| Form 990, Part III, Line 4d |
OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 4: POLICY & ORGANIZING: The Trans Agenda for Liberation (TA4L) Coalition helped trans organizers and our allies highlight not only challenges trans people face but the many solutions we envision. In the last 12 months, we have onboarded 14 new members. Founding coalition members were featured in the "As Big as the Sky" short film by TLC which highlights the intergenerational wisdom that TLC is cultivating. We have heard from high-school-age trans youth planning national marches about how the TA4L pillars helped them to center marginalized and criminalized trans people of color in their outreach, strategy, and calls to action. We have heard from trans groups planning townhalls aimed at addressing anti-Black, anti-immigrant, and anti-trans policing practices using the TA4L's messaging. Cont'd at Schedule O OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 5: BLACK TRANS CIRCLES: Black Trans Circles sustained its active New Orleans and Texas cohorts. In October, BTC organized a national training in Atlanta, with 24 participants from the South and Midwest, including from Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, and Texas. The training curriculum addressed political education, media and communication, and professional development, within a healing justice framework. Eight participants filmed short vignettes, building on the storytelling and media training. A new cohort of the Fierce Freedom School for Black Trans women/femmes was also organized in collaboration with the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP). In May 2023, we hosted a gathering of seven graduates of the program to evaluate the impact of FFS programs on their external work. Subsequently, the decision was announced to open the program up to Black trans people of all genders going forward. It will now be called the "Fierce & Free Program." OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 6: DISABILITY JUSTICE PROJECT: The LGBTQIA+ Disability Project launched its unprecedented Disabled & Deaf Trans People's Survey in September. The survey's extensive promotion helped to secure more than 1,000 responses. Promotion included preparatory outreach beginning in mid-February 2023 on social media (continuing 1-3 times per week); 5 eblasts enabling list-building; outreach to 35 listserves and 90 celebrities/influencers/organizations; and creation of 3 toolkits for community promotion. The project benefited from the support of aligned sponsor organizations reaching key communities: the Autistic Women Nonbinary Network, National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color, Sins Invalid, and Trans Justice Funding Project. We also promoted the survey at multiple key events, gatherings, and venues, including Creating Change in San Francisco; the Open Society All Fellows Alumni Gathering in San Antonio; the Black Trans Circles National Gathering in Atlanta; the Trans Agenda for Liberation Gathering in Houston; and Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. During the grant period, we continued to provide resources for a local support project in Chicago providing packages of masks to BIPOC trans/queer disabled and chronically ill people and their careers. The project has distributed more than 20,000 masks to community members who still need to take precautions. OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 7: GENDER JUSTICE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM/TRUTH: With GSA Network, we provided virtual leadership development for 15 trans youth leaders across the country via TRUTH and further developed Roses, our new leadership initiative for trans girls of color, which includes a leadership group of 5 girls as well as monthly virtual social gatherings to engage and build supportive networks for a wider group of trans girls of color. Especially in the current environment, we have continued to work in partnership with the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network to implement a healing justice curriculum and provide support to youth leaders. In 2022, we began a new program TransTrustFunds, a partnership with Brown Boi Project to teach trans youth leaders about financial literacy. We continued to organize regular virtual leadership trainings and gatherings, and in June organized our second No PRIDE Without Trans Youth, so we could hear from our youth leaders about what they learned in the 2022 legislative session. Our November 2022 Day 4 Gender Justice Campaign included creating materials that were shared with 775 youth clubs nationwide. OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 8: BORDER BUTTERFLIES PROJECT: Border Butterflies Project provided legal information/services to 493 people in Mexico preparing to enter the U.S. During this time, 268 LGBTQ+ migrants were able to enter the U.S. (now mostly via the CBP One process), and benefited from an individual consultation with an attorney before entry. We assisted 20 program participants who were held in CBP custody or ICE detention. While we do not have capacity to represent every asylum seeker ourselves, we are currently preparing to represent 15 participants with particularly complex cases. We continue to provide assistance as needed to hundreds of program participants in the U.S. who are filing their asylum cases or waiting to have their cases adjudicated. BBP continued to provide shelter in Tijuana to 80+ people at one time, although we are increasingly closer to normal full capacity than to the overflow into other partner shelters that we had in past years, since there are clear mechanisms that allow people to enter the U.S., in contrast to the period in which entry was only by humanitarian parole, if at all. Also many people now wait until they have a CBP One date to travel north to Tijuana. Jardin de las Mariposas served 168 individuals in the grant report. Casa Arcoiris estimates that 15-20 new participants received shelter each month. We also support two other shelters with their LGBTQ+ residents. We also provided food, medical and mental health care, and community. In the U.S., BBP participants have continued to benefit from support in connecting with local social services and communities; as well as ongoing support with legal matters, including change of venue or other paperwork, work permits, assistance with completing asylum applications, and the availability of an attorney by phone on hearing dates. Some participants appreciate regular connection, while others only need occasional legal assistance. We have three tiers of legal support. The first is a consultation from a US attorney prior to crossing and detention support for those who need it, legal information where participants can call and get a call back within 72 hours, and lastly those for whom we provide direct legal support. One change we are currently in the process of implementing is assisting individuals who cross with a work permit within one month of crossing. A virtual community-building and leadership development group met monthly. In addition, U.S.