Last night representatives from DGLA attended the DART board meeting in which the board voted on adding the term “gender identity” to their EEO policy.  The mood felt some what tense as various members of the community went up to the podium to speak  during the public comments portion of the meeting. This tension was due to the same board’s vote a week prior which put into place a single word that because of its placement would nullify the protections the board was purporting to put into place and rolled back the protections it had had for the past 15 years for their employees with regard to their sexual orientation.

After several passionate speakers including two previous Dallas city council members, a preacher, a bank vice president, and a few other community leaders, the board seemed to understand the need for gender identity to be added to DART’s EEO policy without also adding an unfortunately placed “other” word that would keep those protections from going into place.  The Chairman changed the position on the agenda of the vote on the EEO policy from number 17 to number 1 (to be taken up immediately after the public comments section at the beginning).  As the chairman called for a vote on the language a motion was introduced by board member William Tsao that stripped the one offensive word from the amendment and the motion was quickly seconded.  After some brief conjecture from another board member the Chairman called for a vote on the amended policy and the board unanimously approved the measure to add gender identity.

DGLA is very excited the board accomplished this historic vote.  Citizens in the Dallas area, riders of DART, and DART’s own employees can feel a little bit better today about the organization they help to support.