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Dallas Denny

A TG Forum Interview With Dallas Denny

by Angela Gardner


Dallas Denny is the outgoing Executive Director of AEGIS, the Atlanta based gender information organization. She has been deepley involved in the transgender community for many years. Recently we sat down in cyberspace for an electronic chat.

TGF: When did you first recognize your transgenderism?

DD: It snuck up on me for a year or so, and then hit me like a sledgehammer when covered myself going through my mother's dresser and trying on her undergarments. It wasn't anything I consciously decided to do; I just found myself doing it. There was no denying that something important was going on. By the time I was 15 I had acquired a wardrobe, and at age 17, I was going out in public and having all sorts of adventures. I was very lucky in that I passed without effort, for the times were very dangerous.
I never denied what was going on inside me, or tried to fight it, but I was smart enough to hide it for many years.

TGF: How did AEGIS come about?

DD: Since the late sixties, there has always been a place for transsexuals to get information. The Erickson Association passed the baton to Paul Walker's Janus Information Facility, who in turn passed it to Joanna Clark and Jude Patton, who started J2CP. By 1990, Jude had moved to Oregon and Joanna-- who was now Sister Mary Elizabeth-- was finding herself more and more involved in providing AIDS information, and J2CP was winding down. I was also becoming disenchanted with the whole transsexual mystique, with everyone having to prove they were more transsexual than everyone else in order to get treatment. As a mental health professional, I was interested in people getting good information so they could weigh their options and make informed decisions. Information wasn't easy to come by ten years ago, and many transsexuals, myself included, were making decisions out of desperation. I also wanted to empower transsexuals to take control of their own lives, rather than giving the authority to a gatekeeper. And so I started AEGIS in 1990. Originally, we were the Atlanta Educational Gender Information Service, but within a year, we went national, for the need was there. I chose the organization's name-- and the acronym-- with the possibility of going national in mind. The aegis, by the way, was a shield given by Zeus to his daughter, Athena. It means auspices, or protection.

TGF: Do you feel there really is a "transgender community?"

DD: If there is a Presbyterian community or a Latino community, there is a transgender community. For all its fractiousness, the fact is that there is a network of transpeople who know and work-- and occasionally fight-- with each other. For someone like myself who didn't meet a single transsexual or transgenderist until I was 40, it feels an awful lot like community. The fact that I believe the community exists doesn't necessarily mean that I consider it healthy.

TGF: If you were a tree.... just kidding.

DD: I wouldn't mind being a tree at all, providing I wasn't in a national forest and thus subject to clearcutting.

TGF: After years of volunteer work for the community I sometimes get really impatient with crossdressers because of all the paranoia and self delusion that goes on. Has this happened for you, and do you think it contributes to "burnout" of TG leaders?

DD: I do get frustrated with people not dealing honestly with their situations. It's really the antithesis of what I'm all about. I'm fine with fantasy and role-playing, because it can be a healthy way of dealing with transgender issues, but all this stuff about herbal hormones and magical hair removal systems makes me want to tear out my hair.

Yes, I think many leaders do become burned out because they feel their efforts are futile.

Am I burned out? I'm weary, and I feel I have definitely had my own life on hold for too long. I do feel that 10 years on the telephone lines is enough, and it's time to distribute the load. But no, I'm not burned out. I do think things have changed so much that I and lots of others need to stop and rethink what we're about and where we want to go.

TGF: You announced that you were stepping down as Executive Director of AEGIS. How come, and what's next for Dallas Denny?

DD: When I started AEGIS, the population we elected to serve was transsexuals. I quickly realized that lots of people who didn't consider themselves transsexual were accessing the same medical technology as transsexuals. Consequently, about 1992 or 1993 AEGIS changed its mission statement to serve anyone wishing to change their bodies and social roles, regardless of their self-definition.

A few years ago, I realized that AEGIS had accomplished its goal. Our once-radical mission statement was now only common sense. Here it is:

We actively support the professionalization and standardization of services for transsexual and transgendered persons; promote non-judgmental, non-discriminatory treatment of persons with gender issues; advocate respect for their dignity, their right to treatment, and their right to choose their gender role; help transgendered persons make reasoned and informed decisions about the ways in which they will live their lives; and provide educational materials and information to persons interested in gender issues.

In 1990, transsexuals were not in any sense considered consumers of services. We took what we could get, and were supposed to be happy about it. While AEGIS didn't make such sweeping social change all by itself, we were at its forefront. Now our mission statement is a Duh! And that means it's time for AEGIS to establish a new baseline.

By the way, I say we, not in the royal sense, but because I've had lots of help through with years.

I'm stepping down because if AEGIS is to survive on the long term, it must make the transition from being something I support to something the community supports. The fact that I founded it doesn't necessarily mean I'll be the best one to take it to its next phase. And so I'm stepping down in hopes that someone will step forward.

I certainly plan to remain involved, but I won't be at the helm. I'll just be helping to row the boat.

TGF: The It's Time America/AEGIS merger? Comments?

DD: I've been impressed with how well the merger talks have gone-- the moreso since we're doing it via e-mail, rather than in person.

We've decided upon mission and values statements and the core functions of a hypothetical new organization, but we have not yet committed to making that organization happen. The talks are ongoing.

TGF: IFGE, have they lost the community's trust?

DD: Hoo, boy. If I say anything at all, I'm in trouble, but here goes.

I attended the Tennessee Vals' Christmas Dinner, at which IFGE Board Chair was the invited speaker. It was clear from what she said that IFGE was originally intended to be the umbrella organization for the community. For whatever reason, the IFGE board decided about five years ago that the organization would no longer fill that role. Merissa Sherrill Lynn used to emphatically deny that IFGE was an umbrella organization.

IFGE walked away from what it was good at-- bringing people into the community and making them feel good about themselves-- and in my opinion has lacked direction ever since. Perhaps they're trying to be what their name suggests, but as JoAnn Roberts pointed out in a column some years ago, they are not truly international, they are not a foundation, and they don't do all that much gender education.

To its credit, IFGE has made some positive personnel changes, both in the Waltham office and on the Board. It has a dynamic new Executive Director in Nancy Nangeroni and new faces on the Board-- but a power clique on the Board continues to control things and is responsible for the bad decisions that have cost IFGE so much of its credibility.

I have hopes that IFGE will continue to mature as an organization. It's come a long way, but it has a ways to go yet.




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