-based collaborating organizations engaged participants who wished to be advocates in a variety of ways. BBP is also providing community connection and leadership development opportunities to participants who are interested. For example, anchor organization Familia: TQLM has launched a political education and membership campaign, Familia en el Sur traveling to 8 key southern states in the U.S. to organize around anti-trans legislation and has brought on former participants who live in cities such as Atlanta. We are also pleased to share stories of engagement from participant in California: F, a participant in the program, was first assisted in Mexico when she was given information about the shelter Jardin de las Mariposas, where she was given a place to stay. Afterwards, BBP helped her to prepare for applying for asylum in the U.S. After arriving in the U.S., BBP provided necessary information and support such as a cellphone, breakfast, transportation tickets, and a stipend so that she could get to her destination in Los Angeles. Later BBP directed her toward an organization that could help her navigate necessary services and housing, since migrants have to wait a significant time with limited resources while they are filing their cases and while their cases are pending. F has gone on to become a volunteer at this same organization that helped her. Z, a project participant, went to the United Sates and found herself in an abusive sponsor situation. We assisted her in getting to a friend in Los Angeles. However, once there she was still struggling. We supported her with some food, and connected her to some organizations that provide direct case management. We also are slowly building out a pro bono network willing to take on cases, and were able to successfully refer her to a law firm that took her case. Slowly but surely we were able to support her to connect with legal and social resources. However, Z was still very prone to deep depression due the trauma she endured. Moreover, she had been forced to leave four children behind in Honduras. We have made a referral to a few organizations |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 11b |
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, Section B, Line 12c |
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, Section B, Line 15a |
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 2023. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 15b |
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 2023. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section C, Line 19 |
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 |
(Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project; Cont'd from Page 2) Continued to engage members of the Garifuna AfroLatinx community across the country with virtual and in-person programming, including bi-weekly Trans Talks, growing our Garifuna Committee to 80+ members, including increased engagement in the Pacific Northwest. This program meets critical needs for an underserved and invisibilized part of our community. Graduated second Malaika Network deportation defense training and leadership program cohort and launched third cohort. Malaika Network members build skills and leadership to carry out critical aspects of our deportation defense and post-release support work. Supported deportation defense campaigns supporting migrants in California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. We were especially pleased that our efforts helped to secure the release of 12 LGBTQ Jamaican migrants who were detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California. We also provided post-detention support. Became the third anchor organization of the Border Butterfly Project which seeks to support LGBTQIA+ migrants at the US-Mexico border and organize bi-nationally to support asylum seekers. BBP is a unique and unprecedented support resource for LGBTQ+ migrants preparing to enter, entering, and after entering the U.S. to seek asylum, assisting 700+ migrants a year, with significant presence of migrants from Jamaica and Haiti. Began developing a Black migrant ecosystem, rooted in deep relationship building among politically aligned community members, leaders, and organizations in Texas. The initial host-partners with whom we have been meeting this year are ACLU-Texas; Texas Organizing Project; Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI); Haitian Bridge Alliance; We Dream in Black (WeDIB); and Justice for All Immigrants. This collaborative ecosystem will be ready to mobilize rapid response organizing, resource sharing, and service delivery which will address the power-building needs of Black migrant communities across Texas. |
| Form 990, Part III, Line 4b - Program Service Accomplishments |
