Texas GOP Candidate Blackmails Crossdressing Rival

Tara · Post by **Tara** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 11:00 pm

Anti-Gay Smear Campaign Targets Texas Candidate
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: April 6, 2004 8:01 p.m. ET

(Fort Worth, Texas) Sam Walls won't say what he was doing in the dress, but pictures of the 64 year old Republican candidate for the Texas House in full makeup, a wig, heels, and a dress, have been anonymously distributed to voters.

Walls is in a tight race against real estate broker Rob Orr for the GOP nomination. Voters will go to the polls April 13 in a primary runoff.

Walls blames the Orr campaign for releasing the pictures, calling it "`blackmail'' from opponents who are trying to use "very old, personal information'' to force him out of the race.

A leading businessman and former party chairman, Walls was the favorite to win, until the photographs surfaced. Since then GOP leaders have urged him to withdraw, but Walls says he has no intention of quitting.

"Now my opponent is using the private information in an attempt to intimate that I am a homosexual, which I am not,'' Walls said in a statement.

Walls said his family had dealt with' the issue, and he apologized to supporters for any embarrassment caused by "a small part of my personal past.''

The photos were apparently obtained by a company that repossessed a mobile home registered to Wells, according to court records.

Orr spokesperson Lee Woods denied involvement in making the pictures public, although he said that Orr's campaign staff learned of the photos and alerted Republican leaders.

©365Gay.com® 2004

Gaven McLaren · Post by **Gaven McLaren** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 5:34 am

I had heard about this and was not sure how true it was. Though I wish he had just come out and said yes I will wear a dress evry now and then. Does that make me less of a man? Would you rather vote for the coward who sent the pictures out.

Beauty · Post by **Beauty** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 5:53 am

Wow!

I don't know if he has enough time to turn the voters around, but I hope those in the district who know about him being a CD'r turn out and vote him in.

Thank you Tara!

Beauty

Tammy(SO) · Post by **Tammy(SO)** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 9:30 am

edited.

Anita · Post by **Anita** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 1:44 am

Hi All--
This one bothers me on many levels. I'll try to sort them out.

First of all, in his defense, he said that his opponents were trying to intimate that he was homosexual. So there's that equation again:
crossdresser=homosexual.

Second, there's no way he could win at this game. Since the pictures were personal (and he figured secret), it's not like he felt he had to announce it ahead of time.

But, at the same time... since they're so personal, it wouldn't feel good to acknowledge wearing dresses, after the sleezy way that people were introduced to it. Besides that, there's no "legit" reason for wearing dresses. (See fire-breathing rant below)

Third, I can't think of any other personal practice that people would dare release pictures of. If he'd been dressed in dominant leather, with a whip, they wouldn't release it-- I've never heard of a candidate being "outed" for SM. But crossdressing is fair game.

And last, it gets me back to my pet peeve. (Anita climbs up to second level of soapbox.) There is no "innocent" way to crossdress! By that, I mean that there is no reason to do it that John or Jane Q. Public will accept. So a politician couldn't head this off by acknowledging beforehand that he CDs. There is no legit reason to do this, in the public's mind. And this irks me no end!

It bothers me when I can't tell a new crossdresser any respectable ways they can come out. Being a drag performer was the closest I could come to a reason for CDing--something that didn't seem totally illogical.

If you want to go all the way and start living full-time, well, that'll work eventually, because that is indeed a reason for dressing. The public needs a "reason" for us to dress, and we can't give that to them or ourselves.

Of course, WE"LL go on dressing, reason or not. But it's hard to be an ambassador for CDdom when it's so difficult to explain to anyone!

(Anita, out of breath, climbs down from soapbox.)

Alexandra · Post by **Alexandra** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 3:11 am

I was hoping he'd pull it off until I saw the word "Texas."

Please keep us up-to-date!!!!

Gaven McLaren · Post by **Gaven McLaren** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 6:05 am

Anita I agree with the we cannot come up with a reason comment. Hell half the time I wonder personaly why I do it. I have come up with a few logical answers for me but they are not the full reason I crossdress. The real reason I think most of use do dress (and this is just my thinking) is because we have to in one way or another. Not to long ago I decided that I would wear mens underware again that lasted all of about 3 days. The worse part about that is that the mens underware I have are not the traditonal mens boxers or briefs. They are mens cotton and nylon bikinis. I just had to go back to my panties. They fit and feel better.

So got off on a rant. Also sorry if I offended anyone.

Virginia · Post by **Virginia** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:20 am

I have read two different "statements" by Mr. Walls. One hwere he said he has apologized and one where he said he apologized to his supporters for any embarrassment that he may have caused them. There is a big difference. For embarrassing his followers, NO problem! If he is apologizing for CD'ing - problem!
LOve,
Deborah

Anita · Post by **Anita** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 12:54 pm

In answer to your post, Deborah--I believe I remember him saying something to the effect of: That was long ago, I got "help" for the problem, and I worked it out with my family. The article reproduced here has the part about working it out with family.

