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Gay Street in Texas Town Will Remain Totally Gay
Even though residents of Gay Drive wanted it renamed something a little less gay, the city commissioner's office has held its ground.
We live in a world where there are more mass shootings in a year than there are days, the senate recently voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and Syrian refugees fear being rejected from countries where they seek sanctuary and sent back to the enemy they’ve fled. Then, in a quiet Texas town, KGBT has reported that there is a gaggle of townspeople who are up in arms about the name of a particular street: Gay Drive.
As longtime residents of the street in Pharr City, Texas, Mel and Maria Villarreal grew increasingly perturbed over the years about their street’s name and decided to take action. Mel, a former member of a self-created Tejano band, thought it best if, rather than be named Gay Drive, the street be renamed Los Unicos Street in honor of his aforementioned self-created Tejano band. To prove their conviction and attachment to this terribly important issue, the couple went so far as to start a petition that garnered the signatures of the majority of Gay Drive’s residents.
When asked to explain why Mel disliked his street’s name so much, he said:
"The word 'gay' used to be a word that the meaning was being jolly, being happy, and now they've added another meaning to it and they define themselves as 'gay people...I don't have anything against gay people, it's just that it has that meaning."
Of course you're not homophobic, Mel. However, Maria, on the other hand, preferred to be more head on in her dislike of the street’s current name by saying:
"The reason I wanted to change it was because I don't like gay, you know. My kids never liked that name of the street, they were embarrassed of the street."
In the face of the hurdles this couple has leapt over in order to change the name of their beloved street, the Pharr City Commission was able to use simple thought and logic in their vote and decided to give a hard pass to the name change.
While Mel may never be able to live on a street named after his glory days in a self-created Tejano band, we’re sure he’ll be able put that thought and energy into a stance on another issue that screams as much urgency as this one.
Watch the KGBT report below:
