By John Dean Domingue, TCRR Correspondent
May 4, 2011
[Full disclosure—John Dean Domingue is an organizer within the Direct Action Network of San Antonio (DANSA), an organization intimately involved in the Dan Ramos story.]
Tonight, in a 104-5 vote, the Bexar County Democratic Party County Executive Committee (BCDP CEC) removed Dan Ramos as the chair of the party after homophobic and racist slurs uttered by the former chair in March of this year.
In a comment on one of the original news stories about Dan Ramos while the story was still developing, Dan Graney wrote, “Such remarks by a party official are totally unbecoming the office to which he was elected.” Graney, along with CEC precinct chair Dee Villarrubia, led the effort to remove Ramos from his position.
The sustained and difficult effort to remove Ramos included holding a vote to determine if he should go to trial by the party, trying him in absentia and rendering a guilty verdict, summoning a majority quorum (which has not happened since 2009), and voting for his official removal.
“The removal of Dan Ramos as Chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party marks a turning point for the civil rights movement in Texas. No longer will our community allow social diseases like homophobia and racism to infect the diverse people of San Antonio,” said Jay Morris, the founder of DANSA, which has been organizing to remove Ramos since his initial comments.
The next step of the process will be to elect a replacement within 20 days of the ouster vote.
Texas Civil Rights Review 