The Women of the 2015 Trans 100 Speak Up About Supporting Trans Women

This past Sunday, the Third annual Trans 100 list was released at a live ceremony in Chicago, Illinois. The Trans 100, created by Jen Richards and Antonia D’Orsay, is a list of trans people who make an impact in the trans community and in the overall world. It highlights trans people from many different areas, including activists, writers, artists, mentors and educators. One of the great things about this list is that it includes trans community leaders from so many different places and so it’s a great tool to find people working in local trans communities, not just those who have a national spotlight.

This being a women’s website, I’m going to be focusing on honorees who ID as women, but there are plenty of others on the list that people should check out. The people on this list are all making a big difference in their communities and are definitely making things better for other trans people. Since they obviously have a good idea of how to help other trans people, just like I did last year, I wanted to ask them how Autostraddle readers can best do just that.

All of this information comes from the 2015 Trans 100 booklet unless otherwise stated. More information about each honoree is available there. I definitely recommend going to the Trans 100 website and checking the booklet out to find out more about these amazing women and the other trans people on this year’s list.

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1. Maddie Adams

Adams was the first trans woman to work for the Democratic Party in Michigan where she worked as a Field Organizer and Volunteer Coordinator during the 2014 election cycle. During that year she also worked with Freedom Michigan in Wayne Country trying to pass an LGBT inclusive Civil Rights Act.

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2. Andrea Bowen

Andrea Bowen has spent years making things better for trans people by changing laws and winning legal victories. She led advocacy efforts in Washington, DC to reform birth certificate and name change legislation and trans peoples’ right to insurance coverage for transition-related care. She also helped to win a legal victory against a women’s shelter that was denying access to trans women. Currently, she’s the Executive Director of Garden State Equality where she keeps on fighting to secure rights for LGBT people.

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3. Meghan Buell

Since 2003, Buell has been active in the trans community in Indiana. She’s also currently the Executive Director of the GLBT Resource Center of Michiana and has served on the Transgender Advisory Committee for the Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. Recently she founded a nonprofit called TREES, Inc. (Transgender Resource, Education and Enrichment Services), that works to bring trans education and resources to underserved rural populations in the Midwest. She told me that, “to be included in the Trans 100 for 2015 is a unexpected recognition and I am humbled to join such an awesome group of trans advocates from around the country. The event will be something I will be proud of for years to come. I would like to thank those who sponsored me, especially Kelly and Emily. I do not do what I do for recognition but because it is the right thing to do.”

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 4. Lexie Cannes

Apart from being an award-winning filmmaker and actress, Cannes is also an activist and writer who writes at her successful blog, Lexie Cannes State of Trans, Huffington Post and other publications. Her trans-centered and starring feature film Lexie Cannes wond multiple awards on the festival circuit. She suggested a simple way to support trans women, telling me “this is an easy question: Show up to vote on election day and vote for the Democrat!”

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5. Daniella Carter

You may be familiar with Carter from her appearance in the Emmy nominated MTV and Logo documentary Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word. She also advocates for LGBT youth and speaks and appears on panels on local, national and international levels, working with people like Cyndi Lauper and 50 Cent as well as Miss Universe. She recently started a project to bring visibility to trans youth issues and often talks about LGBTQIA homelessness and the intersection of identities. She said that in order to support trans women we should, “look beyond race, class and gender. Equality is not race specific, it’s universal.”

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6. Joanna Cifredo

The founder of firebreathingtgirl.com, Cifredo is a writer, youth health educator and Brand Ambassador to the DC Rape Crisis Center. Since moving to Washington, DC, she has started working with the Latin@ LGBTQ community center Empoderate and serves on the Board of Directors to Whitman Walker Health. She also received the 2015 Visionary Voice Award from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center for her work on trans-inclusive healthcare and, with the DCRCC is launching a city-wide converstion between cis and trans women of color called “SIS to Cis.”

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7. Thomi Clinton

Clinton’s influence and work can be seen in many areas, including facilitating the opening of her county’s trans medical and mental health clinic, working with the DOJ on preventing rape and assault of incarcerated trans people, improving access to gender neutral bathrooms, education and homeless shelters and raising close to $10,000 dollars for the first known TDoR Vigil Statue.  “Always remember there is no certain way to accomplish change,” she told me, “the point is, we try to put our differences aside and accomplish that change. Remember, 3+2=5 and so does 4+1. Both equal the end and a perfect number.”

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8. Lynn Conway

Conway has been responsible for groundbreaking innovations in the world of computer engineering ever since the 1960s when she worked for IBM. While working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center she pioneered new silicon chip design methods that paved the way for the Silicon Valley microelectronics boom during the 80’s and 90’s. She’s received many awards and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is Professor Emerita of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan. Besides from being a legend and pioneer in the computer sciences, she also has a trans support website that helps trans women across the world and fights against the psychiatric patholigization of gender variance.

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9. Yvonne Cook-Riley

Cook-Riley is an Air Force veteran who serves on the Board of Directors of the Transgender American Veterans Association, but that’s just one small part of her long history helping the trans community. She helped to develop the International Foundation for Gender Education and was awarded the 1991 Outreach Medal from the Outreach Institute for her work in the trans movement. She’s also been awarded the IFGE Trinity award, the IFGE Virginia Prince Lifetime Service Award and the Virginia Price Pioneer Award. Currently she’s working as the Executive Director of the Pride Center of the Blue Ridge and the group Kindred Spirit.

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10. Jordan Gwendolyn Davis

Davis has worked tirelessly in Philadelphia to advance trans rights. She worked with the City Council on a resolution that ended a discriminatory gender sticker policy on public transit passes, worked to get the first ever mayoral proclamation for TDoR and helped to get the first ever Philadelphia City Council resolution for Transgender Awareness Week. She also worked with Philadelphia Councilmember Kenney on a landmark TLGB omnibus bill that passed and signed in 2013, state representative Mark Cohen on the first ever trans-specific rights bills in Pennsylvania history and is consulting with trans health access organizations. “I believe that trans women are best supported by allowing them to access women’s spaces no matter what stage of transition they are in,” she told me, “and be mindful of the language of biological essentialism in everyday womanhood and feminism. I proudly identify as a feminist.”

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11. Dallas Denny

Denny told me she’s “excited by the diversity and passion of the other 99 people selected for the 2015 Trans 100 List,” and that she’s “proud to be on the list.” She’s a writer, editor, speaker and community builder who also serves as a board member of the nonprofit Transgender Health & Educational Alliance and Real Life Experiences, a member of the planning committee for Fantasia Fair and a contributor to the recent book Trans Bodies, Trans Selves. You can check out her work on her website. She says that “one thing people can do to support trans* people of all kinds is to stop evaluating us as if we were ‘really’ members of our birth gender.”

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12. Ashley Diamond

Before she became incarcerated and started working as a trans rights activist, Diamond was a singer and entertainer from Rome, Georgia. However, after her hormone therapy was terminated and pleas for safe housing were ignored, she filed a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s practice of denying trans-related care to inmates and ignoring the sexual assault they face. She also made a series of videos called “Memoirs of a Chain Gang Sissy” that amplifies the voices of fellow LGBTQI inmates and shines a light on the abuse and mistreatment they regularly face.

