A Harris County, Texas judge is suggesting that racism and sexism played a part in her being barred from a VIP area at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this week.
In the Tuesday incident that went down at NRG Stadium, Judge Lina Hidalgo claimed that when she and her five guests attended a concert at the popular event, they were prevented from entering a premium floor area called “the dirt” because they hadn’t paid the $425 per head price for the wristbands that were required for access.
The judge claimed that she previously had been allowed into the area without the wristband “based on the county’s relationship with the rodeo” and assumed that the area was for “friends of rodeo leaders or for rodeo leaders or such,” Fox News Digital reported.
According to rodeo officials, she had been given thousands of dollars in perk tickets before the incident, which has made headlines after Hidalgo claimed that she was manhandled by the venue’s staffers and threatened with arrest, treatment that she alleged wouldn’t have happened if she were a white man.
(Video: YouTube/ABC 13 Houston)
“I understand the rodeo committee members have a job to do,” Hidalgo wrote in a smoking hot letter to rodeo board Chairwoman Pat Phillips and rodeo President Chris Boleman. “They are trying to keep thousands of people safe at the largest rodeo in the world. I did not want to prevent the committee members from doing their jobs, nor was I trying to take advantage of ‘privileges’ or call in favors. I was not even interested in seeing the concert. I was only interested in helping community members enjoy an important event.”
The judge wondered if she would have been treated differently if she were a “male county executive” and claimed that white men have “felt emboldened to treat others, particularly Hispanics, with physical force.”
“I don’t travel without my passport anymore,” Hidalgo wrote. “Many of us do, especially those of us who are not white-passing.”
“Rodeo officials said Hidalgo requested and was given $9,000 in floor access tickets for herself and her guests for three previous nights for concerts to see J Balvin, Dwight Yoakam and Luke Bryan,” Fox News Digital reported.
In her letter to the rodeo officials, Hidalgo said that she has “never accepted anything inappropriately or used my role to personally enrich myself even though many others have.”
Hidalgo has made a big production out of the incident, holding a press conference outside of NRG Stadium on Thursday after returning to the venue to obtain security camera footage that would prove her account to be truthful.
(Video: YouTube/KPRC)
“You can’t really make things out because it’s very dark and it’s from a distance,” Hidalgo said, according to the Houston Chronicle, which reports that the judge called for officials to put in more surveillance cameras “so we can make sure a situation like this doesn’t happen again.”
“This is not about a wristband or a ticket or a concert,” the judge said. “It is about the mentality of some people and the way they treat others.”
“If this is how they treat me — by virtue of my position, the Ex-Officio Director of the rodeo, landlord, because NRG stadium belongs to Harris County and leases to the rodeo, how do they treat everybody else?” Hidalgo asked.
“We are very disappointed in Judge Hidalgo’s actions Tuesday night and since,” said Phillips and Boleman. “But we must enforce the same access policies for everyone. The Judge is the only elected official to request, even demand, these seats night after night. As Chairwoman of the Board, the idea that she was treated this way because she’s a woman or Hispanic is absolutely false and insulting.”
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