SMU Symposium Explores LGBTQ Equality, Allies

SMU didn’t have a recognized LGBTQ student organization on campus when Andy Smith came out in 1989. Nor when he graduated 10 years later.

The SMU alumnus returned to campus in late February, representing Texas Instruments, the presenting sponsor of the Dallas LGBTQ Global Symposium on Equality and Human Rights.

“The fact that as an openly gay man, I am representing my day job — representing TI, one of the most respected companies — times have certainly changed,” he said.

SMU is now home to Pride@Cox, an LGBTQ graduate student organization at the Cox School of Business.

Pride@Cox president Rhea Pollard told symposium attendees, “I hope that you take something that will help make you a world changer.”

Hosted by the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth, the symposium welcomed Highland Park High School’s junior chapter members.

Elise Laharia began the organization in September 2022 after her summer internship with the council. 

“Our school [was] one of the only ones [in DFW] that [didn’t] have a [chapter],” Laharia said.

Panelists Shelly Skeen, Lisa Hermes, and Ash Thye discussed the current state of LGBTQ equality in Texas.

Skeen, a senior attorney for Lamba Legal, provided updates on LGBTQ-related legislation. 

About 340 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed in the U.S. as of Feb. 15. In Texas, 82 bills have been filed: 45 “Don’t Say Gay” bills and 18 prohibiting health care — which is almost always necessary for trans adolescents, Skeen said. 

“This is chilling people’s lived experiences,” she said. “And as our state gets more and more diverse, you’re seeing more attempts to restrict that diversity.”

Thye — a student and the strategic director of the Human Rights Council at SMU — shared his journey as a transgender person, noting how he received “life-saving” health care at 16 years old. 

Now at 21, he thought about the possibility of moving states to continue receiving health care and asked his family not to openly discuss his identity like they used to.

“What needs [my community] has is a landing place to feel like I can have somewhere that I go and feel like I can be my whole self and trust that people are working … to take care of things on the broader, structural level,” Thye said. 

McKinney Chamber of Commerce President Hermes noted that many people are not knowledgeable about the LGBTQ community and their experiences, which is a factor in attacks against them. 

“It’s easy to become fearful of something you don’t know,” she said.

Out queer people, like Thye, are important in normalizing their experiences and community to reduce this fear, Skeen said. “Being out is critical because when people know you, it’s often a different story.”

The panelists encouraged the audience to become allies and vote.

“An attack on one group is an attack on all of our freedom at the end of the day,” Hermes said.