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13. Reverend Tammy “Jubi” Dutcher

The Rev. Dutcher is a Priest of the Universal Anglican Church and the Diocesan Administrator for the Midwest. She’s also the co-founder of the Ecumenical Order of Jesus Christ Reconciler and has a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Spirituality from Loyola University of Chicago. She is the former president of the Illinois Gender Advocates and has participated in the Chicago Trans Coalition. Currently, she is the Trans programming coordinator for Chicago Women’s Health Center.

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14.  Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi

Lady Dane is an African, Cuban and Native American performance artist, author of the book Yemaya’s Daughters, teacher, blogger, advocate and life coach. She also volunteers at Casa Ruby, is a member of the TWOCC Leadership Team and a founding member of Force/Collision.

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15. Lauryn Farris

Farris currently serves as Assistant Director of the The Thrive Center, the first LGBTQ-specific homeless shelter in the South. She has also served two terms as the President of the San Antonio Gender Association and makes dozens of presentations on trans rights every year.

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16. Katrina Goodlett

Goodlett is a Black trans woman of color who serves as the Executive Producer and Host of the Kitty Bella Show on Blog Talk Radio. This show features Goodlett talking with fellow trans people as well as allies on a variety of topics. She’s also the creator of the #tgirlsrock campaign, aimed at emopowering trans people through clothing.

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 17. Brooke Cerda Guzmán

Guzmán is a women’s rights activist who came to America in 1989. She co-founded the Trans Women of Color Collective, served a volunteer internship with The Gender Identity Project, was honored by the Anti Violence Project and was awarded the “Legacy of Pride Award” by Harlem Pride. She emphasizes the importance of supporting TWOC: “Fund our own organizations like TWOCC , BLACK TRANS MEDIA, TRANSLATINA NETWORK, TRANS GRIOT, CASA RUBY … If you can’t , we can all definitely tell others about the great work they are doing to inspire others in our community to start their own.”

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18. Gretchen Rachel Hammond

Hammond is a senior report for the Windy City Times, the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ publication. She says that she thinks one of the most important things the trans community can do right now is to unite: “Looking back on the lessons of history, I note that tyranny has never been defeated by communities that speak in separate voices rather than a a powerful and combined whole. We are so busy fighting with ourselves on terminology or who or who isn’t to be considered transgender that we have not been able to rally together while legislative, media, mental and physical assaults on us continue. We have organizations like the HRC making empty promises. We have no recognition on local, state, federal or worldwide levels meanwhile our people are dying.they are being imprisoned, they have no jobs, no homes, no families. Ironically it was a group of transgender performers who are credited with starting the LGBT movement in 1969. Since then we have been a shadow within it. We have been on our own. Well, we have the talent, the ability, the spokespeople, the strength and the courage within our own ranks to make our own stand and stand we must or else the ‘tipping point’ that has been discussed so much could very well capsize us.”

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19. Mary Irons

Irons serves as a board member and facilitator for the Washington Gender Alliance and provides peer support for trans people age 16 and up. She also founded the Shoreline Washington Gender Alliance meeting and Transgender Parents of Washington and received the volunteer of the year award from the North Urban Human Services Alliance for her work. She also is a workshop presenter who presents at workshops all throughout Western Washington.

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20. Monica James

James is a Black trans woman from the South Side of Chicago who has fought for years against unfair police targeting that led to her being confined in the maximum security section of Cook County Jail over 100 times. In 2007 she fought trumped up charges that followed a brutal assault by police. She traveled to Geneva, Switzerland in 2014 to testify before the UN about police violence against trans women of color. She’s also a collective member at the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois and a staff member at the Howard Brown Health Center.

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21. Jennell Jaquays

Throughout a long career as a game developer and artist, Jaquays has been a pioneer in the fields of table-top role play and video games. She’s used this career to work as an ambassador to gaming communities, partially through the group PressXY.com, and a mentor to fans and peers as they transition. She’s also a trustee on the board of the Transgender Human Rights Institute and a founding partner and Chief Creative Officer for game developer Olde Sküül. Jaquays says that respect is one of the main things trans women need: “The one thing that anyone can do to support transgender women is give respect. Respect for their self-understanding. Respect for their decisions. Respect for not only their accomplishments, but for their potential. Being transgender should be the footnote for our lives, not the definition of them.”

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22. Samantha Jo Dato

Dato is a dedicated and passionate advocate and activist for trans issues. In 2012 she served on the committee for the Philadelphia Trans March, helped to launch the Mazzoni Center’s Trans Wellness Project and presented workshops at conferences like The National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change and the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference. She’s also seen as a role model, big sister and support system to many people around her. “The most productive way to help support trans women of color is to  let them lead their own narratives and empower them with the support they need to be successful personally and professionally,” she told me.

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23. Monica Jones

Last year Monica Jones, who is a sex work activist, made headlines when she was arrested for “manifesting prostitution” and had to fight to not be kept in a men’s prison. She’s currently a student at the Arizona State University school of social work and she also educates people on the issues that affect trans women and sex workers. One recent trip was to Geneva to speak about these issues.

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24. Bryn Kelly

Kelly is a writer and performer who has written for Showtime Network’s OurChart.com, Original Plumbing magazine, Prettyqueer.com and the anthology Trans/Love: Radical Sex, Love and Relationships Beyond the Gender Binary as well as fiction for the journals Time is Not A Line: Reflections on HIV/AIDS Now and EOAGH. She also co-created and wa a cast of the touring roadshow The Fully Functional Cabaret and co-founded Theater Transgression. She wanted to give some advice on how men can support trans women. “I know this is not exactly your audience, this being Autostraddle and all, but I think it’s of vital importance: the men in our lives need to do a better job of stepping up,” she told me, “this goes for gay (cis and trans) men who feel the need to argue endlessly over the T-word, to our romantic partners who are men (cis and trans) who often have access to all-male spaces where trans women are often denigrated, the butt of a joke. Sex worker activists have been saying this for years: if men gave as much money to trans women-fronted political projects as they spent on trans women’s sexual labor, we could solve most of our problems in about two weeks.”

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25. Mira Krishnan

Krishnan, a neuropsychologist, leads the Center for Autism at Hope Network in Michigan. She also serves a board advisory role with the American Association of Children’s Residential Centers and co-chairs the American Psychological Association’s Division 44 Committee for Transgender People and Gender Diversity. She also has a blog where she writes about LGBTQIA+ and feminist issues. She emphasizes the importance of community, telling me, “I hope that people understand that we are building a community where there was none. We don’t have all the answers. As we get where we’re going, trans community has the opportunity to be a beacon that drives all communities towards the very best in them. I hope people support us in finding us, and that you all get to share in the joy, love, and hope, that emanates from us when we are community.”