(Policy and Organizing; Cont'd from Page 2) And we know of reproductive justice groups in the South that have made the TA4L a part of their organizing curriculum in the post-Roe v Wade world. We know that our work is reaching communities across sectors, giving them the tools and inspiration they need to keep fighting. In response to the continuously escalating backlash targeting trans people, and especially trans youth, TLC has played a critical national support, coordination, and convening role, working with groups on the ground in states where the attacks are centered, especially in the South and the Midwest. Attacks on access to transition-related care place trans people, their families/caregivers, and their medical providers in impossible positions and undermine access to all kinds of care, including preventive healthcare, testing, and treatment for HIV. TLC has sustained the Trans State Leaders Group, which is now meeting monthly to continue to inform TLC on the state and local policy developments and members' active efforts to combat anti-trans legislation. Members of the Trans State Leaders were trained on our Race, Gender, and Class Narrative (RCGN) messaging framework, an evidence-based framework, and had positive feedback about its usefulness in their work. TLC hired an experienced attorney to help organize a loose criminal defense attorney network in Alabama, with the hope that this model can be replicated in other states where criminalization of access to/provision of healthcare is on the table. We partnered with If/When/How's Repro Legal Defense Fund to develop the Trans Health Legal Fund, which can provide economic resources and support for people facing investigation, arrest, or prosecution for seeking gender-affirming healthcare. This fund launched publicly in early March 2023. |
| Form 990, Part III, Line 4c - Program Service Accomplishments |
(Legal Program; Cont'd from page 2) We also found that the incident had been caught on tape, and that the violence had erupted when her trafficker attacked her for not seeing a client he wanted her to see - and was clearly self-defense. With this new information, B's primary defense attorney secured an adjournment. We took the unusual step of co-counseling this case, leveraging the fact that our legal director is a recognized expert on human trafficking. Originally, the state's best plea offer was for B to plead guilty to a manslaughter charge, go to prison, and immediately begin requesting parole. We helped to prepare the primary defense attorney for a meeting with the Chief Deputy District Attorney in mid-2022, and subsequently, the offer changed to pleading to a manslaughter charge and be sentenced to time-served. In early 2023, TLC's legal director met directly with the District Attorney. At the end of that meeting, he agreed to drop all charges and the arrest was eventually expunged from her record. It is critical to elevate cases like this so that trans survivors of violence are not victimized again if they defend themselves. Prisons: TLC sustained our class action suit on behalf of all incarcerated trans women in Colorado (Raven v. Polis). Having won key preliminary decisions, we engaged in discovery, closely coordinating with co-counsel around the thousands of pages of documentation that have resulted. Via an emergency hearing request, we stopped the Colorado Attorney General's office from seeking to interview trans women in custody (our clients) without us present. We also moved to intervene in Chandler v. CDCR, a case designed to undermine recent prison reforms in California that better protect trans prisoners. The challenge to this law is full of false and harmful tropes framing trans women as a danger to cisgender women. In August 2023, the district court granted our motion to intervene. The court found that the trans intervenors "bring a unique and vital perspective as they alone can attest to the realities of being an incarcerated TGI person, and that "the intervenors can provide a necessary element to the litigation that the existing parties cannot." Wrongful Death of Roxsana Hernandez: TLC sustained and advanced litigation (Youngers v. MTC et al.) in our efforts to hold the United States and ICE contractors responsible for the wrongful death of trans Honduran migrant Roxsana Hernandez. This case includes 21 counts for violations of 504 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, Unruh and Bane Act claims. Defendants have continued to delay complying with the Court's orders to compel discovery. The Court set new case deadlines, including a date certain by which all outstanding discovery as ordered must be produced. In that order, the judge made clear that she will not allow further delay absent extenuating circumstances. Challenging TX Healthcare Ban - Initial Victory: In July 2023, Lambda Legal, ACLU of Texas, ACLU, and TLC filed suit to block the new Texas ban on healthcare for trans youth, representing five Texas families, three medical professionals, and two organizations representing hundreds of families and health professionals across Texas. The ban threatens the wellbeing of the 29,800 trans youth ages 13-17 in Texas. We won a temporary injunction on August 25, 2023, but the case was appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, which, by an anti-plaintiff quirk in Texas law, meant that the injunction was immediately stayed and the law went into effect. We are awaiting a final ruling from the Texas Supreme Court after presenting arguments in January 2024. HIV Criminalization: TLC and the ACLU Racial Justice Project and LGBTQ & HIV project recently filed a case using the Americans with Disabilities Act to invalidate a Tennessee law that criminalizes HIV. Tennessee's Aggravated Prostitution statute makes it a felony for someone living with HIV to engage in or solicit sex work, which the law defines so broadly that even talking to an undercover officer in certain areas can result in arrest - particularly for Black trans women. An Aggravated Prostitution conviction requires registration as a violent sexual offender in Tennessee, which has devastating impacts on people's ability to obtain employment and housing and see family and friends, while the general prostitution statute is a misdemeanor with no registry requirement. This case is challenging the law statewide but will particularly focus on Memphis and the surrounding area, as research has shown that the law is being enforced particularly harshly there, especially against Black trans and cis women. Legal Services: Our free, national Helpdesk responded to 1,229 requests for assistance in 2023, and our Prison Mail Program has responded to 710 requests in that same period. |