Not the First Openly Transgender Executive Director, and That’s Awesome A message from Executive Director Andy Bowen: Lesson of the week: always check your facts, even when you’re super-excited. Yesterday, Garden State Equality published a press release announcing my appointment as Executive Director. While the opening paragraph of the press release was correct in saying that I am “one of the nation’s first openly transgender Executive Directors of a statewide organization for LGBT civil rights” (emphasis mine), later quotes in the piece claimed that I was the first openly transgender Executive Director of a statewide LGBT civil rights organization. Once the press release was posted to the Internet, the Internet did what it does: crowd-source the fact checking. Probably within a minute of posting, people dropped knowledge on GSE that I am certainly not the first openly transgender Executive Director of a statewide LGBT civil rights organization. History records that the honor of first openly trans ED of a statewide LGBT civil rights org belongs to Denise Brogan-Kator, former Executive Director of Equality Michigan, current Senior Legislative Counsel of Family Equality Council, University of Michigan Law School faculty, and overall very nice person. I called her today to apologize for the press release. I asked if, indeed, we were wrong in making the claim in question. She said yes, and, equally importantly, “I’m thrilled that I wasn’t the last.” And that’s so true. It’s wonderful that I’m not the first. It’s wonderful that I’m merely a recent segment in an ever-lengthening historical line of trans people who are fighting for justice. I am not the first, and I won’t be the last. I get to learn from the work of people like Denise Brogan-Kator, and Earline Budd, and Mara Keisling, and so on and so on. I was excited, as I still am, to take the helm of GSE (as of August 1, with our wonderful Interim ED John Mikytuck at the helm until then). I shouldn’t have let that excitement get in the way of catching the claims made in the press release. And all of that noted, I’m glad that I’m just one of many out-of-the-closet trans people trying to do right by our community—and history. NB: Parker Molloy wrote a wonderful piece recently about the claim that trans people are the first to do x. Parker’s work was in my head as I realized the mistake. parkthatcar.net/2014/07/10/_______-first-trans-person-_______/
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 21:58:23 +0000
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