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26. Aryah Lester

Lester is the founder of Miami-Dade’s first ever transgender organization, Trans-Miami, and also serves as the current chair for the Florida Health Department’s Transgender Work Group. She works as a nationally certified suicide crisis hotline counselor and speaks nationally about trans equality. She’s also instituted a monthly support group for trans people in Brickell and sits as a member of the National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Director transgender group. Lester says that, “the best way one can support trans women is through education: educating yourself by querying the mind of a local trans advocate, and attending trans educational workshops. Continue said education in public situations during conversations with friends and family, when you witness discrimination against a trans woman, and to our youth. Only through positive visibility could the trans community be fully assisted in living life with less strife, and it would take the voices of all to make it happen.”

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27. Dr. Rachel Levine

Dr. Levine is the Acting Physician General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the administration of Governor Tom Wolf. She’s also a Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine. Before this post, she served on the Board of Equality PA and the board of the Capital Region Stonewall Democrats.

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28. Jennifer Louise Lopez

Lopez is a “Transgender, Transsexual, Bisexual, Lesbian, Curvy, Cross-eyed, Latina and Woman here to change the modern day views of society.”

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29. Kristen Parker Lovell

Lovell works at Sylvia’s Place/MCCNY Charities Inc., New York City’s only emergency queer youth shelter in order to carry on Sylvia Rivera, her former mentor’s, legacy. She works there as the Program Coordinator for HIV Testing and Counseling and is helping to relaunch STARR, the radical trans activist group original started by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. She’s also the founder of the empowerment group Trans in Action. Lovell told me that she thinks “embracing each other and understanding one another’s differences is key! I need some time to really think about that because there are so many ways one can be supportive. For me support looks like  people who stand with me in a cause donating to organizations, volunteering and being present to help support and build community.”

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30. Tommy Luckett

Luckett advocates for people living with HIV/AIDS and is trying to end the disparities in healthcare coverage that trans people face. She attended the 53rd annual Presidential advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and participated in a panel discussing Medicaid expansion. She was the Arkansas State Coordinator for AIDSWatch 2014 and sits on the board of the Arkansas Transgender Equality Coalition, is a Quality of Healthcare Advisor to the Arkansas Department of Health and is on the board of the US PLHIV Caucus Steering Committee. Luckett emphasized to me the importance of working together. “The best answer I could muster is that we need to stop seeing each other as the enemy,” she said. “We are people who need to learn how to agree to disagree without resulting to violence. If we cannot be respectful of each other, how can we and who are we to demand respect from others?”

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31.  Greta Martela

Martela is a software engineer from San Francisco who, with her partner Nina Chaubal, founded Trans Lifeline, a crisis line for transgender people staffed entirely by fellow transgender people. Martela told me that in order for things to get better for trans people, cis people need to change the way they think about us. “I think one of the most important ways that cis allies can support trans women is to be vocal advocates among their cis friends,” she said, “the discomfort that cis people experience when confronted with transness is killing us. This is something the community really can’t do for itself, it’s up to cis people to change the way they think about trans identities and we really need cis allies to step up. As far as what trans women can do to support each other, I think it’s important that we stop ostracizing people we disagree with. This can be really hard because there are some trans women with so much internalized transmisogyny, they can be really toxic and difficult to deal with. My point is this: no matter how much you disagree with that person, she is still one of us.”

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32. Joselyn Mendoza

Mendoza is an undocumented trans woman from Queens, New York, who organized and lead the largest immigrant youth-led movement to fight for trans liberation.She organized with Make The Road New York, a Queens organization, to push for GENDA legislation that would include gender identity protections. She’s a National Leader for the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, where she lead the recent #WeCantWait Campaign that led to President Obama acting to protect nearly 5 million undocumented immigrant families.

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33. Toni Newman

Newman is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-nominated memoir I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman. Apart from being an accomplished author, Newman is also the Community Editor for Proud to Be Out- The Digital Magazine and a blogger for Huffington Post. She also works as the Development and Administration Coordinator of the largest health-care wellness centers in South Los Angeles.

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34. Reyna Ortiz

Ortiz is a proud trans Latina who says “Living my life as a Trans woman growing up in the inner city you come to realize the lack of resources and understand the needs in your community. My passion is to inform all Trans women about the resources that are available. Connecting with ‘The Girls’ on a deeper personal level understanding the struggles that Trans women go through and finding ways to make our lives and Transition easier. Trans people are her, have been here and will always be here.”

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35. Alexis Paige

Paige is a bisexual, mixed race Korean trans woman who helped plan Portland’s first ever official Trans Pride March, the Meaningful Care Conference and helped to promote and spread education about Oregon’s Medicaid program ending exclusions of trans related healthcare. She currently works at the Cascade AIDS Project where she’s also a member of the Trans inclusion committee. She asks that trans women be treated like other women: “Please don’t treat us like we’re different or something that has to be handled with care. Don’t act like we’re fragile and one tiny step away from breaking. Please just treat us like you would any other woman. Cause that’s what we are. We’re just women, and all we’re asking for is to be recognized as such. So please just understand that, and let us live our lives the way we need to so that we can actually live.”

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36. Dianne Grace Piggott

Piggott is a trans woman who lives in Boise, Idaho, and has been heavily involved in the fight to add the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the state Human Rights Act. She’s also worked with the ACLU under a Pride Foundation fellowship and helped to organize a statewide network of trans activists.

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37. Chelsea Poe

Poe is an activist, porn performer, director and writer (who has written for Autostraddle). She centers her activism around improving sex work conditions for trans women and often challenges mainstream porn’s lack of trans inclusion and use of transphobic slurs. She was the first trans model in the history of alt porn site God’s Girls and has been nominated for two AVNs and 8 Transgender Erotica Awards. “I think the biggest thing that non trans people can do for trans people is listen to our voices and our experiences,” Chelsea told me, “so often trans issues become public debate; whether it’s about trans women at women’s colleges or trans people using the bathroom, our voices get ignored. I think for trans women the best thing we can do to support each other is listen to each and acknowledging there isn’t a right or wrong way to be trans.”

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38. Penelope Poppers

The founder and Executive Director of Lucie’s Place, an organization in Arkansas working with homeless LGBTQ young adults in the area. She hopes that she can one day make the American South a better place for LGBTQ folks.

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39. Rebeka Refuse

Nominated for two Transgender Erotica Awards this year for her work as an adult model, Refuse also works as an escort and has been moderating the blog Trans Housing Network since 2013. She’s an advocate for homeless trans people and hopes to help develop better ways to help homeless trans people. She told me that she is a “communist, a gender abolitionist” and that  “trans women will continue to suffer, in my opinion, until capitalist patriarchy is overthrown worldwide. Expanding access to the social safety net is desperately necessary as a form of humanitarian relief in our society, but, ultimately, we need revolution for the liberation of all gender minorities and exploited persons in the world.”

