Page 8 - BEQ Magazine Vol3 Iss4

Kylar William Broadus, Esq . testifies in front of the U .S . Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions on June 12, 2012 . He was the first openly transgender person to testify before
the Senate .

For 18 years, Kylar maintained a private law that’s my nature. I learned that from my parents – they worked for the greater cause in the
practice in Columbia, Missouri, including the community. They helped clean the Black cemeteries with their friends because no one else
groundbreaking representation of lesbian, gay, bisex- would. They would go help anyone in need at their home when it was needed. Both of my
ual, and transgender clients in family law, criminal parents believed in the spirit of giving. I was raised to give back to the community.”
law and other areas. For nearly 20 years, he taught
business law and discrimination in employment at Kylar was born the same day as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Au-
Lincoln University of Missouri, a historically black gust 28, 1963, the same day Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
college where he also previously served as chair of He refers to himself as an “accidental activist”, an “accidental professor” when talking
the business department. about all he has accomplished, but I have to wonder - as a Black child born at the same
As an activist, Kylar worked with many organi- time Dr. King was delivering those powerful words, a speech that has become immortal, is
zations to fight for civil rights. He served as the se- Kylar’s life’s work an “accident” or fate?
nior public policy counsel at the National LGBTQ Dr. King spoke about coming “to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand
Task Force and the director of the organization’s the riches of freedom and the security of justice.” Kylar was born at a time, much like today,
Transgender Civil Rights Project. He served as the when people had to choose which side of history they would be on. He was born on the
state legislative manager and counsel for the Human day Bayard Rustin, the march’s chief architect and a gay man, dared to hope for the full
Rights Campaign (HRC), where he worked with realization of Dr. King’s dream to include him.
state stakeholders to pass LGBT-inclusive legislation. You could say it was a confluence of events, stars aligning or opportunity meeting prepa-
In 2010, Kylar founded the Trans People of Col- ration. Or, concede that the arcs of the Civil Rights movement, the modern LGBT move-
or Coalition (TPOCC), the only national civil rights ment and the more recent Trans movement called some to rise to the occasion. Kylar’s life
organization dedicated to the needs of trans people has both shaped and been shaped by the struggle for human rights.
of color. He currently serves on the board of the Na- One of two children of Fannie and William, the children of slaves who were themselves
tional Black Justice Coalition, where he was board still being treated as slaves in Jim Crow Missouri, at an early age, Kylar felt a dissonance
chair from 2007 to 2010. He was one of thirteen between his real self and what the rest of the world saw.
openly transgender delegates to the 2012 Democrat- “I was assigned female at birth,” he says. “As a kid, I woke up every morning, hoping
ic National Convention and that same year he made God would answer my prayers to fix me because I knew he intended for me to be a boy.”
history as the first openly transgender person to testi- He generally presented as masculine and his family related to him as such. He recalls
fy before the U.S. Senate, speaking in support of the going places with his father as a child and having people refer to him as his father’s son.
Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). “I’d be in the truck with my father and someone would say, ‘Oh, I see you brought your
I wonder if he realizes how many people he’s im- son along,’ and he’d just go with it,” Kylar says. “My father was never judgmental about
pacted, how many lives he’s probably saved directly anyone, and certainly not me.”
and indirectly by engaging in this fight. That he’ll Kylar’s middle name is William, chosen in honor of his father.
probably end up in history books. Kylar first learned about transgender while reading Ebony and Jet magazines at the
“It’s not about the notoriety of the work, it’s store – his parents’ budget didn’t stretch to magazine subscriptions – with black trans wom-
about the outcomes,” he says. “I’m always going en like Carlett Brown featured in the pages. These women’s stories resonated with Kylar,
to be looked to as an activist and an advocate, and but he still didn’t feel completely connected. “I was looking for someone like me,” he says.

8 | December 2018 businessequalitymagazine.com