Houston Transgender Unity Banquet: A Celebration of Visibility and Advocacy

The Houston Transgender Unity Banquet, hosted by the Houston Transgender Unity Committee (HTUC), is the largest annual event for Houston’s trans community. Celebrating the history and culture of this vibrant community, the banquet unites individuals, allies, and organizations to champion transgender visibility, rights, and advocacy. Now in its 32nd year, the banquet is a cornerstone event that fosters connection, reflection, and celebration.

“The Unity Banquet has a rich history in Houston,” says Dylan Forbis, 2024 banquet co-host. “It began because of a feud between trans people in Galveston and Houston. When you have such strong people who are fighting for their lives, you’re going to have some head-butting every once in a while.”

Despite its rocky start, the Unity Banquet has grown into one of the nation’s most significant advocacy and fundraising events for the trans community. “The banquet raises funds for scholarships, and we’ll be awarding funds to students this fall,” Forbis explains. “As a former scholarship recipient, I know how vital this support is. It helped me finish my associate degree, and I’m proud to give back to the program that ensures members of our community are getting the education funding that they need.”

Forbis’ success exemplifies the value of investing in our own community. As the first openly trans person elected to the Texas Democratic Party’s Executive Committee, he ran his campaign digitally at the 2020 Texas Democratic Party Convention. “I had support from both the LGBTQIA+ community and allies across different identities and generations,” Forbis recalls. Many who fought to open committee positions to women were fighting for committee positions for Forbis and other nonbinary and trans-identifying people.

“For queer people, our existence and happiness are resistance,” Forbis explains. “From being a young child and having to advocate for myself in school, dressing in the ways I decided to that fit me and my gender expression, even to being an adult and having to advocate in the workplace or within my family, I feel there are a lot of aspects of our identity that are intrinsically political and politicized because we’re so highly impacted by policy.”

“Whether you’re a trans person, a nonbinary person, or a cisgender person, if you’re a member of the queer community, having to deal with the intersectionality of your identities and your economic status—and even where you live in the city of Houston—you’re constantly having to advocate for yourself,” Forbis continues. “I find a lot of peace in knowing that I’m not alone in this fight.”

This passion led Forbis to first volunteer at the 2012 Unity Banquet and later accept the invitation to co-host the event. “I’ve been attending since 2012, and the speakers have always inspired me,” Forbis says. “One year, Annise Parker said she’s always been out and she’s never given anybody an opportunity to say, ‘Oh, you’re hiding who you are.’ That comes with a lot of privilege, but it also removes a lot of power from people that want to hurt you.”

“Another moment that really moved me,” Forbis recalls, “was when Judge Phyllis Frye said, ‘Run for office, run for office, run for office! The reason you run for office is you want to win and enact policies that are going to help your community. But when you run for office, people give you that microphone and you get to say that you’re fighting for transgender rights, to end poverty in Texas, and to make sure that school kids have lunches when they go to school.’”

Forbis also finds himself drawn back to the banquet each year because it provides him with an outlet to motivate others. “After the pandemic, I met a young trans man who was attending one of our banquets. He ran up to me and shook my hand, saying, ‘You’re the first trans man I’m ever meeting. I’ve never met someone else like me.’ That was very moving.”

That man is an artist who has become active with organizations such as the Transgender Education Network of Texas and the Triple A Alliance through the Trans Legal Aid Clinic Texas, thanks to the encouragement Forbis provided.

Though the banquet tackles serious issues like politics and remembrance, it’s also a joyful event. “I’ve gotten to dance with dignitaries and famous people because, at the end, there’s always a little dance party,” Forbis shares. “Just having such a euphoric, human experience—while we’re fighting all year long—is among the reasons I go back every year.”

With a national election approaching, supporting the trans community is crucial. “We are the ones with the biggest target on our backs right now,” warns Forbis. “There are a few different news organizations that have been caught saying that they don’t want to support trans rights because it doesn’t pay and it gets them targeted.” This kind of exclusion and closing of doors negatively affects all of us, whether we identify as trans or not.

Forbis references Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, pioneers who experienced homelessness and derision because of their advocacy for gay liberation, to underscore the importance of our solidarity. “The biggest barrier is going to continue to be members of our community that aren’t advocating for us because we’re fighting hard for ourselves. We’re doing everything that we can. And anything that we do for the transgender community helps everyone.”

“When misogyny and transphobia are running rampant through the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community, it’s only going to trickle upwards,” Forbis warns. “We know we’re going to have bills against us next year in the Texas Legislative Session. We know we’re going to continue to be political fodder. We haven’t even gotten to Election Day, and they’re already targeting the trans community.”

What: The Houston Transgender Unity Banquet 2024
When: September 21, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Hilton Houston Westchase, 9999 Westheimer Rd.
Info: UnityBanquet.com