Expose roles to views
Turns out this can only be done programatically in a module.  Here is an example in case its useful for someone else:

function HOOK_views_query_alter(&amp;$view, &amp;$query) {
    /***** Owner ****/
  if ($view-&gt;name == "policy_listing" &amp;&amp; $view-&gt;current_display == "policy_by_owner") {
    //alter the query so role reference fields are sorted by the role name rather than role id (rid)
    //replace the rid with the actual owner name
    $query-&gt;fields['field_data_field_policy_owners_field_policy_owners_rid']['field'] = "name";
    $query-&gt;fields['field_data_field_policy_owners_field_policy_owners_rid']['table'] = "role";
    $query-&gt;fields['field_data_field_policy_owners_field_policy_owners_rid']['num'] = 2;

    //add the join to the role table
    $join = new views_join();
    $join-&gt;table = "role";
    $join-&gt;left_table = "field_data_field_policy_owners";
    $join-&gt;left_field = "field_policy_owners_rid";
    $join-&gt;field = "rid";
    $join-&gt;type = "LEFT";
    $join-&gt;extra = array();

    $query-&gt;table_queue['role'] = array (
      'alias' =&gt; "role",
      'table' =&gt; "role",
      'relationship' =&gt; "field_data_field_policy_owners",
      'join' =&gt; $join,
    );
  }
}


In this case I am replacing rid with the actual name of the role in the view so the sorting works.  Obviously, replace HOOK with your module name.