Excerpts from correspondence.

Texas Bar Approves LGBT Legal Issues Section

From: Phyllys Frye, PRFrye@aol.com
April 19, 1998

On Friday afternoon, the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Texas, meeting in Austin, voted to approve the creation of a new section for legal study and continuing legal education. The name of the Section is the "Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification (SO&GI) Issues Section." It is believed that this is the first official State Bar to have a study section that is inclusive of transgender issues in the very name of the section.

There were delaying tactics during the debate, but when it was all over, the vote was more than two to one for approving the formation of the new section.

. . .Richard Pena, who is an Austin lawyer and the President-elect of the State Bar,...told me that we might have better luck getting this new section approved if we changed the name from an open SO&GI type name to a stealth BAHR type [name]. I checked with Mitchell [Katine] and others who were running the effort and was gladdened that we were no longer desiring to be stealth about it. After the successful vote to approve the SO&GI Issues Section, Richard joined Mitchell and Ken and me for photos that will be published in the "Texas Triangle" weekly next Friday.

Lucent Technologies Diversity Group Conference

From Mary Ann Harris, via the GAIN news service.
May 4, 1998

The 1998 Equal! at Lucent Technologies annual Professional Develpment Conference was held in Columbus, Ohio. This year, we had a big trangender presence, with 18 members of the community participating. We had a wonderful time, and made a big impact on the conference. The conference ran from Thursday night, April 30, through Saturday night May 2.

Lucent Technologies is a large manufacturer of telephone and communications equipment, spun off from AT&T in 1996. AT&T and Lucent have always been very supportive of Affirmative Action, Equal Employment Opportunity, and Diversity. Recently, Lucent's diversity group for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual employees, Equal! at Lucent Technologies, added "Transgendered" to its charter. (Thanks to Nancy Nangeroni for making this happen while she was a contractor at Lucent.)

. . .Over the past year, Lucent has added "gender identity, characteristics, or expression" to its nondiscrimination language in the EO policy. (An even bigger accomplishment, adding Domestic Partner Benefits, highlighted our year.)

During lunch on Friday, Rick Kirkham and Kathleen Dermody, the co-presidents of Equal!, gave a summary of what has been accomplished this year. Rick gave a beautiful description of the gender-inclusive EO policy. He highlighted how the policy benefits not only transgendered people, but others who have gender-variant presentations, such as masculine women and feminine men. (Rick has his own wonderful and nontraditional presentation, with body language, voice, and dual earrings that make a positive and diverse statement. He really helped illustrate the point.) Rick graciously gave me the credit for making it happen. . . .

. . .Today, Monday, I can't count how many people sent me wonderful, positive feedback about the conference. All the people I've known for a year or more are telling me how meaningful it was and appreciating our efforts. People who were not so involved were blown away - one middle manager, in a conservatively written trip report, wrote that "This year [transgender] was the area of the most learning for me personally." I have not heard one negative comment.

A New Democratic Party Group to Address
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Concerns

From Ms. Jane Fee, MsJaneFee@aol.com
May 13, 1998

Sunday May 10, B J Metzger and myself, from St Paul, attended the organizing meeting of the new "National Federation of Lesbian and Gay Democrats" chaired by Congressman Barney Frank in Kansas City, MO. We were successful in getting the mission statement changed to include Bisexual and Transgender and the name of the organization changed to "National Stonewall Democratic Federation" so it would be inclusive. This was a major victory for B & T [Bisexual and Transgender] in the founding of this new national political organization.

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