NE Dallas News

When former Democrat Rowlett Mayor Tammy Dana-Bashian announced she was forming a "diversity commission" to devise ways to celebrate and reward non-white and homosexual residents of her east Dallas suburb, Kellie McKee saw an opportunity.

The 47 year-old personal injury lawyer became a volunteer member, backing Dana-Bashian as she used the commission to lurch her city's government into so-called "progressive" action once unheard of in this right-leaning swathe of the Metroplex. 

The commission has since re-directed taxpayer dollars from mundane line items like police and public works to celebrations honoring "gay pride" and "transgender visibility," and to hosting a city-wide "Juneteenth Beauty Pageant," exclusive to black residents.

The Rowlett Diversity Commission has ordered the city Water Tower lit in honor of various causes, including George Floyd and "Gay Pride" month. | Facebook

McKee, now running for a seat on the Rowlett City Council in a Dec. 9 run-off, is betting voters want to stay the course.

Rowlett, which voted twice for Donald Trump, decisively, and which picked conservative Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott over liberal Democrat Beto O’Rourke last year by ten percentage points, would seem an improbable locale for the honoring of "George Floyd" on a city water tower, and for official proclamations recognizing "Indigenous People's Day," which argues white European explorers exploited native Indians and should return swathes of north Texas to them.

But such is the new normal in Rowlett, pop. 65,113, which has a median income of $102,965 according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

Backed by 23-year old Democrat Mayor Blake Margolis, who replaced Dana-Bashian when she resigned mid-term and moved to Arizona last year, McKee says she is running because she can "make reasoned and rational decisions" about how to spend city tax dollars, and that she would challenge what she describes as a defeatist attitude on the Council.

"It's frustrating to me," she said in a pre-election profile published by the city. “There’s almost always something that we can do."

Autistic and a cross-dresser

Rowlett offically formed its "Diversity Equity and Inclusion Commission" in Aug. 2018.

At its third meeting, member Michael Hernandez argued the city's "Trail of Trees" Christmas lighting event could be "considered offensive to Native American groups," and that its name should be changed.

The word "trail" is probably offensive to Native Americans, Hernandez said, because they are associated with the "Trail of Tears."

The event's name was changed immediately to "Light up Main"

In June 2020, the commission funded a "planned protest" of city police along with the Marxist activist group "Black Lives Matter."

Minutes of the meeting reported that member Diana Moore posted a video of the event to the commission's Facebook page.

"Powerful," the minutes read, adding that member Phaleria Hollins ran a "voter registration table" for protesters.

The commission was the brainchild of Rowlett software engineer Lina Khalil, who says she is autistic and a cross-dresser who also goes by the name "Ryan."

After running unsuccessfully for City Council in 2017, at age 25, Khalil said she did an analysis of city leadership positions and found that "90 percent.. were held by white citizens."

She implored Mayor Dana-Bashian to take action.

"Diversity doesn't end at race," she said. "We need to think about race, age, the LGBT community, gender (and) income levels."

McKee and stock trader Jonathan Reaves placed first and second in the Nov. 7 Rowlett Place 1 Councilmember election, and face a run-off.

McKee won 2,053 votes to Reaves' 2,041.

Genesis Castillo-Mendez (807 votes) and Robbert van Bloemendaal (711) placed third and fourth.