San Antonio Gender Association
Remembering Our Departed Loved Ones
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San Antonio Gender Association
Equality Texas honors San Antonio transgender activist
QSanAntonio, Updated May 20, 2007
Equality Texas, the Austin-based GLBT lobbying organization, presented its Anchor Award on May 20 to Rebecca
Lynn Cross an internationally recognized transgender activist from San Antonio who died last year. The
presentation was made at the Equality Texas Foundation’s Spirit of Texas Brunch. Sally Said of the San Antonio
Gender Association accepted the award on Cross’ behalf.
After a twenty-two year career in US Army special operations Cross attended the University of the Incarnate Word
to complete her Bachelor of Arts in English. She completed an M.A. in English at the University of Texas at San
Antonio and was finishing her dissertation on the writings of Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldua when she died on
July 7, 2006 while returning from a summer session at Dine College in the Navajo Nation.
Cross was a founding member of the San Antonio Gender Association and the former Vice Chair of the board of
directors of the San Antonio Diversity Center. She transitioned on July 4, 2003. In July of 2005 she presented at the
first Pan-Asian Sexualities Conference in Bangkok and underwent sexual reassignment surgery following the
conference. In March of 2006, she was elected as one of two International Lesbian and Gay Association board
members from North America. She was the father of two and the grandmother of three.
"We are excited about hosting this event which honors the life and contributions of an important figure in San
Antonio," said Paul E. Scott, Executive Director of the Equality Texas Foundation.
Scott says he considers the Anchor Award especially relevant at a time when Texas legislators are attempting to
add "gender identity and expression" to hate crimes legislation. "We hope that naming the Anchor Award after one
of San Antonio’s dearest transgender activists, we will raise awareness as to the important contributions LGBT
Texans have made," he says. "The award makes people visible who are often invisible."