Oldest gay group in Dallas turns 50
The Oak Lawn Investment and Travel Association doesn’t deal with investments and they don’t travel DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writertaffet@dallasvoice.com It is called OLITA — the Oak Lawn Travel and Investment Association.
But it has nothing to do with investing, and, originally, it had nothing to do with travel. But when the name was created 50 years ago, there was a reason for the subterfuge: It was done to throw off the Texas secretary of state who, way back in 1973, probably wouldn’t have approved the incorporation of a gay organization.
That idea of groups creating names for themselves that deflected attention away from what they actually did became common practice in the LGBTQ community in Dallas during the 1980s.
The AIDS Resource Center, for example, incorporated as the Foundation for Human Understanding because people with money would write a check to humans who were understanding but not to a group dedicated to fighting AIDS.