Not so sure about the "help with the problem" part. But what else can he say, at this point? For a politician, this is indeed a problem.

A note here--I don't like the CD=Gay equation because it's too general, and gives CDing a sexual motive only. I don't want to be pre-judged by people thinking that "must" be the reason I CD! Bah! Humbug!

Even in Texas, I think it's less of a problem to be openly gay. I say this because being gay is something you can acknowledge beforehand, and if the party committee thinks you have a chance, they'll support your candicacy. Period.

Back to us--our post-op sisters are the furthest along, when it comes to acceptance. Like gay men or women, a transsexual woman can openly acknowledge who she is, if she wants to. She only has to justify herself to the psychologist that's going to prescribe her hormones. After that, she does not have to explain why she's dressing as a woman. Yet once upon a time, she was a CD, too, wondering why she was doing this.

She moved on from doing this mysterious thing only sometimes and in secret, to doing it fulltime because it's part of a normal woman's life. Big difference.

Look, folks, it takes numbers. No one can explain why gays are gay, or why TG women need to live as women, but there are laws protecting them. That's because there's enough of them out there to say, "We exist, and this is our life. We don't need to justify it--it just is."

I think support groups going to public places will be our beginning. I know that Transgender San Francisco has group meetings at public restaurants and bars. That's step one. Step two is when the members can do interviews where they openly state who they are. That's a little trickier.

The Secret Wardrobe was a documentary that I saw on MSNBC, and it was effective largely because the CDs in it were NOT all anonymous.

It's a chicken-and-egg kind of thing. We've got to risk saying who we are, as though it's no big deal, even though we know it is. Eventually, when enough of us act like this, it may start to be a reality. I'm being VERY optimistic here, but there are a lot of us out there!

Performers like me will not really help our cause that much. There have been drag queens and CDs doing acts as women forever, and it doesn't do a thing for the closet CD. I hate acknowledging this, but it seems to be true. I can still help by being part of a support group, though, and we do go out there as a group from time to time.
Anita

RikkiOfLA · Post by **RikkiOfLA** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 1:13 am

Anita writes...

Performers like me will not really help our cause that much. There have been drag queens and CDs doing acts as women forever, and it doesn't do a thing for the closet CD. I hate acknowledging this, but it seems to be true. I can still help by being part of a support group, though, and we do go out there as a group from time to time.

That's true of drag queens, because drag is just a stage costume, like clown makeup, actor's makeup, and so on. But openly crossdressing performers like Eddie Izzard are a new part of the equation. I think it's too soon to say that Eddie, Jayne County, Adrian Roberts, and others of that ilk will have no effect. I think we can all do our part, and you are very brave and an important part of the effort. We're proud of you!

Lorna · Post by **Lorna** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 1:20 am

I just hope that the voters are smart enough to see past his personal life and focus on how he will perform if elected.

But then again, that didn't stop the media from having a field day with Clinton during the Monica scandal... and we all know how this society of ours can be a bunch of followers at times...

Many of you may disagree, but Texas and crossdressing just do not mix. I really want to be wrong. But right now I doubt that I am.

Beauty · Post by **Beauty** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 6:16 am

Hi again,

Well it looks like the election happened last night. I'm scouring the web trying to find out the results.

Here's a picture of Sam dressed. His supporting wife is in red.

And this is a great article about him.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/politic ... 05.html?1c

Beauty · Post by **Beauty** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 6:21 am

Hi again,

He lost.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mp ... cs/2505004

Beauty

Anita · Post by **Anita** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 9:34 am

Hi All--
I am grateful to Giselle, on the other forum, for pointing out that men of Sam's age (64) went through purgatory with their crossdressng. There was no Internet and no media coverage of any kind when he was growing up.

So the way he's approached it might not sit well with us, but he's a product of the time and place where he was raised.

I think the voters had a hard time with the fact that he was keeping a secret, just like wives and SOs have a hard time with that. The secret just happened to involve crossdressing, but secret-keeping itself is what hurts trust.

But we're in a hard position. There are few secrets that are quite as devastating as CDing, and we understandably keep it under deep wraps.
Which gets me back to being upset that there's no gradual way to bring this to people's awareness.

Thank you, Rikki, for the words of encouragement. On a Texas note, the movie that I appear in just opened in Austin, Texas, last month, at the South by southwest film festival. It's called 24 hours on Craigslist and hopefully you can see it at a theatre near you in fall '04.

Anita

Alexandra · Post by **Alexandra** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 8:18 pm

Anita, Did I miss a post about the movie you're appearing in? Can you tell us more about it?

I'm sticking with my Texas position. I've a hunch he'd get re-elected if he was from certain other states.

One wonders what his voting record was on issues of concern to TG/CD/gay issues?