Vonciel Jones Hill - Head of Dallas African American Museum board and vicious homophobe.
Still has influence, still a menace to the Gay community.
Vonciel Jones Hill – President of the Dallas African American Museum Board
Background
This homophobe is President of the Board for the Dallas African American Museum which is why that museum will never, never have anything about African American Gays and Lesbians. Never.
Exactly who is on the Board for the Dallas African American Museum hasn’t been available, but this article revealed that Vonciel Hill is the President of the Board despite having a well-known really hostile attitude towards Gays.
What also is surprising is that she is the president of the Board for the Dallas African American Museum despite being the lead opponent against renaming South Lancaster Road to Nelson Mandela Avenue. She became the front African American person to block the renaming and that is why Dallas doesn’t have a street named after Nelson Mandela. This is the link to the article.
Most people know Vonciel Jones Hill as the homophobic City Council member
https://dallascityhall.com/government/citycouncil/district3/Pages/biography.aspx
She was a Dallas City Council member for District 3. She was elected to Dallas City Council June 2007 and served until 2015.
She ran for congress for District 30 in 2022. He website is no longer up, but this is the website saved at the Internet Archive. The Archive did a really poor job of saving her site.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220219142302/http://www.voncielforcongress.org/
Vonciel Jones Hill Infamous Attack on a Billboard Supporting HIV health that included a picture of an African American man.
Hill achieved national notoriety in 2013 over her attack on a billboard showing in this article.
https://www.salon.com/2013/06/18/texas_councilwoman_outraged_over_billboard_featuring_gay_couple/
As this 2013 article points out, at the time 6,000 Dallas County residents were being diagnosed with HIV giving Dallas the highest infection rate in the state. So Dallas County Health Director launched a public health campaign to drive down the infection rate.
https://www.cbsnews.com/dfw/news/backlash-against-hivaids-billboard-in-dallas/
One of these billboards was at the intersection of Hwy 67 and Red Bird Lane and showed an African American Gay couple.
Vonciel Hill was outraged, the article reports:
But you can't plaster two gay dudes on a billboard in southern Dallas and expect it to fly with Dallas City Councilwoman Vonciel Jones Hill. She seems to fear the ad might have a corrupting influence on passersby. In an email to Fox 4's Shaun Rabb, she expressed concern that "African American men who engage in homosexual conduct [are] presented as acceptable" in the ad and that it amounts to an endorsement of homosexuality.
Never mind that the rate of HIV among African Americans men who have sex with men was, as the article states, “at an epidemic proportion,” and this would be vital to the health of many African Americans, for Hill her homophobia comes first.
However, this was only one of her anti-Gay actions at City Hall.
She refused to sign a Gay Pride letter signed by 14 of the 15 council members.
https://dallasvoice.com/dallas-councilwoman-sign-gay-pride-letter/
She refused to appear in the annual Pride Parades in Dallas.
https://dallasvoice.com/update-vonciel-hill-snubs-gays-officially-castigating/
This is the 2009 article Dallas Voice article referred to.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239080/m1/4/
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239080/m1/22/
In the Dallas Voice on pages 4, 22 reports (links above) that she is the lone person refusing to be in the 2009 Pride Parade, reporting:
Confronted on Wednesday, Sept. 2 during a break in a City Council meeting, Hill initially declined comment and walked off. But she returned a few minutes to explain here decision.
“I won’t be participating [this year], and based on my present beliefs, I won’t be participating in the future,” Hill said. “There’s no reason I should be castigated for that.”
Asked what those beliefs are, Hill said: “I believe that all people are loved by God, all people are created equal under God, but there are acts that God does not bless. It does not mean the person is any less God’s child. I’m entitled to stand for what I believe, and I don’t appreciate anyone castigating me for standing for what I believe.”
Of course, the last statement is self-serving and not logical. You are entitled to have your beliefs, but others are entitled to have a belief about your belief and express it.
A person has a right to believe that the earth is flat, but others might can express an opinion that it is stupid, further the appointment of a flat earther to a geography class could be and should be criticized.
Still Influential in Dallas politics
Don’t conclude she is a fringe figure now in politics. In 2021 three Dallas City Council members nominated her for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) board, an influential and important position. D Magazine in this article reviews her anti-Gay behavior.
She was nominated by Dallas City Council members Tennell Atkins, Casey Thomas II, and Carolyn King Arnold which are still in office today. As the following article also points out, she opposed everything that might benefit the LGBTQ community.
https://dallasvoice.com/vonciel-jones-hill-nominated-to-dart-board/
From the article:
And she was the only council member to refuse to sign a letter welcoming people to Dallas for Pride weekend each year. She said she wouldn’t be supporting the LGBTQ community because of her beliefs then and she wouldn’t in the future. She has not made a statement changing that statement.
She wasn’t appointed to the DART board.
Politicians still solicit her endorsement
Also, don’t think she just has influence due to her position as President of the Board for the Dallas African American Museum.
Politicians still solicit her endorsement.
The current Mayor of Dallas, Eric Johnson was happy to boast of her endorsement.
https://johnsonfordallas.com/sixteen-former-members-of-dallas-city-council-endorse-rep-eric-johnson/
For example, Judge Molberg, running for election to the 95th Civil District Court of Dallas County has her as an endorsement.
https://judgekenmolberg.com/judge-ken-molberg-endorsements.html
It might be useful for Stonewall Democrats to state that they don’t endorse those who are willing to receive the endorsement of persons like Vonciel Jones Hill, but that is very likely NOT going to happen.
Summary
Vonciel Hill Jones fortunately doesn’t hold any public office, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be another attempt to appoint her to some office.
She is still a force against Gays.
She should be asked to resign from the Board for the Dallas African American museum.
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This is the link to the petition to get a Human Rights Commission at Change.org https://chng.it/XrsMZ9P8cR Please sign and share. With groups and individuals like these in Dallas we need a human rights commission.