Dallas human rights fundraiser could be showdown on transgender issues

by John Wright of Dallas Voice

It's beginning to sound like Dallas' 2007 Black Tie Dinner could turn into a food fight.

At the very least, there will be some big issues on the table at the annual fundraiser Saturday, Nov. 17.

That's because leading transgender activist Donna Rose will be there, and so will Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

Rose recently resigned from HRC's Board of Directors in response to the organization's failure to sign a petition opposing a version of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act that includes sexual orientation but not gender identity. In not signing the petition, HRC broke with more than 300 LGBT groups.

Rose, however, is still working with HRC's Business Council, and Dallas Voice recently learned she would be in town this week conducting a workshop on trans issues at Plano-based Frito-Lay. What we didn't realize initially is that she will also be going to Black Tie, which is the largest fundraiser of its kind in the nation and which lists HRC as one of its chief beneficiaries.

Here's some of what Rose had to say. For more, check out DVtv at www.dallasvoice.com.

Dallas Voice: You resigned from the board, but you're still working with HRC. How do you reconcile that, and don't you think some trangender folks are pretty upset about it?

Donna Rose: I do, and they don't really get a vote, to be perfectly honest. My original thought was to just quit everything, as you say, but I think it's easy to make decisions in the heat of the moment that aren't really the best decisions because you find that by acting out of emotion, you've really hurt the thing you got involved with in the first place. And the fact of the matter is, if this version of ENDA moves, or even if it doesn't, the opportunity has never been greater, and the need has never been greater, for trans education in workplaces and in society in general, So, to answer your question, I don't feel it's a conflict.

DV: HRC didn't sign the petition. Then, just before ENDA came up for a vote on the House floor, the organization actually signed a letter supporting the sexual-orientation-only version of the bill. Do you feel betrayed?

Rose: Betrayal is one of many emotions -- because of the board vote in 2004, where they had invited a number of trans activists from around the country to do a presentation to the board and to ask that HRC only support trans-inclusive federal legislation -- and specifically a trans-inclusive ENDA -- and the board agreed that day. That decision opened the door for many of us to become involved. I did feel betrayed in lots of ways, and part of the betrayal frankly was that I was never involved from day one. The week of ENDA, I called Joe [Solmonese] up that Monday and asked him to please let me know if there was anything happening that I needed to know, because it affected me profoundly, and he promised that he would, that I would be his second phone call. But as the ENDA drama unfolded, there was no attempt by anyone at the organization to keep me informed, to kind of warn me, to help me understand what was happening, to the point where it felt like a deliberate attempt to put me on the sidelines while they did what they felt they needed to do. And I still believe that. Nothing has happened since then to change my opinion in that regard, so my levels of frustration and anger, disappointment -- you can put whatever emotion you want in there, they all fit -- they haven't gone away. I don't buy into the underlying premise of incremental gain, that they had ever put the faith that was necessary in a fully inclusive version to ever give it a chance to pass, so we are where we are.

DV: At the same time, are you impressed with the solidarity of other LGBT groups? More than 300 signed the petition.

Rose: I am. I think you have to look for the positive in almost any situation, and certainly we've learned a lot through this. You learn a lot through hard times. It's easy to be a friend when life is good, and when you're not asked to risk anything or to do anything, and I think we learn what we're made of when times are hardest.

DV: For you, how much of this debate goes back to the fact that in the early years, at the time of the Stonewall riots, the drag queens and cross-dressers -- although maybe not transgender people because it was too early -- were on the front lines?

Rose: They were on the front lines, because they were always the most flamboyant, the most visible. One of the frustrating components of this has been some of the pushback, in that there are those who believe that as a community -- again, if you buy into this mentality that the transgender community is separate from the gay and lesbian community, that we haven't suffered enough, or that we haven't paid our dues, or that we're a Johnny-come-lately to the dance and we're really riding coattails. And those kinds of things are nothing but destructive. I really think that shows a significant misunderstanding of what we are and who we are as a larger community, and just the broader protections that we all expect when we're looking for a job or we have a job and are in the workplace. So it's true.

DV: Will you be attending Black Tie or picketing Black Tie?

Rose: I'll be attending Black Tie. I'm not a picketer. That's not my style. I've gotten all kinds of e-mail about what to do, because there are people who are very angry right now, and they don't know where to direct the anger, and so there's a lot of need to kind of calm things down -- again, before we make decisions in the heat of the moment that aren't really the best decisions. I'm still not sure what constructive outcome we're hoping to achieve by picketing. If Black Tie were simply an HRC event, I would not be going, I'll tell you that. I was in Washington for the National Dinner and I chose not to attend. But Black Tie, to me, is a model that other events should adopt in terms of being able to support local organizations who are underserved and underfunded and deserve that kind of recognition, so I'll be there. I'm sure Joe [Solmonese] will be there, and it will be interesting.

DV: What needs to happen to for you to regain the trust you claim the transgender community has lost?

Rose: The first thing that I think really needs to happen, to be perfectly honest, is an apology. Promises were broken. Nobody's disputing that. The reasons they were broken we can argue about all day long, but the fact that those promises were made, that people made good-faith efforts to be involved, to get involved, and then to find they were in essentially lied to for whatever reason, requires an apology in my book. And so when you ask what it will take, to me the beginning of healing starts with an apology. I really think that Joe [Solmonese] specifically and personally needs to show that leadership and offer that apology.