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40. Geena Rocero

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41. Ms. Dr. Joseph L Simonis

Ms. Dr. Simonis is an athlete, activist, writer and scientist who not only holds a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell, but also is a conservation biologist at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and is the founder of the Trans, Gender-Non-Conforming and Intersex Athlete Network, which connects TGI athletes and promotes trans and queer inclusion in the sports. They also speak and write about the importance of self-identity for trans athletes and is a member of the Windy City Rollers and Team Illinois in competitive roller derby. Ms. Dr. Simonis suggests that if people want to support trans women, they can “affirm our beauty, strength, and intelligence, and respect our ability to know ourselves better than anyone else ever will.”

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42. Grace Sterling Stowell

Stowell has over 40 years working as an advocate for social justice. In 1980, she joined the newly formed Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth as their first executive director and in the 1990s, helped to pioneer the national movement to expand community organizing for LGBTQ youth and trans communities. She’s a long-time Steering Committee member of the MA Transgender Political Coalition and remains doing work as a “Grandmother” to generations of trans youth. “Given the epidemic of violence and murder of trans women, especially young trans women of color, I call on all of us to come together to challenge and end the systems of social and institutional racial, gender and economic oppression that are devastating our communities,” She told me,  “we can, and must, fight for a world in which living while trans is not a premature death sentence, and that the lives of all black and trans people matter.”

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43. De Sube

Aside from years in retail and management positions and founding De Sube Business Consulting, Sube created and became the facilitator of New Life Transgender Outreach, which later grew into the Gender Expression Movement of Hampton Roads. In 2011, she opened the LGBT Center of Hampton Roads where she still works as an advocate. She has also been awarded the Old Dominion University Diversity Award and the Virginia Beach, Virginia Human Rights Commission’s community service award.

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44. Emma Todd

Todd is the Deputy Executive Director of the Trans Lifeline and has helped the organization to have the capacity to support thousands of trans people in need of help. She’s also volunteered with GLSEN, Equality Illinois, Oklahomans for Equality and Pride at the University of Tulsa to advocate for support, equality and protections for trans people and the rest of the LGBT community. She told me that, “the most important thing that we can do as women to support trans women is to amplify the diverse voices in our community. That can mean supporting other trans women to take on empowering positions who have not had the chance before, such as speaking at a panel or leading an event. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking trans women how we can support them and make them feel comfortable in a space. It requires acknowledging that true justice and visibility for trans women will only come when we are working to show the diversity of our community and the variety of experiences that we have as trans women, rather than reifying the patriarchal, transphobic culture that we live in.”

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45. Jos Truitt

The Executive Director of the website Feministing, Truitt focuses on uplifiting the voices of young feminists and marginalized groups and getting them paid. She’s been published in the Guardian, Bilerico, RH Reality Check, Metro Weekly and the Columbia Journalism Review and has fought for civil liberties and reproductive justice for  years. She told me that she thinks we need to be more than casual supporters of trans women: “Sharing articles about violence on Facebook isn’t enough. People need to support trans women of color’s organizing, people need to hire trans women of color. People need to take concrete steps to change the disparities that exist.”

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46. Victoria Villalba

Hailing from Hermosillo, Mexico and raised in Phoenix, Arizona until 2010, Villalba is a determined fighter for immigrant rights. When she realized that she would not be able to live an authentic life in Mexico, she went to the US border to request asylum, but was detained and held in an all-male ICE detention center for over three months instead. While there she lead a hunger strike among her fellow queer and trans migrants to protest the horrible conditions there. Since being released she has continued to fight for trans and queer migrants and founded the organization Transcend Arizona.

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47. LaSaia Wade

Wade is a 27 year old trans woman of color who has worked with the TPOCC and many other advocacy organizations. She’s currently the Executive Director of the TNTJ Tennessee Trans Journey Project where she deals with economic injustice and helps to create jobs and funding for trans folk in Tennessee. Wade says that “allowing us to lead and live in our narratives adds to our survival” a major way to support trans women.

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48. Dawn Josephine Wilson

Wilson has been working for trans civil rights for 20 years. She went to the first Transgender Lobby Days event in 1995 where she helped train trans people how to effectively lobby Congress. She joined the Louisville Fairness Campaign in 1998 where she educated the LGB community and public office holders on trans topics and has also served on the board for the Council for Fairness and Individual Rights, the PAC for the Fairness Campaign and currently works at the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission.

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49. Kylie Wu

Wu is the creator, illustrator and writer of the wonderful autobiographical webcomic Trans Girl Next Door (which I’ve featured here on Autostraddle before). She also loves naps, watermelons and surfing. “I think one thing that people can do to best support trans women is to listen to our stories. People, no matter who you are, just wanna be heard. And through our stories you’ll develop a connection with us, understand us better, and discover the little (or big) ways to help us,” she said, “Oh, and buy us ice cream. This might be a better way to support us, especially if you met us on a super super hot day.”

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50. LaLa Zannell

Zannell is the Community Organizer at the New York City Anti-Violence Project where she works on behalf of New Yorks’ LGBTQ population. She’s also a key member of the AVP’s Rapid Incident Response Team, which responds whenever acts of violence against LGBTQ and HIV-affected New Yorkers become public. She’s also a mentor for the Trans Mentorship Program at the Ali Forney Center, a coalition member of Communities United for Police Reform and a member of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Program Movement Building Committee.

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Each of these women brings something different to the table, and each gives great advice on how to best support trans women. Even if you take the advice of just a few of them, I’m sure that will go a long way in helping to make lives better for trans women, and all trans people in your community and across the country.

Want to Support the Women of the Trans 100? Here’s How.

The second annual Trans 100 list was announced at a live event on the night of Sunday, March 30th. This list highlights trans people who are helping to make a positive impact in the trans community and the world. Jen Richards, who cofounded the Trans 100 with Antonia D’Orsay, says that the Trans 100’s goal is “to create a counter narrative that offers a growing compendium of people organizations and projects that simultaneously reveals the diversity of trans people and celebrates the work being done in the community.” She also added that the list “is not a ‘Top 100,’ ‘Best Of,’ or even the result of straight voting by the public or volunteers. It is an intentionally curated list of out trans people who are working on trans issues in the United States and having a positive impact.” The event included many great speakers and performers, including Richards, Kye Allums, Laverne Cox and members of Trans*H4CK Chicago. This year’s list was curated by 2014 Trans 100 Co-Director Asher Kollieboi. If you’d like to watch the event, it’s still available to view online (the event starts about ten minutes in).

Janet Mock, the author of Redefining Realness and one of last year’s honorees, helped to introduce the Inaugural Trans 100 Living Legend Award. She gave me some great advice on how to support trans women.

One way we can work in coalition with trans women is by embracing trans women as women, and hopefully the ones you know, as sisters. This work is one that’s harder for many to do due to the misleading and pervasive rhetoric around trans women’s identities, lives and bodies being framed as inauthentic and artifice. Combatting this misinformation and replacing it with truth is a powerful first step towards working in solidarity with trans women. Various other ways include hiring the amazing women on the Trans 100; donating your talent, time and funds to the organizations they lead; and incorporating and engaging these women in discourse and actions addressing criminalization, healthcare, reproductive rights, HIV/AIDS, homelessness, employment, domestic violence and much more.

