{"id":179621,"date":"2026-02-25T12:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/179621\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T12:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:47:09","slug":"cece-cox-one-of-dallas-most-influential-lgbtq-leaders-announces-her-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/179621\/","title":{"rendered":"Cece Cox, one of Dallas\u2019 most influential LGBTQ leaders, announces her retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to imagine Dallas\u2019 Resource Center<\/a> without Cece Cox<\/a>, the beloved longtime CEO of one of the largest LGBTQ centers in the country. But Cox has announced she\u2019ll be retiring in early 2027, a date set far enough into the future that, throughout 2026, she can help oversee a national search for her successor. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be 65 next year, and this is a job that\u2019s 24-7,\u201d says Cox, proving the multitasking nature of her position by sneaking bites of lunch while she speaks to me. \u201cI have high expectations of myself, but I feel very satisfied with what\u2019s been accomplished at Resource Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resource Center started as a grassroots organization in 1983, during the AIDS crisis. When Cox came on board as associate executive director in 2007, the place had about 35 employees and a budget under $5 million. Cox, who got her law degree at Southern Methodist University, became head of the nonprofit in 2010. In the almost 20 years she\u2019s been with the organization, the staff has grown to nearly 100 people and the budget has expanded to $35 million. The center has 1,200 volunteers and serves more than 60,000 North Texans.<\/p>\n

One of Cox\u2019s crowning achievements is Oak Lawn Place<\/a>, an affordable housing complex opened in 2024 for LGBTQ seniors on a short stretch off Inwood Road. Cox spearheaded that $31 million project, a five-story building filled with art<\/a> and the kind of personal touches that make a place feel like home. The place is such a sunny counterpoint to the drab affordable housing stereotype that architecture critic Mark Lamster once called it<\/a> his favorite new building in Dallas. It currently has an 18-month waiting period for one of the 84 units. <\/p>\n

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Across the street from Oak Lawn Place is another capstone for Cox, Resource Center Health, a 20,000-square-foot health care clinic and food pantry that opened in 2025 for the LGBTQ community. <\/p>\n

\u201cI really believe, based upon my own experiences and others\u2019, that the queer community is not being properly cared for,\u201d says Cox. \u201cWe\u2019ve had bad experiences, or we\u2019re afraid of being discriminated against. Come to Resource Center as a queer person, including being a trans person, and you\u2019ll be with medical professionals who understand what is required for your care. That\u2019s hard to find.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox has a 27-year-old son, and she\u2019s married to Shelly Skeen, South-Central Regional Director for Lambda Legal, a national organization for LGBTQ civil rights and people living with HIV. As Cox sat in an upstairs meeting room inside the Resource Center Health building, she talked about the challenges of serving the LGBTQ community in a conservative state, the benefits of coming out in Dallas and what she plans to do in retirement. <\/p>\n

\"Cece<\/p>\n

Cece Cox speaks during a groundbreaking for Oak Lawn Place, an LGBTQ senior housing project in Dallas headed by Resource Center, on May 12, 2023. <\/p>\n

Jason Janik \/ Special Contributor<\/p>\n

During your tenure, there\u2019s been a lot of progress, like the advent of gay marriage, but more recently, we\u2019ve seen pushback from Texas lawmakers, even over small things like removing rainbow sidewalks<\/a>. How do you respond to that? <\/p>\n

I\u2019m at the age where I didn\u2019t lose 50 friends from the early days of the AIDS pandemic, but I did lose friends, and that history is where I start. I find comfort in knowing that this community can live through threatening, challenging times. I try to convey that in messages to staff. Whatever\u2019s awful right now is legit awful. Whatever feelings you have about it, they\u2019re legit feelings, but this is not the end of the world. <\/p>\n

It is stressful, though. You don\u2019t know when funding is going to be cut, although that hasn\u2019t happened to us in a significant way. Arlington just overturned<\/a> their anti-discrimination ordinance \u2014 on very questionable grounds, I might add. And Texas passed that \u201cDeath Star\u201d law<\/a> [House Bill 2127] that allows the state to challenge cities that offer more protection than the state does. Dallas has a nondiscrimination ordinance that includes LGBTQ people, and the state doesn\u2019t. I think red cities are under threat, but blue cities might be, too. <\/p>\n

What are the challenges for your successor?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s challenges in every business, but we have solid financials, a strong executive team, a great board and a supportive community. That said, I have a lot of relationships, so depending on what this person\u2019s background is, they may need to create connections that are brand new. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re in a state that\u2019s challenging in terms of how it regards LGBTQ people. The bathroom bill<\/a> went into effect in December, and that\u2019s threatening to individuals we serve. We can\u2019t provide health care to minors who are transgender. We would like to be able to help them, but we can\u2019t. So it\u2019s different from states that are more welcoming and inclusive. Oak Lawn Place has shown people the quality of work we can do. We\u2019ll need to continue to do high-quality work and raise the profile, because there are people we haven\u2019t reached yet that we need to serve. <\/p>\n

You grew up in Oklahoma and didn\u2019t come out until your 20s, when you were living in Dallas. What role did the city play in your coming-out story? <\/p>\n

It played a big part. I don\u2019t know if it would have happened differently in a different city, but I needed to feel part of a community. It took me five years to come out to my parents and brothers. We have a close family, but I was hiding, and I was afraid. So I needed to feel safe, and Dallas played a role in that. It was things as simple as, I could go to Hunky\u2019s [an LGBTQ-friendly Oak Lawn burger joint], I could go to the Crossroads [the intersection of Cedar Springs and Throckmorton, the heart of the Dallas LGBTQ community]. It\u2019s important for queer people to have a neighborhood, and I value that about Dallas. Bill Nelson and Terry Tebedo, the founders of Resource Center, helped create a lot of that community. Their store, Crossroads Market, birthed what became Resource Center, because they knew it was the place where people gathered.<\/p>\n

\"Dianna<\/p>\n

Dianna Grey, left, and Cece Cox hug as community members celebrate a groundbreaking for Oak Lawn Place, an LGBTQ senior housing project headed by Resource Center, on May 12, 2023. <\/p>\n

Jason Janik \/ Special Contributor<\/p>\n

OK, low-stakes question. Tex-Mex or BBQ, and where? <\/p>\n

BBQ! I don\u2019t have a spot, but I do love me some Terry Black\u2019s<\/a>. <\/p>\n

What are you most looking forward to in retirement?<\/p>\n

Hanging out with my wife and son. Traveling. I have a ton of projects I keep saying, I\u2019m gonna do that when I retire. One of them is archiving queer community history. I also want to tend to the giant planter in our backyard and learn to grow more things. I\u2019m not gonna be a crazy gardening lady with a sun hat, but I\u2019ll do a little gardening. And yoga. <\/p>\n

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