A family affair

Gay day at Minute Maid: Astros become the first big three Houston pro team to openly court the LGBT community

It's the first ever Pride in the Park event as Houston's sports organizations take a more inclusive marketing approach.

Disney, like many other corporations, holds gay-friendly family days at its theme parks, providing a care-free time to see Mickey Mouse. Well now, it's gay day (or actually night) at Minute Maid Park with Saturday's Pride in the Park.

It's the first major big three sporting event (covering the giants of Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA) in Houston that will specifically celebrate the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transexual (LGBT) community and their families. (The Dynamo and Houston Comets have had LGBT nights).

The Houston Astros' sales team discovered a website from The Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau that celebrates and promotes the city as a gay destination. The team then approached the profiled members on the website and Trevor Eade and Edward Sanchez ultimately decided to take the lead and co-chair the event.

"The community has gotten so excited about this," Eade says.

Coming two weeks after the Houston Gay Pride Parade, 400 official Pride in the Park tickets — split up over five different seating sections — have already been bought for the 6:05 p.m. game with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Whether fans will be out rooting for Cardinals superstar Albert Pujols or Astros mainstay Lance Berkman, they'll be earning funds for seven local charities: Pride Houston, Bunnies on the Bayou, Legacy Community Health Services, Bayou City Performing Arts, PFLAG Houston, Out & Equal Houston and Bering Omega. But as Edward Sanchez explains, it's mostly just about celebrating the same Americana of "baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie" as anyone else.

"It really helps demonstrate that Houston is becoming accepting and really understands that prejudice is a thing of the past," Eade says.

The most obvious proof of this is Mayor Annise Parker, the first openly-gay elected mayor of a major metropolitan city. Fittingly, Parker will throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Before then, the Gay Men's Chorus of Houston, Bayou City Women's Chorus, and the Pride Idol winner Brittini Anne Jackson will sing the national anthem.

Saturday will be officially recognized as Pride in the Park Day by the City of Houston. There will also be an official Pride in the Park after-party at Meteor (drinks will be half off).

This may not be the only major Pride sports event this year. Other local professional sports organizations have contacted Eade and Sanchez about having their own gay days. Nothing is confirmed yet, but Eade tells CultureMap that there will be one more major event before the end of the year.

Thus far, the Astros' Pride Day hasn't received any public opposition, according to the co-chairs. Eade says that he was asked by a friend how he would react if someone argues that Pride in the Park isn't family friendly.

"There will be LGBT families bringing their children there," Eade says. "Doesn't this constitute as a family?"

With original bedazzled jerseys and T-shirt celebrating Pride in the Park, everyone will be sure to see the diversity of Houston in the mother-mother, father-father families that are just as plain as ... well, apple pie.

You must use the code "pride" to purchase tickets online. This is the only way a portion of your ticket purchase be donated to the seven LGBT charities. You have until noon Saturday to buy tickets this way.

It's the first ever Pride in the Park event as Houston's sports organizations take a more inclusive marketing approach.

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Documentary News

Netflix series Waco: American Apocalypse debuts with newly unearthed footage

Waco: American Apocalypse

ATF agents at Waco compound in 1993.

Netflix has a new series on the tragedy that took place in Waco three decades ago: Called Waco: American Apocalypse, it's a three-part series documenting the standoff between cult leader David Koresh and the federal government that ended in a fiery inferno, televised live, with 76 people dead.

The series debuts on March 22, to coincide with the 30-year anniversary of the event which took place from February 28 to April 19, 1993.

It's an oft-told tale and not the only new release to try and exploit the 30-year anniversary: Jeff Guinn, former books editor at the Fort Worth Star Telegram, just came out with a book in January, also described as definitive, called Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage.

Waco: American Apocalypse is directed by another Texan: Dallas native Tiller Russell (Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer), who obtained never-before-seen videotapes of FBI negotiations, as well as raw news footage and interviews with insiders.

Those insiders include one of David Koresh’s spiritual wives; the last child released from the compound alive; a sniper from the FBI Hostage Rescue Team; the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit Chief; journalists; and members of the ATF tactical team who watched colleagues die in the shootout against the heavily armed members of the religious sect.

The FBI videotaped inside the hostage negation room, thinking they'd be there maybe 24 hours, not 51 days.

"These are video cassettes that were sitting in somebody’s closet for 30 years, that show the mechanics of hostage negotiations in an intimate setting - not the hostage negotiation scenarios you see in films, but a team of people grinding, day in and day out, for 51 days," Russell says.

He also procured footage from Waco TV station KWTX, who had a reporter embedded in the initial gunfight.

While the standoff was broadcast live on TV at the time, much of it was out of camera range. The film uses 3D graphics to recreate the details of the compound.

Russell acknowledges that the tale of the cult leader who was also a pedophile, the debate over the right to bear arms, the constitutional limits of religious freedom, dredge up painful conversations that continue today.

"It cast a long shadow, pre-saging the Timothy McVeigh bombing in Oklahoma, the shooting at Colombine, and a growing distrust of government, but I think it's important to reckon with our past so we don't repeat mistakes," he says.

"So much of what’s roiling in culture today can be traced to Waco, a story about God and guns in America with all these children at the center whose lives were determined by the adults around them," he says. "There was no playbook for what happened, everyone was out on a limb, and people made mistakes. But almost everybody was trying to do their very best."

"I think this is a story that's often recalled in politicized terms, with finger-pointing on who screwed up and how did we get here, but there's a profound humanity to it all," he says.

Watch the trailer below:

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