Transgender activist to be honored at Outfest Sunday

DAWN MUNRO wants to do everything she can to assure that transgender children won't have to experience the horror she did.

"I told my parents around [age] 5, 6 that there was a problem," said Munro, who was born male. Her family consulted with doctors, and, at one point, Munro was sent to a mental institution, where she was given electroconvulsive therapy.

Munro will be the recipient of this year's Jaci Adams OutProud Transgender Award, at Outfest 2014, on Sunday. In its 24th year, the event in Center City's Gayborhood will feature music, vendors, food, a flea market, dancing and more. The awards ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. on the main stage, at 13th and Locust streets.

Munro serves on the board of the Philadelphia chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Children, a group that aims to facilitate open discussion and well-being of LGBT children.

"Anything that I can do to make life easier for young trans kids growing up is good for me," said Munro, of Chester County. "I don't want them to ever have to go through the kind of crap that I endured."

In addition to PFLAG, Munro contributes to myriad LGBT efforts: the LGBT Elder Initiative, the Philadelphia Police LGBT Liaison Committee and Sisterly L.O.V.E., a group dedicated to supporting trans women in the city, just to name a few.

Munro, a biologist, was born in Britain and has worked in London, Copenhagen and Paris. She holds degrees in microbiology, geology and environmental science, and public health. She taught at the university level and still teaches a biology class every year at the University of Georgia for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She's an avid reader, writes feverishly and loves spending time with her cat, Pushkin.

Munro came to Philadelphia in 1991 to work at the University of Pennsylvania as a research scientist. Her gender transition, she said, was gradual, taking place over many years. During her time at Penn, Munro advocated for health benefits for trans students and staff.

"I made the point that trans people, by and large, if they can get these things taken care of, tend to be very healthy and tend to be very hardworking," Munro said.

While transitional procedures for transgender people were eventually included in Penn's health benefits, the change came too late for Munro, who had already paid for her surgical transition out-of-pocket.

Now retired from Penn, Munro said that one of her current focuses is the LGBT Elder Initiative, which aims to provide aging people in the LGBT community with resources, services and a forum for discussion.

"I really think about things like Alzheimer's disease, and what will happen to me if I get something like that," Munro said. "If I have to go into care, which makes my blood run cold, will I be treated with respect and basic dignity?"

"Dawn's being on the board has really given a voice to the 'T' in 'LGBT,' " said Heshie Zinman, chair of the LGBT Elder Initiative. "It is with her help that the Elder Initiative is better able to focus on the needs of the transgender community."

Violence against transgender people is one of Munro's greatest concerns. She used to organize the National Transgender Day of Remembrance Memorial, at the William Way Center.

"There is so much violence against the trans community, it makes me kind of crazy," Munro said. "And even where there's no violence, there's so much transphobia. Sometimes even within LGBT organizations."

One of the initiatives Munro is part of to combat this violence is Sisterly L.O.V.E., which helps provide trans women with health services, educational opportunities and other resources.

Her personal achievements and involvement in so many groups may have earned her an award, but Munro said she wants to keep the focus on the issues, not herself.

"Anti-trans violence is much more important than I could ever hope to be - if I could ever hope to be important," Munro said.

Franny Price, executive director of Philly Pride Presents, the group responsible for organizing Outfest, said that support for Munro to receive the award was unanimous.

"I thought, 'Wow, she's admired apparently by everybody,' " Price said of Munro. "Once she was chosen, I had people come up to me and say, 'Good choice, good choice.' "

Although she's admired by her peers, Munro doesn't like the spotlight.

"Don't go thinking that I'm some modern-day Martin Luther King, because I'm not - there was a whole bunch of people involved in this," Munro said of the fight for trans benefits at Penn. "That's the thing about activism. Some people like to think, it's all about me, it's all about you. It's not. It's all about us."