Black Tie Dinner announced today (Monday, Oct. 5) that Resource Center CEO Cece Cox, who will retire in early 2027, will receive the Black Tie Dinner Visibility Award and speak at the 45th Annual Black Tie Dinner on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel.
“For more than four decades, Cox has worked to ensure LGBTQ+ Texans are represented where decisions are made,” noted the press release announcing the award. “Her recognition comes as LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion remain at the center of public debate in Texas.”
The Black Tie Dinner Visibility Award recognizes individuals whose leadership and public advocacy have increased visibility, understanding and support for the LGBTQ+ community.
Cox said, “I have tried to bring a voice of representation of LGBTQIA+ lived experience to the places and organizations I have been involved with, and I will continue to do so until everyone feels safe to be visible.”
Black Tie Dinner Senior Co-Chair Deirdre Coleman said, “Few people have embodied visibility as fully or for as long as Cece Cox. In 1999, she was the youngest person to receive Black Tie Dinner’s Kuchling Humanitarian Award, and she has spent the decades since proving why. As CEO of Resource Center, she has made sure LGBTQIA+ North Texans are seen, served, and supported, often when being visible carried real risk.”
Cox has led Resource Center since 2010 and, according to the press release, she has grown it to serve more than 60,000 people a year. She has also led the agency through the opening of Oak Lawn Place, an 84-unit affordable housing community for people 55 and older, and Resource Center Health, which brings primary care, pharmacy services and affirming care under one roof.
“Her advocacy helped secure nondiscrimination protections for Dallas public employees and students, and she has served with groups including CenterLink, the Dallas Mavericks and SMU’s Dedman School of Law,” the press release said.
“She taught me that we advocate not only for our community, but as gay women who show up and are seen,” Coleman said. “As she prepares to retire, there is no one more deserving of this year’s Visibility Award.”
Cox added, “Black Tie Dinner holds a special place in my heart. As a recipient of the Kuchling Award and a former board member, I am deeply touched that Black Tie Dinner has found my contributions to the community to be worthy of this recognition.”
Cox joins a lineup for this year’s Black Tie Dinner that includes writer/actor/comedian Benito Skinner who created Overcompensating and is receiving the 2026 Black Tie Dinner Media Award; HELP Center for LGBTQ+ Health CEO DeeJay Johannessen who is receiving the 2026 Raymond Kuchling Humanitarian Award, and Human Rights Campaign and Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Kelley Robinson.
This year marks the 45th Annual Black Tie Dinner, and this year’s theme — “Renaissance” — “celebrates the strength, creativity and resilience of the LGBTQ+ community while raising critical funds for organizations serving LGBTQ+ North Texans,” according to the press release. Since its inception in 1982, Black Tie Dinner has distributed more than $33 million to its beneficiaries.
— Tammye Nash