Shane Whalley Won’t Back Down

As the Legislature hit the finish line, many LGBTQ+ Texans felt pummeled by the number of bills targeting them, including Senate Bill 14, which bans gender affirming care for trans minors, and Senate Bill 17, which abolishes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from public universities.

Daring Dialogues founder Shane Whalley (Photo by Montinique Monroe)

They have both now been signed into law.

Shane Whalley, founder of the LGBTQ+ consulting company Daring Dialogues, feels concerned and confused about what this means for their business. Whalley is the assistant professor of instruction at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at UT Austin and has been a nonbinary advocate hirself for 30 years, using the neopronouns ze/hir/hirs. Daring Dialogues is hir service that offers businesses diversity workshops pertaining to gender and sexuality, unpacking white supremacy, and seeking justice. The services ze provides are aligned with the tenets of DEI, educating people to further include marginalized populations into everyday life. Given the recent buzz around DEI, Whalley doesn’t know what this means for hir consulting services. Ze treads carefully around certain topics and having to tone down what ze says.

The logistics of a DEI ban is tricky when thinking about Daring Dialogues. Whalley says that ze had to dial back on what can be talked about at these workshops for nonprofits funded by the state for fear that it could break the law. “I've had places be like, ‘Well, if we tell people they have to attend, then you have to be more careful about what you talk about.’ You can talk more about diversity, but I like to talk about justice,” ze says.

Whalley has been an out nonbinary person for 30 years. Starting hir journey working for a church while still in the closet, ze worked up the courage in the late Eighties to come out as a lesbian. Eventually Whalley realized ze was nonbinary and has lived in the “gender gray” since. Anti-LGBTQ+ bills are nothing new for hir, being a person who has dealt with the worst of homophobia and transphobia in hir life. But the recent explosion of this legislation has been a point of concern for hir, as it seems like an extreme reaction to ongoing progress the community has made over the past decades. “It just gives people who want to have a problem with it more permission to be outspoken about that,” Whalley says.

The fear goes beyond DEI bans. A noticeable uptick in hostility toward public Pride events has been scaring some in the LGBTQ+ community from attending these events. With the white supremacist group the Proud Boys showing up at more and more Pride events, many fear that the 2023 Texas Legislature emboldened bigots. “I would say there's never been a time where I didn't realize that something could go wrong at Pride,” Whalley says. “But this year's Pride, [it] feels scary.”

Despite the bans and increased hostility toward queer people, Whalley does not see a slow down for Daring Dialogues. Whalley takes clients in different states and is currently offering consulting. “I'm not willing to water down what I do. So people are going to contact me but want a watered-down version of me? I'm going to say no thank you,” ze says. “I'll figure out how to pay my bills.”