I also spoke with model, Gender Proud founder and recent TED Talker Geena Rocero, who was one of the presenters at this year’s event.

It was my first time being in Chicago, so what better way to be welcomed than being at HOME, with my community of amazing trans sisters and brothers. It was a powerful weekend full of LOVE and support. I believe the Trans movement as a whole is at a turning point. We are here and we are visible. We will continue to elevate each other’s platforms!

The best way for people to support trans women is by simply supporting our work and to continue to tell our lived experiences. We have a lot of powerful stories that needs to be told NOW! And get to know a transwomen, you’ll be surprise what you find out about our feminine divine!

This list is a great way to get familiar with a huge number of trans activists, artists and workers who might not otherwise show up on your radar. It’s also a great way to find out about a huge number of ways you can support trans people. Here are some of the trans women and trans feminine folks who made this year’s list along with information and links that let you know how to support them and their projects. If I don’t have specific information, I provide info on the kind of projects they are involved with. I also talked to several of them to get special insight on how Autostraddle readers can support our trans sisters. All information comes from the 2014 Trans Booklet unless otherwise stated.

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1. Gloria Allen (Inaugural Trans 100 Living Legend Award recipient)

Allen is an elder trans woman of color who started transitioning in the 1970s. She currently shares her experience and wisdom with young people in Chicago where she is known as “Mama Grace.” She runs a “Charm School” where trans youth can learn safety, skills and education in order to live and thrive in the city. Her Charm School is hosted at the Center on Halsted, which you can volunteer at or donate to.

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2. A. Dionne Stallworth

Stallworth is one of the founders of Gender PAC, the first transgender political action committee in the country and one of the founders and first cochairs of the Transgender Health Action Coalition. You can support her current work by helping out Project H.O.M.E., a housing and support organization that looks to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.

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3. Alana Nicole Sholar

Sholar released a memoir, Hung in the Middle: A Journey of Gender Discovery in 2012. She currently shares her experiences as a trans woman by speaking at colleges and public events. You can buy her book (and her spouse’s book My Husband Looks Better in Lingerie Than I Do… Damn It!) online and you can check her facebook fan page to contact her about speaking engagements.

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4. Alison Gill

A graduate of Rutgers and George Washington Law School, Gill now works at The Trevor Project as the government affairs director. Her job is to work through policy initiatives at the federal, state and local levels to advocate for LGTBQ youth health and safety. She also works with the Trans Legal Advocates of Washington (TransLAW), where she helps with trans advocacy in Washington, DC. You can get involved with The Trevor Project by connecting or volunteering or by donating. You can also support TransLAW by donating.

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5. Angelica Ross

Ross is a modern day Renaissance Woman. She’s a writer, speaker, photographer, actress and singer/songwriter. She is also the coordinator of TransWorks, a project that works toward the economic empowerment of transgender and gender-nonconforming people. She also works as a mentor and cofacilitator for The National Trans Leadership Academy. To help out with TransWorks and Ross’ work, you can support the Chicago House or go to her website to find out about upcoming appearances and projects. We talked about the important of space and opportunity for trans women.

The trans community continues to be excluded from so many spaces including places of worship, the workplace, and even their own homes. Being excluded from so many spaces also means being excluded from so many opportunities. What can you do? Create space & opportunity. Think about the spaces you occupy, are they safe and welcoming to trans people? Creating more safe and welcoming spaces creates more opportunities for trans people to fully exist as human beings.

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6. Askari Gonzalez

Gonzalez is a writer, performer, poet and artist.  One way to support her is by buying her book, Trauma Queen, as either an ebook for yourself, or as a paperback to donate to libraries or LGBT centers. If you’d like to book her for speaking engagements, performances or workshops, you can contact her via her website. Also, for next few days, the International Trans Women of Color Gathering, which she is one of the coordinators of, is accepting money for their Indiegogo campaign. She talked to me about a few things people can do to be better trans allies.

Reach out to trans women of color in your community and ask them how to be in solidarity with them, which can look like going to LGBTQ centers and joining trans support groups that are open to non-trans members. Also, any space made safe for women *must* be safe for trans women, and especially trans women of color.

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7. Bailey Jay

An AVN award winner, comedienne, B-MovieHorror Hostess and frequent podcaster, Bailey Jay is able to reach a huge audience with her wit and irreverence. She’s hosted several podcasts, but her newest one is called Gender Coaching with Bailey Jay, where she discusses spirituality, sexuality and challenging traditional gender roles. I talked to her about how she thinks people can best support trans women.

At the risk of being broad, I would say I want people not to be afraid to ask Trans women to define themselves. Including sex workers. Don’t limit us or assume what our journey was or how we feel. Ask us. Ask us what terms we prefer. Ask us how our experience was in high school. Let a Trans woman educate you. Maybe I don’t care about certain slurs. Maybe they infuriate me. Maybe I always knew I was Trans. Maybe I just found out. I want people to know there isn’t one Trans story just because the same one is portrayed by cis people over and over again. We are beautiful, multifaceted individuals like all humans are. When your readers meet a Trans woman, allow her story to organically unfold like you would any person. Don’t limit her to being your idea of Trans.

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8. Bali White

White is a writer, researcher and PhD student in African Studies at Howard University. She previously earned a BA magna cum laude in Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures and an MA in Climate and Society from Columbia University. She is also a community organizer who works to address transgender identity, legal, health and social concerns. She can be found on twitter.

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9. Brynn Tannehill

Tannehill is the director of advocacy for SPART*A, which is an LGBTQ organization that focuses on helping service members. She works with active duty and recently discharged trans service members connect with others, find medical and mental health services and get legal support, as the current US military policy requires that all openly trans service members be discharged from service. She also advocates for a trans inclusive military and writes for the Huffington Post and Bilerico Project.

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10. Carmen Carrera

After first finding the public spotlight on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Carrera came out as trans and has now earned herself a successful career as a model and showgirl. She appeared on Katie Couric’s show with Laverne Cox and on that appearance, helped to shine a light on the rude, invasive and unnecessary questions that trans women are so often asked about their genitals. She signed with Elite Modeling Management, promotes transgender equality and HIV prevention and was the subject of an online movement to have her become the first trans Victoria’s Secret model.

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11. CeCe McDonald

CeCe McDonald is an incredibly courageous trans woman of color who was sentenced to 41 months in prison after defending herself from a transphobic and racist attack. She’s since been released after serving nineteen months and has been advocating the rights of trans women of color and for prison reform and abolition. For more information on prison abolition, you can check out the work of Reina Gosset and Dean Spade. You can also support CeCe by supporting the documentary being made about her.

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12. Charlene Jacqueline Arcila

Arcila is responsible for the largest trans conference in the US, the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference. This conference is currently looking for donations, volunteers, workshops, vendors and advertisers. She also is working on a project called H.O.P.E. (Helping Others Pursue Excellence), which will address the needs of trans people being released from correctional facilities and substance abuse programs. Arcila is also an ordained minister at Unity Fellowship of Christ Church Philadelphia and educates liturgical staffs on how to make their chruches more trans-friendly.

