| Form 990, Part III, Line 4d: Other Program Services Description |
OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 4: POLICY & ORGANIZING: The national TGNC Coalition of BIPOC TGNC activists and leaders has been meeting regularly and engaging in power mapping and campaign development, as well as planning for both near-term and longer-term membership expansion to help translate the vision and guidance of the Trans Agenda for Liberation (https://transgenderlawcenter.org/trans-agenda-for-liberation) into action. COVID delayed much of the planned 2020 launch of the Trans Agenda. In February 2021, we successfully re-launched the full five pillars of the Trans Agenda, coordinating the launch with an op-ed in Teen Vogue (https://www.teenvogue.com/story/the-trans-agenda-for-liberation) that included our specific policy demands of the Biden-Harris Administration to help operationalize the Trans Agenda. We established a partnership with Teen Vogue to include feature articles about each of the five pillars and highlight the work of a trans or nonbinary visual artist who expresses the vision of each pillar through their work.In addition, for Pride month, along with developing TLCs Pride messaging framework for 2021 in collaboration with TLCs National Strategy team, our Digital Media Manager Xoai Pham also collaborated with TransLash Media and the POC Zine Project on a joyous Pride Month Zine (https://translash.org/zine/) highlighting the 5 pillars of the Trans Agenda for Liberation. OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 5: BLACK TRANS CIRCLES (BTC): BTC has sustained our work with a core group of Black trans women and femmes in New Orleans, organized the 2021 Fierce Freedom School (in partnership with the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project) which launched in September 2021 and will continue into March 2022, and laid the groundwork for an additional cohort in Texas. The BTC cohort in New Orleans continued to meet quarterly and to provide healing space, information, and opportunities to stay. In the wake of Hurricane Ida, TLC has also sent disaster relief funding to BTC participants to help support them as they grapple with the storms extensive aftermath. In our communications, we have also lifted up local relief/mutual aid efforts that support/are inclusive of trans people OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 6: DISABILITY PROJECT: While many of our original approaches have shifted, the Disability Project has been effective in lifting up the leadership and collective capacity of disabled, Deaf, and ill LGBTQ people in multiple ways. Our presence at the Anti-Eugenic Gathering in the fall of 2021 also ensured that our voices and stories were included in this historic gathering, which sought to re-work, break silence and highlight the centennial anniversary of the original US Eugenic gathering held in New York City at the Museum of Natural History. Sebastian and Ericka were joined Akemi Nishida, Assistant Professor, Disability and Human Development at U. Illinois, Chicago, to comprise the DJ team and ensure it was appropriately grounded and guided by access, anti-ableism and disability justice content and politics. Under the leadership of our Community Advisory Board member Cara Page, we worked behind the scenes to ensure the violence, experimentation, erasure and exploitation of disabled individuals and communities a direct result of eugenics beliefs and practices was visible and acknowledged in this moment of resistance and reckoning. We helped co-facilitate and design an invite-only movement strategy huddle and training at the gathering supporting cross-disability, BIPOC-led, queer/trans and allied representation. Sebastian participated in a panel presentation exploring Trans and Queer Eugenic Legacies. We have also invested in developing a digital media strategy to further lift up queer and trans disabled, Deaf and ill voices, issues, and ideas; and launched work on a Trans Disabled Peoples Survey. Both of these are discussed in the next section below. In response to the challenges posed by COVID-19, the training plans shifted to a virtual model that took advantage of our connection with the Ford Foundations BUILD program. We expect that the virtual training approach will ultimately help us to grow a faculty that is bigger than the projects Community Advisory Board (CAB) and be able to pay people with particular expertise to be doing this work remotely. This allows us to build and connect in important ways with a broader array of disabled leaders, while providing acknowledgement and compensation for expertise. The gain is not only for the workshop participants, but in the disability community as well. Working with BUILD staff, we identified approximately 3 dozen BUILD grantees to invite, and held two day-long trainings, integrating disability justice and modeling access, in the fall of 2021. The trainings were very well-received, with strong, positive feedback on the pace, the facilitation style, the way information was made digestible, and the way the trainings values were manifested in how it was conducted. The initial curriculum included a baseline introduction and framing of access and accommodations as connected to disability justice politics, analysis, and lived experience of oppression, as well as a live conversation between Ericka and CAB member Syrus Ware, moderated by TLC Communications staffer K. Richardson, on the connections between anti-Black racism and ableism. The training closed with small group work to explore disability specific language slurs as hate speech, their roots in eugenic ideology and practice and its current locations, in relation to disabled TGNC and marginalized communities. In addition, Ericka and Sebastian designed and delivered an intermediate level disability justice training to a group of 12 strategic Roadmap consultants providing needed capacity building to infuse foundational level