Collin County-based LGBT group has seen its share of controversy in first decade, plans name change to reflect expanded geographical focus
FLYING HIGH | In a sign of the area’s LGBT boom, this month’s North Texas Pride event in Plano raised $15,000, up from $1,800 last year. (Patrick Hoffman/Dallas Voice)
PLANO — Ten years ago, a small group of activists had a vision to create an LGBT advocacy group in the most conservative area of North Texas.
They met one night in a Unitarian Universalist church in Plano, expecting no more than 15 people to fill the chairs. To their surprise, more than 70 people showed up with ideas and projects in mind that would ultimately launch the Collin County Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
Dawnetta Miller, CCGLA founder, said she felt the need for an advocacy group in the suburbs and was encouraged by openly gay former DISD Trustee Jose Plata to reach out to leaders of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
That conversation, and the ones that followed, led to the crowded meeting a few months later. And from there, organizers knew the group would be a success.
“It was just the excitement in the room after that first meeting,” Miller remembers. “We knew we had something.”
Introducing lawmakers to LGBT
After the meeting, activists traveled to Austin for Equality Texas’ Lobby Day to speak to their lawmakers about LGBT issues. Several legislators were shocked because they didn’t think any LGBT people lived in their districts. For Miller, it was proof the area needed CCGLA.
“After meeting with people who were elected to represent us, we knew the importance of having the organization,” she said. “Collin County is still one of the most conservative places to live and work. Even in those places you need people to be open about who they are and advocate for equal rights.”
Now, a decade later, the organization prides itself on the strong relationships its leaders have built with elected officials in and outside the county. And this past March, CCGLA accounted for 10 percent of the participants at Lobby Day with a chartered bus trip that brought 55 people to show lawmakers the strong LGBT presence in Collin County.
But CCGLA also lobbies on the local level, regularly holding meet-and-greets with municipal candidates in Plano, Frisco and McKinney.
Jeanne Rubin, CCGLA vice president, said the forums have grown in popularity and it’s rare for candidates not to attend or respond to the group’s questionnaires.
Now that elected officials acknowledge the LGBT community, Rubin hopes to build on that momentum by getting LGBT protections added to cities’ employment policies and nondiscrimination ordinances because “there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have that.”
“Working in these cities has been our biggest accomplishment,” Rubin said, adding that Frisco Mayor Maher Maso often calls her to discuss LGBT issues. “I don’t think there’s any elected official in these cities that don’t know there’s an LGBT community.”
Justin Nichols attended the first CCGLA candidate forum in 2008 when he was running for Plano City Council. Nichols ran as an openly gay candidate, which led to him being forced to resign as teen court coordinator for Collin County because of his sexual orientation.
Nichols, who now commutes between Plano and San Antonio, said the candidate forums helped the community stand up and fight for politicians to recognize their concerns.
“Before CCGLA started hosting them, there was no forum for public officials to become aware of the LGBT community,” he said. “To their credit, they have really created relationships that they fostered over time.”
Harry LaRosiliere also attended the first CCGLA candidate forum after some friends invited him.
Now LaRosiliere is mayor of Plano and the group considers him an ally. He said he’s glad to have witnessed the organization grow over the years and will continue to be an ally while in office.
“To me it’s not a question of race, culture, lifestyle. It’s any law-abiding citizen in the city of Plano that I can be effective and make a positive difference in their lives, that’s what I’m going to do,” LaRosiliere told Dallas Voice. “If I can be a positive force for everyone having a sense of inclusion and representing every citizen to the best of my ability, I’d feel honored if I led that way.”
As for a nondiscrimination ordinance in Plano, LaRosiliere said he’d review any proposal and look for support from council members.
“I’m open to reviewing any opportunities that create equality,” he said. “I’m open to looking at any way to improve the quality of life of our employees and our citizens.”
From corporations to courtrooms
The area has seen a number of controversies that united the LGBT community and created awareness.
In 2008, the CEO of Plano-based Cinemark Theatres donated to the Yes on 8 campaign in support of California’s ban on same-sex marriage. The incident led to a dispute between activists from
Dallas, who organized a protest outside a Cinemark theater in Plano, and CCGLA leadership, which didn’t endorse the action.
