Carter Brown with his wife, Espy
The nation’s largest LGBTQ seated dinner raises money for local and national beneficiaries
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Last December, Black Tie Dinner distributed a record $1.7 million raised at its 2023 event, topping $1 million in total distributions to local beneficiaries in one year for the first time.
This year’s co-chairs, Dustin Vyers and Liliana Villareal, hope to beat last year’s totals.
Speakers at this year’s dinner include Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson and Pulse nightclub mass shooting survivor Brandon Wolf.
Carter Brown, Black Trans Advocacy founder and CEO, will receive the Raymond Kuchling Award.
When Brown founded a local organization to support Black trans men, he quickly learned there was nothing quite like it anywhere else in the country. His annual conference draws attendees from around the U.S.
Also speaking and receiving awards are Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall, trans social media personality Dylan Mulvaney and trans activist Landon Richie.
Marshall is the first Black woman CEO in the NBA. Mulvaney is known for detailing her transition in daily videos on Tik Tok and for being at the center of a firestorm of fury from right-wingers after Budweiser sent her one specially-made can of Bud Light with her face on the can.
Indy Pop duo Fly by Midnight will perform.
On hand to help present awards and keep the live auction lively will be legendary sports commentator Dale Hansen, who gained national attention when he defended Michael Sam and said the only reason Sam wasn’t a first round draft pick was because he had come out as a gay man.
Beneficiaries for this year’s event are AIDS Services of Dallas, Big Brothers Big Sisters Lonestar, Cathedral of Hope, Celebration Community Church, Dallas Hope Charities, Equality Texas Foundation, Finn’s Place, Galileo Church/North Texas Transportation Network, Grant Halliburton Foundation, HELP Center for LGBT Health and Wellness, HRC Foundation, Legacy Cares, Northaven Church, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, Pride Frisco, Resource Center, Synergy Wesley Foundation, Transgender Education Network of Texas, Transition Resource Action Center, Turtle Creek Chorale and Uptown Players.
In addition to ticket sales, Black Tie Dinner raises funds through its silent auction. That auction is open to the public through on-line bidding the week before the dinner and continues in person at the hotel through the evening.
Items include artwork, furniture, gift certificates, jewelry and more. About 10 high-dollar auction items including luxurious trips are part of a live auction from the stage. Always popular is a private dinner for you and a group of friends with Hansen.
A luxury car raffle has been part of Black Tie since the early days of the event. This year, the $100 tickets buy a chance to win a $45,000 credit toward the purchase of a vehicle of your choice through Park Place Motors.
Black Tie Dinner began in 1982 when a group of LGBTQ community leaders  including John Thomas, Ray Kuchling, Dickie Weaver, Mike Anglin and William Waybourn hosted a formal dinner in a small ballroom at the Fairmont Hotel. They raised $6,000 for the Human Rights Campaign. That amount doubled in 1983 and more than doubled again in 1984.
In 2004, Black Tie passed $1 million for the first time.
Other cities around the country have copied Dallas’ format and, today, about 50 similar dinners raise money for HRC. The key to Dallas remaining the largest LGBTQ formal dinner is including local beneficiaries. Those beneficiaries are responsible for table sales, raffle ticket sales, donations of auction items and volunteering hundreds of hours of time before, during and after the event.
Over the years, a number of awards have been established in addition to the Kuchling Award that have gone to local and nationally known recipients and organizations. For example, the Black Tie Dinner Equality Award has gone to Billy Porter, the Trevor Project and Chaz Bono.
The Media Award has been presented to Debra Messing, Cynthia Nixon, Fran Drescher and Cyndi Lauper, among others. The Richard Weaver Volunteer Excellence Award has gone to Brian Cross, Han Seth Lu and Lisa Harris.
Black Tie Dinner takes place on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. at Sheraton Dallas, 400 N. Olive St.