Twan McGary
Twan McGary leads Houston-based The Normal Anomaly’s new Dallas office
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Twan McGary, who calls himself a passionate trans man, was recently appointed program manager for The Normal Anomaly Initiative’s new Dallas office. His goal is to create community empowerment initiatives that will reduce stigma for marginalized communities.
“I’m using my platform to build visibility for trans men,” McGary said, “to promote visibility and reduce barriers.”
From the new office in Deep Ellum, McGary said he and his organization will provide comprehensive support, which he called “a safe space to navigate through the unique challenges through our gender journey.”
While providing a nurturing space, the center will offer legal services to assist with name changes, counseling and mental health services.
McGary said it’s hard for a trans person to navigate through society already but even harder when the community is always under legislative attack.
“We have to deal with so much,” he said. “Every day is a fight. That’s why visibility and representation are so important. Visibility saves lives.”
But over the past few weeks, the trans community hasn’t been under legislative attack in Texas — only because the Legislature isn’t in session. Still, Attorney General Ken Paxton has done what he can to make the lives of trans people miserable.
On Aug. 20, the Department of Public Safety unilaterally and without prior public notice decided to stop accepting judges orders to amend the gender marker on drivers licenses. Instead, DPS will create a database of individuals who request such a change on their license or state-issued ID.
The policy change closely follows Paxton’s request that DPS provide his office with records of individuals who have changed their gender marker on their state-issued document.
Then on Aug. 30, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced it will no longer accept certified court orders to change gender markers on a birth certificate, even though Texas law allows a birth certificate to be amended if proven “by satisfactory evidence to be inaccurate.” A court order was considered “satisfactory evidence.”
Commenting on those sudden changes, McGary said, “When you think things are progressing, he tries to find a way to target us for some reason.”
Whether ignoring a judge’s orders is legal will have to be argued in court, but, he said, there’s so much more to do.
Healthcare is a huge issue in the transgender community.
“We deal with healthcare,” McGary said. “We don’t have access to healthcare because of someone’s personal beliefs.”
Healthcare concerns he listed included more than just transitioning, but also contraception, pregnancy and abortion access.
And discrimination in the workplace takes place even in companies with the right policies in place.
“It has to stop,” he said. “We’re all human. Some of us have family. Some of us are married and have children.”
McGary said he started as a promoter, and during that time, he realized what was missing in the community: The larger LGBTQ community wasn’t considering the needs of the trans community.
“So we created a space for us to party,” he said.
And then he created a podcast and went out and did street interviews. He said some of those videos went viral.
McGary said he collaborated with Resource Center and Black Trans Advocacy Coalition. He said he brings experience working as a gender-affirming case manager, assisting with legal referrals for name and gender marker changes, doing STI and HIV testing and more.
McGary said that with The Normal Anomaly Initiative’s new drop-in center, he hopes to have more interaction and training with police as they build community and build a safe space. And he hopes to offer workshops and panel discussions working with Teen Pride, a group he’s already working with. With that group, he said, “I’ve seen a lot of our trans masculine youth come out of their shells.”
The office is open for anyone looking for legal referrals, HRT assistance, healthcare referrals or mental health support, McGary said. His Trust the Process Project aims to increase awareness about trans individuals to “share our stories and experiences with youth.”
Most of all, he hopes to bring some of the success The Normal Anomaly Initiative has seen in Houston to Dallas.
The Normal Anomaly Initiative drop-in center is at 1910 Pacific Ave., Ste. 17210, and is open Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Contact McGary at twan@normalanomaly.org.