Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 27, No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, December 17, 2010 Page: 4 of 56
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texasnews
Stone stepping into a quieter life
Founder of PFU\G-Dallas, Late
Bloomers leaving group to focus on
painting, involvement with church
TAMMYE NASH I Senior Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
The Tuesday night, Dec. 14, meeting of Late
Bloomers was a bittersweet event for Pat Stone.
It marked her last meeting as leader and an active
member of the organization she founded 13 years
ago. But it also marked her first full steps into the
next stage of her life.
Stone, who started Late Bloomers for women
life herself who came out as lesbian later in life,
was also one of the founding members of the
Dallas chapter of Parents, Family and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays in 1992. Stone and her former
husband helped start the PFLAG chapter in sup-
port of their lesbian daughter and were the driv-
ing force behind the Dallas organization in its
early years.
She was president of the Dallas chapter for five
years and was also on the national PFLAG board.
Then in 1997, after coming out as a lesbian her-
self, Stone started Late Bloomers to give other
women coming out later in life a place other than
nightclubs to go where they could meet other
women like themselves and to learn about the
LGBT community.
b
Pat Stone
Stone said this week that her decision to leave
Late Bloomers was, in truth, a decision to retire
from her nearly 20-plus years as an activist on
LGBT issues. Now, she said, she will concentrate
on her life with her partner as part of a vibrant
LGBT community in the Cedar Creek Lake area,
her involvement with Celebration on the Lake
Church, and on her painting.
"It's been 13 years since I started Late
Bloomers, and I just think the time is right to
move on," said Stone, adding that the monthly
trip into Dallas for the group's meetings from her
home on Cedar Creek Lake was becoming in-
creasingly arduous.
"I think it's time [for Late Bloomers] to find
someone local to lead the group," she said. "I am
stepping away from it for so many different rea-
sons."
One of those reasons, she said, is that she
didn't want to get "burned out, and I could feel
that starting to happen."
Thatis in due, in part, she said, to the fact that
"the last couple of years were pretty rough" as
she dealt with the break-up of a long-term rela-
tionship, the death of her mother and, later, the
beginning of a new relationship.
"Linda [Sands] and I are living at the lake, and
I think it is just time for us to concentrate on a qui-
eter life out here with my friends. And I want to
get back to my oil painting, too," Stone said.
"I have begun doing more paintings that are
geared to the elderly, researching on the types of
things that older eyes can more readily pick up
on, like plainer backgrounds and things like
that," she explained; "I have been in contact with
the Mabank Nursing Home, where my mother
I STONE, Page 12
Friends remember shooting victim as strong, generous
Police arrest homeless man for using
Cheung's debit card; no murder
charges filed yet in gay man's death
JOHN WRIGHT I Online Editor
wright@dallasvoice.com
Aaron Cheung was remembered this week as a
strong, outspoken, caring person who was living
his dream of owning a restaurant.
Cheung, 27, was found shot to death in the
backseat of his car outside a condo in northeast
Dallas in the early morning hours of Sunday, Dec.
12.
Dallas police say the motive for the crime was
robbery, and they have no reason to believe Che-
ung's sexual orientation was a factor.
On Thursday, DPD arrested a homelev- man
who they say used Cheung's debit card at a down-
town 7-Eleven after the murder
Charles Edward Freeman, 58, is charged with
fraudulent use or possession of identifying infor-
mation, a felony, and was being held on $50,000
bail. As of Thursday morning, Dec. 16, Freeman
was considered a "person of interest" but had not
been charged in Cheung's robbery and murder.
Cheung was a founding member of Fuse, the
LGBT young men's group at Resource Center Dal-
las, according to his close friend Alex Ortega. Che-
ung also once served on the youth board at Youth
First Texas.
But for the last few years, Ortega said, Cheung
devoted most of his time to Bacon and Friends, his
restaurant in Mesquite.