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13. Chella Isabel Marie Coleman

Working in Los Angeles, Coleman is an activist, artist and organizer who educates the public on issues that impact the trans community, especially low income trans women of color. She works with Gender Justice LA and the Los Angeles Poverty Department to serve high risk and low income communities. If you live in LA, you too can get involved with these groups, or you can donate to each of them.

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14. Cherno Biko

Biko publicly came out as intersex and transgender last year in a one person show called LIFE: Lessons Learned. Since then, Biko has become a board member of TransOhio, the codirector for We Happy Trans and a codirector for Project I Am Enough. Biko talked to me about how people can support trans women.

We need funding resources to do the work we do. But even if folks can’t contribute that way, I love Laverne Cox’s speech at Creating Change. (We need to) love trans women out in public.

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15. Cheryl Courtney-Evans

In 1979, Courtney-Evans came to Atlanta, joined LaGender, a transgender support group, and received her certification as a transgender peer counselor. In 2007, she founded TILTT (Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth), which was the first trans support group in Atlanta to serve both trans men and trans women. TILTT helps transgender people with moral support, advocacy, resources and legal information. She also provides trainings for organizations who want to improve their employment diversity practices and is currently helping to organize a group working to establish transgender focused emergency and transitional housing in Atlanta.

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16. Courtney Gray

Gray founded the GLBT Community Center of Colorado in 2010 and now works as the transgender programs manager. She also worked on the Denver Sheriff Department’s Transgender Inmate Policy, the US Department of Justice Transgender Law Enforcement Training, trans inclusive health insurance and the first state-level Transgender Behavioral Health Survey. Gray also volunteers at One Colorado, on the Kitchen Cabinet and Health Advisory Committee. One Colorado is open to even more volunteersand donations.

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17. Cristan Williams

William started the first trans homeless shelter, cofounded the first ever federally funded trans homeless program, pioneered Houston area affordable health care and has done countless other goods for the trans community. She is currently the editor at TransAdvocate and TheTERFS.com, a long-term member of the City of Houston HIV Prevention Planning Group and the executive director of the Transgender Foundation of America.

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18. Danielle Nika Askini

A social worker and activist, Askini is the policy director of Basic Rights Oregon and was the founding executive director of Gender Justice League, which takes donations, and Trans* Pride Seattle which you can volunteer at or donate to. She currently works in both Seattle and Portland to help bring justice to trans people in the Pacific Northwest.

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19. Dee Dee Ngozi Chamblee

Chamblee brings over 20 years of organizing and advocacy to her work which includes health HIV/AIDS research, substance about prevention, mental health, intimate partner violence and counseling. Her organization LaGender, works through SnapCo (Solutions Not Punishment Coalition), which combats police profiling of trans women of color. She also became the first trans woman to receive the Champion of Change honor from President Obama in 2011.

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20. Dr. Jillian T. Weiss

Weiss is a professor of law and society at Ramapo College where she has authored over fifty academic publications, presentations and scholarly works and about forty article and interviews for organizations like the New York Times and Associated Press. She also is a practicing lawyer who represents trans employees across the nation and serves on the board of directors of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and as the chair of the annual Transgender Law Institute.

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21. Drian Juarez

Juarez works as a consultant on trans issues in the workplace and helps to develop programs that help transgender people get back to work. She also served as the program manager for the Transgender Economic Empowerment Project of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

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22. Fallon Fox

The first openly trans woman to be a professional MMA fighter, Fallon Fox has had to face more adversity than almost any other athlete in her sport. One obvious way you can support her is to cheer her on whenever she fights. As a part of the bigger picture, you can check out the Trans*Athlete website to see how you can help trans athletes across the country. She told me that just reading the Trans 100 is a great first step to support trans women.

Just knowing about the people in the Trans 100 and their projects and organizations is an important step. There are an incredible number of resources contained there, so sharing the booklet online helps disseminate that information while also changing the public perception of the number and variety of trans people. Many of the organizations listed are nonprofits and will accept donations and volunteers.

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23. Imogen Binnie

The author of the novel Nevada, Binnie is currently a Lambda Literary Award finalist and continues to write about trans women and trans womanhood. To support her, you can keep buying her book, reading her blog and checking out her column for Maximum Rocknroll magazine.  We talked about the importance of challenging the misinformation about trans women that permeates culture.

I think my best advice is to start at zero and ask yourself: what do you know about trans women, and where did you get your information? It seems like most television and movie writers don’t know any trans women in real life, which means if you can trace what you know about trans women back to old episodes of Law & Order — or even appearances by trans people on talk shows created and edited by cis people for cis people — you might not know as much about trans women as you think you do. Read Janet Mock, Reina Gossett, Casey Plett and Ryka Aoki and ask yourself: is this similar or different from what you’ve heard from Neil Jordan, Thomas Harris, Stephen Colbert and John Irving?

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24. Jazz

The youngest person on the list, Jazz is a thirteen-year-old trans girl who bravely came out and has since used the platform that she has to advocate for the rights of other trans children. One of the projects she’s involved with is the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation. In supporting them, you’re helping send trans kids to trans camps, supporting trans youth organizations and homeless shelters, trans youth social events and more.

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25. Kiara St. James

Kiara St. James was one of the major players in highlighting and helping to change the trans-woman-denying policies that many New York City shelters had. She also has used fashion shows to raise money for the transgender community. Currently, St. James works at the Lutheran Medical Center where she teaches cultural competency, helps to link trans women looking for jobs with employment and does consulting at Housing Works, which has a bunch of ways you can donate or volunteer.

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26. Kim Watson

The cofounder of Community Kinship Life, also known as CKLife, her organization helps trans men and women with life skills, medical needs, counseling and access to resources. The group also sponsors the CKLife scholarship fund which helps to pay for transition related procedures.

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27. Lana Wachowski

Lana Wachowski, one of half of the influential filmmaking duo The Wachowskis, who are responsible for The Matrix Trilogy, Bound, Speed Racer and several other films. They also have the movie Jupiter Ascending coming out later this year.

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28. Laura Jane Grace

Laura Jane Grace is the lead singer and guitarist for the punk band Against Me!. She came out in 2012, and since then has written many songs that deal directly with trans struggles and issues. The band recently released Transgender Dysphoria Blues, which is the highest charting release of the band’s career.

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29. Lourdes Ashley Hunter

For over twenty years Hunter has led a number of initiatives that have impacted the socio-economic growth and development of trans people of color. She is currently the cofounder and executive board char of The Trans Women of Color Collective of Greater New York, which empowers trans women of color to take charge of their own stories.

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30. Maria Louise Roman

Roman has been one of the leaders in social services for the Latina trans community in Los Angeles for over sixteen years. She was the first trans person to be program manager for Transgeneros Unidas, which is an HIV prevention program. Now, she is a member of the West Hollywood Transgender Advisory Board, a Los Angeles County HIV commissioner and a drug and alcohol counselor at the APAIT Health Center.