disability political analysis and familiarity with key DJ politics, principles, and practices. We have also worked with Funders for Justice, exploring how we could best provide intermediate-level training on disability justice strategy and tactics to their staff and board members to enable this progressive philanthropic organization to center disability justice within its core principles. We are excited to continue to work with Funders for Justice in this effort. OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 7: GENDER JUSTICE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM/TRUTH: Working in partnership with GSA Network, we have sustained our virtual leadership development program for trans youth leaders across the country via the TRUTH project. Over the last few months our team has been focusing on supporting trans and nonbinary youth leaders as they have been targeted by dozens of state-level bills (a few of which have become law) challenging their ability to participate in school sports and to access gender-affirming healthcare. In the recent period our opponents have ramped up their strategy of simultaneously attacking reproductive rights and trans communities, specifically young people through a frame of parent rights which goes even further creating a combined attack on reproductive rights, trans rights, racial justice (critical race theory) and covid-19 mask protocols. The potential for pitting movements against each other and using trans rights to undermine other movements is even greater than before. In this context, TRUTH participants are uniquely positioned to make sure that TGNC youth are not just talked about but instead have a meaningful voice in public debates that affect them. TRUTH intentionally creates the resources that help these youth spokespersons to feel safe and supported in this political context. Thus, we created responsive programming to support youth in the states where such bills have advanced, including organizing a virtual convening and spokesperson training. We have organized collaborative listening sessions with national partner organizations and trans youth; created accessible policy education for trans youth trying to understand the impact of these bills while learning about the legislative process as well, and holding community and open space for youth affected by these bills/laws and needing to have community solidarity. TRUTH leaders have been clear that centering hope continues to be critical, so TLC worked with TRUTH to create a loving and affirming series of messages to share including new #LoveLettersToTransPeople. In response to the stresses TGNC youth were experiencing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have also been providing enhanced support to TRUTH Council leaders during the pandemic, including through our collaboration with the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network and care packages we sent to support self-care. Our 15 TRUTH leaders attended monthly meetings and a variety of events, including the TRUTH Council Kick-Off in March, and virtual gatherings in July and September, and participated in campaign building and strategy for the GSA Day for Gender Justice in November 2021. At the beginning of June 2021, grounded in the expertise o |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 4: Description of Significant Changes to Organizational Documents |
TLC revised its By-Laws in 2019 to increase the terms of board members to three years and updated the address. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 11b: Form 990 Review Process |
The Board reviews an electronic copy of the 990 after it has been reviewed by the Executive Director and Treasurer with the preparer. Each member of the Board is provided with an electronic copy of the draft 990 document, before it is filed. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 12c: Explanation of Monitoring and Enforcement of Conflicts |
Each member of the Board is required to execute a conflict of interest statement upon joining the Board and annually thereafter. Conflicts of interest are reviewed by board members unrelated to the conflict, and members with conflicts of interest are required to recuse themselves from board decisions that involve these conflicts of interest. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 15a: Compensation Review & Approval Process - CEO, Top Management |
The Executive Director's salary review is based on a survey of regional and industry comparable salaries, as benchmarked by nonprofit compensation studies, and approved by a committee of the Board. This process was last conducted in 2021. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 15b: Compensation Review and Approval Process for Officers and Key Employees |
Annual salary reviews of other officers and key employees are based on survey of regional and industry comparable salaries, as benchmarked by nonprofit compensation studies. This process was last conducted in 2021. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 19: Other Organization Documents Publicly Available |
The Organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public upon request. |
| Form 990, Part III, Line 4a - Program Service Accomplishments |
(cont'd from Page 2) Our cases have been consolidated, and the government has indicated it is beginning to identify documents that address our requests. End Trans Detention (in partnership with BLMP, Mijente and Familia) hosted a series of events across the US during Pride month and created a dedicated shared webpage (https://www.endtransdetention.org/). In our class action lawsuit on behalf of all trans women in the Colorado prison system, we are working with co-counsel to organize and analyze the tens of thousands of documents produced by the defendants in discovery. We also continued to advance our efforts to hold ICE and its contractors responsible in the death of trans Honduran migrant Roxsana Hernandez while in ICE custody. In May 2021 we filed for leave to submit a second amended Federal Tort Claims Act complaint. In the criminal defense case we are co-counseling, in which the defendant is charged with murder for killing her trafficker in self-defense, we have been able to file three separate experts reports on trauma and trafficking. We have also, unexpectedly, been approached by Fair & Just Prosecution, a progressive prosecutors group, and have discussed areas of common interest in reducing criminalization and decriminalizing sex work. TLCs legal Helpdesk responded to 1,168 requests for assistance and our Prison Mail Program responded to 684 requests. |
