Tyler Glen will perform at this year’s Black Tie Dinner

From staff reports
Officials with Black Tie Dinner this week announced that Edith “Edie” Windsor is the recipient of the 2017 Elizabeth Birch Award. They also announced that singer Tyler Glenn will perform at this year’s dinner.
Officials made the announcements on Thursday, Oct. 12, at the 30-Day Countdown Celebration to Black Tie Dinner. The fundraising gala takes place on Nov. 11 at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel.
Windsor’s wife, Judith Kasen-Windsor, will be on hand to accept the award for Windsor.
Windsor was the plaintiff in U.S. v. Windsor, the case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 that invalidated the part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that kept the U.S. government from recognizing legal same-sex marriages and paved the way for the court’s landmark marriage equality ruling two years later.
Windsor met Thea Speyer in 1967, and they were legally married in Canada 40 years later in 2007. When Speyer died in 2009, Windsor had to pay more than $350,000 in federal inheritance taxes. Had she been married to a man, she would have owed nothing.
Windsor married Kasen in 2016.
Tyler Glenn
Tyler Glenn is lead singer of the group Neon Trees. He came out as gay in a 2014 issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
Raised in the Mormon Church, his 2016 album Excommunication is about his experience with the LDS Church and his frustration with its policies.
Already announced
Emily Koch will also be entertaining at this year’s dinner. Koch made her Broadway debut playing Elphaba in the long-running hit Wicked.
This fall, she’ll star in the touring company of Waitress that comes to Dallas Summer Musicals beginning March 28 and opens at Bass Hall on June 19.
Former Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning will speak at Black Tie this year. He was the first gay man to head a branch of the U.S. armed forces.
Playwright Terrence McNally will accept the Ally for Equality Award. McNally has written plays and books for a number of musicals. Among them is The Full Monty, which will be staged locally by Uptown Players and opens on Oct. 20. He’s currently represented on Broadway with the musical Anastasia and the musical review Prince of Broadway. Other hits include Ragtime, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Love! Valour! Compassion! and The Ritz.
The Rev. Eric Folkerth will receive this year’s Ray Kuchling Award. In addition to working toward full inclusion of LGBT people in the Methodist Church, Folkerth has distinguished himself in advancing immigrant and refugee rights in the area.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 13, 2017.