Diego Sanchez crosses the (picket) line at San Fran HRC dinner

The July 26 Human Rights Campaign (HRC) dinner at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco was protested by a number of LGBT activists upset about HRC's support of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which currently does not include protections for transgender people. But Diego Sanchez, a Boston-based trans activist who spoke at the event, felt that it was an important opportunity.

"I felt that the opportunity to bring the message of my trans and allied brothers and sisters outside of the hotel, to be able to bring that message inside the room was very connective and powerful for the community," said Sanchez.

Several high-profile California activists and lawmakers boycotted the dinner in solidarity with the picketers, among them Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was originally supposed to deliver the evening's keynote address.

Well aware of the protests and controversy surrounding his decision to speak, Sanchez listened to those who urged him not to participate in the event, but was confident in his choice to address the dinner's audience.

"I felt that the invitation for me to speak was an invitation to bring the message of my community and the urgency of our lives at a dinner of an organization that I'm very heavily involved with," said Sanchez, who is a member of The HRC Business Council.

He expressed the frustration that many of those opposed to his decision failed to ask what he was planning to say.

"The thing that I'd said to people who didn't want me to speak is that you haven't asked me why I'm going to do this and you haven't asked me what I'm going to say," said Sanchez. "So if you trust me, I promise that I'm going to honor our community."

Indeed, Sanchez emphasized inclusion over all else in his remarks. While he covered a number of important points, Sanchez pointed out that ENDA is not perfect, and that moving forward to make the act all-inclusive is key.

"HRC has endorsed Senator Obama, who if elected has already expressed his support for a fully inclusive ENDA ... one bill with everybody," said Sanchez in his speech that evening. "That is how we get to an appropriate ENDA, leaving no one behind. Not me, not you and not my friends, brothers and sisters across the street. That is the message of my family members across the street, and I am saddened that I have to be in once place and not another. This commitment is to you and to my community, all of us in this community."

Despite the controversy leading up to the event, Sanchez feels that overall, the feedback following his speech has been positive.

"The response has been overwhelmingly supportive, people understood that I was able to do a connection on the behalf of the committee," he said.

"It was humbling, it was sad, and it was extremely exciting. It was, to me, it was also very connective," said Sanchez of the experience. "I think all the voices that evening were important, the voices on the street were important and the voices in the room were important."