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31. Mattee Jim

Jim is of the Zuni People Clan, Born for the Towering House People Clan. She is originally from Tse’na’oosh’jiin, and currently works as a supervisor for the HIV Prevention Programs at First Nations Community Health Source. She also is a board member for the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health out of UCSF and a member of the Statewide HIV Prevention’s Community Planning and Action Group and the National Native Transgender Network.

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32. Maya Jafer

Jafer is currently employed as a counselor at the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team where she serves people, especially trans women of color, in Los Angeles who are struggling with trauma, PTSD and substance abuse. She comes from a long line of healers and has two doctorates in holistic medicine with years of experience focused on trans women’s health in India and the US. She is also the subject of the award winning documentary Mohammed to Maya, which is currently looking for sponsors for the final stages of post production.

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33. Morgan Robyn Collado

Collado is an Austin-based working class femme trans woman of color. She is of Colombian and Puerto Rican descent and works as a community organizer and family builder. She is also a poet, and you can support her work by buying her first book of poems, Make Love to Rage, which will be published through Biyuti Publishing soon. I talked to her about what people can do to support trans women of color.

I think the best way folks can support trans women of color is to know that we are alive. We are not just a headline. So if you don’t know any of us or our work, ask yourself why. Who has the most visibility in life? We are the lives of twoc celebrated when they are still alive? Examine who benefits from our erasure. And know that queers would have NOTHING without us.

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34. Nancy Nangeroni

Since 2008, Nangeroni has served as chair of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) Steering Committee, helping them pass the Massachusetts Trans Equal Rights Bill. She started her trans activism in 1990, and then in 1995 founded the GLAAD award winning radio program GenderTalk, which she cohosted until 2006. In 1998, she lead a candlelight vigil for murdered trans woman Rita Hester that inspired the International Transgender Day of Remembrance.

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35. Nikki Calma

Known in the Bay Area as “Tita Aida,” she has been a part of API LGBTQ HIV/AIDS activism since the 90’s. If you’d like to help that community, you can donate, volunteer or help in other ways. She also helped to conduct the first Transgender Community Health Project Survey in San Francisco back in 1997 and served as program supervisor of TRANS: THRIVE, San Francisco’s first drop-in center for the transgender community.

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36. Octavia Hamlett

Hamlett has worked on two trans inclusive bills, which advocated for employment, housing and public accommodation equality for trans people in Las Vegas in the four years since she came out as a trans woman. She is also a lobbyist at Progress Leadership of Nevada, where she raises awareness for issues important to the trans community. She recently won the QUEST: Woman of the Year title in a pageant hosted by the APAIT Health Center, which encourages the empowerment of the marginalized trans community.

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37. Parker Marie Molloy

Ms. Molloy is a talented writer who has written about feminist and trans issues for The Advocate, Huffington Post, Rolling stone and many other publications. She often brings to light stories that are often otherwise ignored by the media. She wrote a blog about her feelings on the subject, saying that not only is it an honor, but also a call to action.

I feel a true obligation to step up my game. I’m refining my approach to several aspects of my life, including how I use social media, the content of my writing, and my overall outlook on life.

I started writing about trans issues because I witnessed the lack of quality trans media coverage. If I’m going to be in it for the long haul, I need to focus. Less a firebrand, and more a unifier. I amin this for the long haul.

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38. Precious Davis

Davis is the youth outreach coordinator at the Center on Halsted. There she coordinates youth programming about HIV prevention, trans advocacy and cultural awareness. She is also an artistic associate with the About Face Theatre, a facilitator with the National Conference for Community and Justice STL’s Anytown program and she has a strong passion for challenging young people and helping them to see bigotry and prejudice in their communities.

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39. Red Durkin

Durkin is a comedian, writer and activist who was voted the 2013 MOTHA Performer of the Year. She is the managing editor of PrettyQueer.com and has written nine zines and a piece in Topside Press’ The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard. She also organized a 2013 Change.org petition against trans women’s exclusion from the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and is the originator of the Trans Ladies Picnic.

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40. Sarah McBride

One of Delaware’s favorite daughters, you might remember her from when came out as trans just after completing her term as American University’s Student Body President. Since then, she’s worked with the Center for American Progress, the Board of Directors of Equality Delaware, several political campaigns, the White House and she was extremely influential in helping to pass Delaware’s Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act. She talked to me about the many different ways people can support trans women.

Contact your member of congress and urge them to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Contact – email, call, or write a letter – to the White House urging President Obama to issue an executive order banning discrimination against LGBT people in federal contracts. And urge him not to include any religious exemption beyond the current basic one in federal law.

If you have a story and you feel comfortable telling it, please share it. This isn’t to say everyone needs to come out or that everyone needs to be an activist, but know that your voice and experiences matter. We need to tell the stories – both positive and not-so-positive – of LGBT people.

If you have the resources, donate money to your favorite LGBTQ advocacy organization or advocacy organization that does LGBTQ advocacy within a broader portfolio.

I think Autostraddle readers can continue to stand up and articulate that queer identities, trans lives, and feminism are natural allies and intersect in both lived experiences and in cause. Autostraddle and its readers are important voices in combating anti-trans sentiments among the very small, but vocal group of trans exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs).

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41. Sharyn Grayson

Grayson recently announced her retirement after over thirty years in the nonprofit sector across several states, including her position as Program Coordinator for Transgender Programs and Services at AIDS Project of the East Bay in Oakland. She has received many awards for her work with trans people and plans to establish a national magazine and publishing house to provide an outlet for aspiring trans journalists.

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42. Tiffany Woods

Woods is the Program Manager for Transgender Services at Tri-City Health Center in Fremont, California. There she helps the trans and gender neutral community gain access to healthcare, hormones and HIV prevention and care services. In 2002, she cocreated the program TransVision, which helps trans women of color with jobs, health services and mentoring.

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43. Tobi Hill-Meyer

Hill-Meyer won an Award for Emerging Filmmaker of the year in 2010 after releasing her first film, Doing it Ourselves: The Trans Woman Porn Project. She helped to found Handbasket Productions and is currently working on Doing it Again and the website Doing it Online, which she hopes will help create a trans positive culture. Aside from being a filmmaker, she also serves as External Coordinator for Washington’s Gender Justice League. She gave me an entire list of ways you can support her.

Organize a screening, workshop, lecture, or talk at your campus. Donate money to the Gender Justice League or help volunteer for Seattle Trans* Pride. Buy/promote my films (use coupon code tpositive for $5 off films). Review my films – get in touch about free review screeners. Join my casting listserve or announcement listserve. Become a member of my soon to be launched website, I really need the regular income in order to keep doing this, or become an affiliate for [that] website- promote it and get a percentage of sales. You can follow me on tumblr/twitter as Tobitastic.

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44. Tracy Garza

Garza is the cochair of the San Francisco Trans March, the largest trans pride organization of it’s kind in the world, which you can support through donations or by volunteering. She is a founding board member of the Transgender Law Center She also recently joined the staff at El/La Para Translatinas, which advocates for trans Latinas in the Bay Area.

