This photo from Wikipedia shows what The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth campus looked like in 1926
9 members leave Women’s Club of Fort Worth after group accepts transgender member
JAMES RUSSELL | Contributing Writer
James.Journo@gmail.com
A century-old woman’s club accepted a transgender woman last year, only to later see nine members — including the transgender woman — resign.
In a statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which first reported the story, The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth said it received and accepted an application for membership from a transgender woman in November 2023.
The nonprofit social club, founded in 1923, has more than 1,100 members. Its goals, like those of many other clubs founded at the time, include promoting community involvement, personal and professional development and the advancement of education and knowledge of the arts, humanities and sciences.
It also is involved in the preservation of its historic campus on the Near Southside and has given more than $620,000 in scholarships to local students.
In a statement, the club said that it is “empathetic to the identity and experiences of transgender individuals as integral to the broader spectrum of womanhood.”
While members need to formally address the matter of admitting transgender women, “it is a conversation we will need to have in the near future but one that we are not prepared for today,” the statement noted.
The statement continued, “Our organization has always strived to be a safe and welcoming space for women of all backgrounds, and we will continue to do so as we reflect on the evolving understanding of gender identity in our society.”
In 2020, the board of directors adopted an inclusion statement, calling the organization “a safe and welcoming place for women of all backgrounds, and it does not condone any form of racism or intolerance.”
When it came to a transgender woman joining, however, at least one member seemed to disregard that statement — albeit three years later. In a Facebook post spotted by the Dallas Morning News, Barbara Roberts said she was one of the members who resigned. She blamed the organization’s current board for allowing “biological men” to join, then later referred to the transgender woman as a “man (in a dress).”
The nine resignations won’t plunge The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth into financial crisis. After counting liabilities, the organization reported $3.4 million in assets in 2023.
But the decision by the members is a reminder of the ongoing hostility toward transgender people.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least 14 transgender and nonbinary people who have been murdered so far this year. Of them, 79 percent were people of color; 29 percent were Black transgender women; 64 percent were killed with a gun; 56 percent died due to intimate partner violence, and 36 percent were misgendered or deadnamed by authorities or the press.