Today (January 23) I am the invited speaker for the Palm Beach Flagler Rotary Club. It is a breakfast meeting and I have been given the opportunity to discuss "Being Transgender - What is the meaning".
Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community's business and professional *men and women. The world's Rotary clubs meet weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.
Said at the Emmy ceremony two weeks ago by Sarah Kate Ellis accepting the Governor's Award:
More people say they have seen a ghost than know a trans person.”
Today is my opportunity to introduce an audience to our reality. Wish me well. Tomorrow I will post photos and the transcript of my presentation.
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A little side story. In my small town the Rotary club was seen a prestigious men's community organization. High school senior boys were selected to be the "Rotarian for a month" and attend the weekly meetings. In my large senior class only 6 were selected for the year and it was seen as a honor. I have good memories of attending during my month of April, 1966.
*A little bit of Rotary history: On 4 May, 1987 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Rotary clubs may not exclude women from membership on the basis of gender. The Rotary Club now includes men and women.
The Rotary Club of Marin Sunrise, California (formerly Larkspur Landing), is chartered on 28 May. It becomes the first club after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to have women as charter members.
Also in 1987, Sylvia Whitlock, of the Rotary Club of Duarte, California, becomes the first female Rotary club president.
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