Bob Shimmin, a gay Cinemark executive who now serves as CCGLA president, got involved with the organization during the Cinemark controversy. He was encouraged by CCGLA leadership who met with the company’s management, which led to transgender employment protections and domestic partner benefits for Cinemark workers a year later.
“It’s not about making headlines or being controversial, but we’ve been successful,” Shimmin said, adding that Cinemark is a good example of how the organization is often able to achieve success quietly behind the scenes.
Earlier this year when a gay couple said they were told they were not a family and asked to leave Main Event, a family fun center in Plano, Shimmin reached out to the company’s CEO. He said Main Event has requested to meet quarterly with CCGLA and is working to become more inclusive, just as Cinemark did.
“I’d be surprised if Main Event by the end of the year didn’t have changes to its polices, their internal and employee materials,” Shimmin said.
Controversy also followed Plano-based J.C. Penney when hate group One Million Moms targeted it after the company named out talk show host Ellen DeGeneres as its spokeswoman. Local gay couples would later be included in its advertising and its LGBT employee group even traveled to New York for its Pride parade.
But CCGLA’s reach goes beyond the many corporations that are based in the northern suburbs.
Last year when a teen was assaulted at gunpoint outside the Plano Sports Authority for defending his two lesbian friends leaving the rec center, CCGLA leaders sat down with the police chief.
Despite the culprit never being captured, Shimmin said the police chief regularly updated them and it opened a door for the department to review its hate crime policies. Now CCGLA is working to have every department undergo LGBT-inclusive sensitivity training.
More recently when McKinney Republican Judge John Roach forced a lesbian couple apart in May because of the morality clause in one of the women’s divorce papers, Shimmin said CCGLA met with the woman and reached out to people who knew the judge. He said the case will likely result in an appeal, but the attention to the story illustrates the need for vigilant LGBT activists.
“It’s hard to believe it’s 2013 and these decisions are still being made,” Shimmin said. “We were reminded that Collin County has a long way to go and North Texas is not equal. There’s certainly the need for our organization and other organizations to keep working hard.”
Expanding boundaries for equality
The growing interest — and the growing numbers of LGBT people in the suburbs — have led to CCGLA expanding its geographical reach to Carrollton, Lewisville and Richardson.
The expansion has necessitated a name change to Gay and Lesbian Alliance of North Texas, which will take effect at a coming out party next week.
Rubin said the CCGLA name has isolated people in the past and hasn’t fully encompassed the organization’s work, which she said now covers virtually everything in the Metroplex north of Interstate 635.
Finding openly LGBT people in the suburbs was once a challenge, but the group has reached a larger audience with social media, and membership has never been higher.
“The difference for people who live in Collin County is you kind of go about your gay life in a more mixed society,” Shimmin said. “It’s less of a public scene and more of a homebound, nesting environment because it’s the suburbs.”
Youth First Texas Collin County, a group for LGBTQ youth, fell under the organization’s umbrella, as did Business Network Collin County, which will now be the GALA Business Network. Rubin said the affiliation with Dallas’ Youth First group ended when the Resource Center took over YFT over June 1. So the Collin County group will continue as GALA Youth.
YFTCC has had a number of meeting places to call home over the years and Rubin said one of the long-term goals is to have a community center where all of the local LGBT groups can meet and socialize, including North Texas Pride and Plano’s HIV nonprofit, C.U.R.E.
But while several groups have started over the years and lost membership, CCGLA has maintained strong and sought partnerships with Equality Texas, North Texas Pride and Carrollton Pride. And Rubin expects to only expand the outreach, especially with the recent addition of board members from Dallas and Carrollton for the first time.
“I think just the fact that we’ve been able to keep a presence and keep busy says something for an organization in one of the most conservative areas in North Texas and to still be going strong,” Rubin said. “The need was there even 10 years ago. And obviously I think the need still exists here.”
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Gala to introduce GALA
A celebration of CCGLA’s 10th anniversary and name change to GALA North Texas will be Thursday, June 20, at Henry’s Tavern, 5741 Legacy Drive, Suite 100, Plano. For more info, visit TinyURL.com/GalaParty.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 14, 2013.