| Form 990, Part III, Line 4b - Program Service Accomplishments |
cont'd from Page 2 BLMP organized our 2020 pilot Fierce Freedom School for 12 Black trans women and femmes, in collaboration with Transgender Law Center, bringing together migrant and U.S.-born Black trans women for two months of weekly, virtual leadership development. As this took place during the initial uprisings in response to George Floyd?s murder and in the context of a number of murders of Black trans women, we were able to lift up the voices of participants on social media and in the press at this critical moment. We launched the BLMP Garifuna Committee, engaging members of this Afrolatinx community with its own culture and language, especially in New York, New Orleans, and Houston. This network rapidly grew from fewer than 20 participants to more than 60. We collaborated in successful efforts to create a public fund in Houston for migrants at risk of deportation to get free legal representation. In the context of COVID-19, we distributed more than $200,000 in mutual aid to vulnerable Black LGBTQIA+ migrant community members. BLMP designed and implemented the first national survey of Black LGBTQIA+ Migrants. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected 300+ surveys and are preparing to publicly launch our findings. |
| Form 990, Part III, Line 4c - Program Service Accomplishments |
cont'd from Page 2 In April 2020, with co-counsel, we filed a class action suit demanding the release of all transgender detainees because of ICE's failure to keep them safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case was ultimately dismissed because all but one of our named defendants were released from detention. The remaining defendant was deported despite the efforts of her immigration attorneys. Our advocacy on the case made a real difference in securing the release of our named plaintiffs. In July 2020, TLC submitted an extensive comment opposing the administration's proposed asylum rule which would make it almost impossible for any asylum seeker to be eligible for asylum. We focused on the real-life experiences of project participants from the LGBTQ+ border project in which we collaborate to highlight the horrific impact of this potential rule. TLC is also serving as a plaintiff in Immigration Equality et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, challenging this rule. With the border project, we drafted a 40-page affidavit on the catastrophic impact this rule will have. In January 2021, the judge issued a preliminary injunction for the entire rule nationwide. We also continued to advance our efforts to hold ICE and its contractors responsible in the death of trans Honduran migrant Roxsana Hernandez while in ICE custody. In order to preserve liability of all possible actors who were responsible for Roxsana?s care, in May 2020 we filed a complaint against all companies who contracted with ICE and had Roxsana in their custody. We brought 21 counts against these companies for violations of the Rehabilitation Act, state-based negligence claims, negligence per se claims, negligent hiring, retention, training, and supervision claims, and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims because the FTCA does not apply to contractors. We have continued to add co-counsel, take steps to secure evidence from ICE and various contractors, and identify expert witnesses. Healthcare Access: In July 2020, with the National Women's Law Center, the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School, and law firm Hogan Lovells, TLC filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to challenge the Trump administration?s June 2020 rule undermining the Affordable Care Act?s protections which prohibit discrimination in health care on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and sex?including pregnancy, gender identity, and sex stereotyping. Identity Documents: In May 2020, Indiana Legal Services, Inc., Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Law Office of Barbara J. Baird, and TLC won an important victory on behalf of two transgender immigrant clients who had been seeking legal name changes. A Court of Appeals of Indiana unanimously held that a state name-change law does not require a petitioner to be a U.S. citizen to change their name, making it now legal for all people in Indiana to change their name regardless of their immigration status. TLC took the lead in a detailed amicus brief in the appeal of an Oregon case about nonbinary gender markers on IDs. JH petitioned their local court for an order recognizing their nonbinary gender in April 2019. The judge denied JH?s petition in an order that evinced clear misunderstandings about nonbinary people, trans people, intersex people, and the relevant law. In June, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled in favor JH?s right to a nonbinary gender marker. To our knowledge, this is the first state appellate court decision to say that lower courts can and should issue nonbinary gender change orders even where the statute doesn?t explicitly mention a nonbinary option. Employment, Housing, and Public Accommodations: TLC was thrilled at the victory against employment discrimination secured in June 2020 at the U.S. Sup |
Attach to Form 990 or 990-EZ.