"That was his dream," said Ortega, who
worked at the restaurant last summer. "His pas-
sion was food. He was always talking about
watching Food Network and then trying different
things. He was just really creative and a real peo-
ple person. He had so many regulars, and they all
asked for him.... He was very meticulous about
the food, and people just really gravitated to that,
all the effort he put into everything. It was always
busy."
Cheung had just gotten home from work at
about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday morning and was re-
trieving a box from the backseat of his car outside
a condo he shared with his parents in the 8100
block of Skillman Street when he was shot, accord-
ing to police.
The suspect am-
bushed Cheung
from behind
and shot him
once in the head
before making
off with his wal-
let and several
hundred dollars
in cash.
On Tuesday,
Dec. 14, police
released surveil-
lance video:
from a 7-Eleven on Commerce Street, showing a
short, older black man with a limp using Cheung's
debit card to purchase cigarettes and chicken
wings.
Freeman was arrested at the Bridge, a homeless
shelter, after people there recognized him from the
surveillance video.
Police say Freeman fits the description of a man
who was seen by a witness fleeing the area of
■ SHOOTING, Page 12
Aaron Cheung
Jesse Garcia
instantTEA
DallasVoice.com/Instant-Tea
Gay LULAC chapter honors
Sanchez, Mancha, Univision
LULAC 4871 - The Dallas Rainbow Council
will hold its third annual Holiday Party on Friday,
Dec. 17, featuring traditional Mexican holiday
dishes, Christmas music and awards to recog-
nize outstanding achievement in the LGBT
Latino community.
LULAC 4871 will award its "Man of the Year"
to gay rights activist Fernie Sanchez. Sanchez
was instrumental in get-
ting the word out about
the anti-bullying move-
ment in the Dallas In-
dependent School
District to Spanish-
speaking households.
He shared his own per-
sonal story of being ha-
rassed for being gay
and advocated for ac-
ceptance during interviews with the local affili-
ates of Telemundo and Univision. Sanchez also
coordinated interviews with other LGBT Latinos
to share their bullying stories on a nationwide
Univision program. Sanchez was instrumental in
holding immigration forums in the LGBT com-
munity, assisted with LULAC 4871 's very first
National Latino AIDS Awareness Day event and
helped promote the Census in both LGBT and
Hispanic communities.
"Woman of the Year" will be awarded to Pa-
tricia Mancha, a straight ally who has advocated
for the LGBT community. Along with Sanchez,
Mancha has done outreach with Spanish-lan-
guage media during the height of the gay sui-
cide epidemic in the fall and also helped dispel
myths about HIV during National Latino AIDS
Awareness Day. Mancha volunteered to co-
sponsor a LULAC youth council and mentors
the group every other week..
The "Se Presta Award," a community award
that lauds a non-member of the council who
has partnered with LULAC 4871 during the year
and made a difference, will recognize long-time
community organizer Rosa Lopez. Lopez helps
organize West Dallas neighborhoods. She ad-
vocates for better streets, public safety and im-
proved schools. Her mostly Hispanic and
African-American neighborhood associations,
consider her a great leader and have no prob-
lem with her being a lesbian. She commands
the respect that most of us in the LGBT com-
munity ultimately want by mainstream America.
She is involved her community's issues and
gives a voice to those who have none.
Univision Television and Radio will receive the
organization "Se Presta Award" for its in-depth
coverage of gay suicide tragedies and the DISD
anti-bullying movement. Univision covered this
issue more than their English language counter-
parts. The local network and radio station have
shown that they are community partners with
the LGBT community — even asking members
of our community to sit on their advisory boards
and placing us on their public service an-
nouncements.
For more information about the Holiday Party,
e-mail LULAC4871@aol.com or visit
www.lulac4871 .org. New members are wel-
comed.
— Jesse Garcia
dallasvoice.com
12.17.10
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 27, No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, December 17, 2010, newspaper, December 17, 2010; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239147/m1/4/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.