculpture, photography, graphic and craft arts, motion picture, radio, television, tape and sound recording, and other arts related to the presentation, performance, execution, and exhibition of these major art forms.”
The First Friday Art Trail is a free, self-guided art tour that spans downtown Lubbock. It has become widely popular with thousands of visitors and participants from Lubbock and beyond, providing a venue for many of Lubbock’s artists, performers, and musicians.
A January article by Texas Monthly followed the art trail as an example of Lubbock's being “fertile ground for a vibrant creative scene.”
According to Civic Lubbock, Inc., more than 15 venues participate on the trail throughout downtown, and each venue provides its own programming.
Though no specific display was cited as the basis for the city council's decision, Mayor Mark McBrayer agreed with Glasheen, referring to some drag shows as “sexualized performance” in front of minors that he said should not be funded with tax dollars.
“We felt like we had a responsibility for those tax dollars to make sure that that event was something that was, my words, ‘family-friendly,’ that doesn't involve anything of an overtly sexual nature, or even subliminally sexual nature when you want to have something that children can be at,” McBrayer said.
According to McBrayer, the action by the city council is not about LGBTQ+ or free speech rights, and he would also be against tax dollars funding art that was "heterosexual" in nature.
"I don't think it's an issue of free speech, because we're not telling them that they can't speak," McBrayer said. "It's a private event we're giving money to. This is not a public forum event, as far as I understand it, how it's set up. So, I don't know that free speech or First Amendment issues are implicated in it."
McBrayer said the council also did not vote to end the art trail, and he would be open to resuming the funding if these displays were not part of the event.
“I think there's an appropriate time, manner, and a place for certain kinds of speech,” McBrayer said. “They have their free speech rights, we're not trampling on their free speech rights. They can go ahead and have their [event], it's whether we are funding it.”
While McBrayer said he's never personally been to a drag show, he added that he believes taxpayer dollars being used to support such events is a “slippery slope.”
“Depending on the performer, and what they do and don't do, but I've seen events in other cities where they're just highly objectionable, lewd, obscene things. And we're not going to just spend taxpayer money for something like that, you know? So where do you draw that line?” McBrayer asked.
In the end, McBrayer said city leaders are responsible to the citizens who pay taxes and part of the job is deciding how that money is spent.
“I am a big free-speech person. I just also represent citizens who pay taxes and make me responsible for how that money is spent,” McBrayer said. “I have my personal feelings, but it's not about my personal feelings, per se. It's about what I think our community expects.”
District 1 Representative and mayor pro-tem Christy Martinez-Garcia voted against cutting the art trail’s support. She noted the role that the art trail has played in bringing visitors, especially young people, to downtown Lubbock. She acknowledged that "in a city that sometimes has not always been inclusive," Lubbock's arts community has always been diverse.
Martinez-Garcia added that she believes representatives from venues associated with the art trail could have responded to the concerns if they had known what was at stake.
“They use this money for marketing, and I think it's really going to hurt them,” Martinez-Garcia said. “If they'd known that this was going to happen, they would have been here, and they would have been prepared to answer any questions.”
Martinez-Garcia said she believes there’s still confusion among the council on this issue, including the suggestion that LGBTQ+ events in family-friendly venues are sexualized.
“I disagree. I disagree, and I think it's misinformation,” Martinez-Garcia said. “I think a lot of people were confused. It's just a surprise. A disappointing surprise.”
District 2’s city council representative, Gordon Harris, also voted against the decision.
In a statement, representatives for The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts said they are “terribly disappointed and disheartened” by the decision. They dispute whether the event in question was actually a drag show, as stated by the Council, due to the lack of performers dressed in drag.
“LHUCA was not consulted about the funding request nor asked about the drag event in question by City Council before the decision was made,” the statement reads. “While LHUCA disputes if this event was a drag show as stated by Council due to the lack of performers dressed in drag, the performance was held at the Charles Adams Studio Project (CASP) 5&J Gallery which is not property of LHUCA. CASP is a separate non-profit entity from LHUCA, and they are in control of their own creative programming.”
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