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45. Valerie Spencer

One of the stars of the documentary Beautiful Daughters, about a 2004 all trans woman production of The Vagina Monologues, Spencer has a long history of working within the trans community. She often focuses on health disparities in the trans community and was honored with the Berman Shaffer Award for her years of community service in progressive action.

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46. Vanessa Losey

Losey is a Pima Indian from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is a founding member of the Salt River L.O.V.E. (Lifting Our Voices for Equality) Support Group, which serves Two-Spirit people and provides them with a community.

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47. Vanessa Victoria

Vanessa Victoria is an executive board member and ambassador of the Trans Women of Color Collective of Greater New York and also works for the Anti-Violence Project in New York City., which can always use more support. Apart from her advocacy, she is also an entertainer and model who started performing when she lived in Puerto Rico.

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48. Vivian Taylor

The Executive Director of Integrity USA, Taylor is a writer, activist and military veteran. Integrity USA is the Episcopal Church’s national LGTBQ organization, which aims to get full inclusion and access to rites for LGBTQ church members. Integrity offers training programs for people who want to help affect change at local, regional and national levels.

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49. Z Jae Williams

Known affectionally as “Auntie Z,” she helped to create the Youth Lounge in Chicago, a drop-in for queer youth where they don’t have to worry about ID checks, sign-ins or removal of their possessions. She has the goal to take her work with queer youth nationwide, and with the expansion of Youth Lounge, she is starting on a new project, ARIZE.

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50. Zackary Drucker

Drucker is a Los Angeles based artist and performer. She uses a wide range of media to express her ideas about identity, bodies and womanhood. Her art challenges concepts of traditional power dynamics, comfort and gender roles. You can check out more of her art online

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It may seem a bit overwhelming seeing all of these project and groups and people, and seeing that the best way to help them is often by donating money. However, every little bit helps. Even if you can’t donate to any of these groups, having awareness about how to help is a great first step in case your situation changes or you meet someone who can do something that you can’t. Additionally, a lot of these projects need support that isn’t monetary, and all of the amazing, hardworking and talented women on this list need support in every way that they can get it.

Laverne Cox to Receive GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award, Ellen Page to Present It, Everyone to Swoon

Yup. You read that right. Beacon of magnificence Laverne Cox will be honored at the 25th Annual GLAAD Media Awards with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, and beacon of magnificence Ellen Page will present it.

GLAAD made the announcement this morning, noting that the Stephen F. Kolzak award

is presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equality. The award is named after a successful casting director, who devoted the last part of his life to raising awareness in the entertainment industry about the discrimination faced by LGBT and HIV-positive people.

GLAAD honors Cox for her portrayal of incarcerated trans woman Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black, and commitment to increasing visibility for trans issues, in particular those that impact trans women of color. As you probably know, Cox has had a huge year advocating for trans women in the media. She called out Katie Couric on her inappropriate and invasive questions, spoke on the revolutionary act of loving trans women at Creating Change, and is producing the upcoming documentary about incarcerated trans women of color, Free Cece! Cox was also just named to the second annual Trans 100 list.

When Page came out on Valentine’s Day and inspired this epic playlist and this epic essay, she named Cox as one of her inspirations. I am really excited to well up with tears when I hear Page present and Cox accept this award. They are both really good at speeches, guys.

Past winners of the Stephen F. Kolzak award include Wanda Sykes, Melissa Etheridge and Ellen DeGeneres.

The GLAAD awards take place in Los Angeles on April 12, when this very website will also be up for the Outstanding Blog of the Year award. A lot of other amazing humans and internet/media entities are up for awards, too, so STAY TUNED.

VIDEO: Laverne Cox Speaks On The Revolutionary Act Of Loving Trans Women At Creating Change 2014

Please excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor because I am just plowed over by the brilliance that was Laverne Cox giving the keynote address at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s 26th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change.

Creating Change is happening right at this very moment! Maybe you’re there yourself. It is a big, queer, corporate conference sponsored by everything, from lube to oats to airplanes and the AARP. (The cool part about its bigness is that a bunch of radical queer people can come together and use all that super corporate money for radical things!) This year, 4,000 people from across the United States are gathered in Houston, Texas for the five-day festival of queer networking and “networking.” The themes of the 2014 conference are HIV/AIDS in communities of color, trans* rights, and the intersections of the gay rights movements with healthcare and immigration.

Cox’s presence at Creating Change is clearly setting the tone for the conference and for the direction of the movement. Samantha, a grad student at Emory University attending Creating Change, spoke to that: “I am at CC because Laverne Cox is here! It’s a banner year for transgender activism and …I’m thrilled that trans women of color are at the center of this conference instead of the periphery.”

There’s a lot on the docket for Creating Change. Each day is packed with shorter workshops and daylong “institutes” to go more in-depth on issues ranging from economic justice to bi/pan/fluid organizing. Flipping through their 160-page catalogue, these would be my highlights:

• Crisis of Success: LGBTQ Momentum, Racial Regression and Our Collective Challenge by Rebecca Suldan, Rinku Sen, Tarson Luis Ramos and Caitlin Breedlove
• How Arizona “Flushed” Anti-Trans Legislation by C. Michael Woodward and Abigail (Abby) Jensen
• From Stonewall to Stop and Frisk: Police Violence, Government Misconduct, and the Criminalization of LGBTQ Communities by National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, Lambda Legal, Streetwise and Safe and BreakOUT!
• 69 Ways to Use Saran Wrap: Queering Your Campus Safe Sex Education by Zaneta Rago
• The Secret to Your Story is Vulnerability by Gabriel Garcia-Vera and Nicolas Rolda

If you’re there at Creating Change, I’m jealous. But thanks to technology, I tuned into the livestream of the opening plenary that kicked off the conference. After an hour of PSAs and introductions, Houston Mayor Annise Parker spoke, Kate Clinton told some bad jokes, and then finally, finally, Laverne Cox came on stage to give her keynote address.

The crowd exploded when Cox took the stage. She opened by speaking directly to what that felt like: “I have to say that a black transgender woman from a working class background raised by a single mother — that’s me — getting all this love tonight, this feels like the change I need to see more of in this country.” She used the stage to highlight the work of trans women activists across the United States, naming the power of love and resilience in resisting the violence that is constantly perpetrated against trans women, specifically trans women of color.

Cox pointed to trans activists Silvia Rivera, Miss Major, Monica Roberts, Kylar Broadus and Candis Cayne for the work they’ve done that paved the way for her. Cox named organizations serving trans* people like the Chicago House’s TransLife Project and Casa Ruby in Washington, DC, specifically noting their need for more money to do the work that they do.

“Trans women supporting and loving each other is a revolutionary act.”

She looked to CeCe McDonald. CeCe’s story shows the violence perpetrated against trans women of color by the criminal justice system. “That shit is fucked up,” Cox said, pulling no punches as she detailed the violent reality of the world that trans women of color have to live in.

Cox named the necessity of love in the struggle for justice for trans women of color, pointing again to CeCe, the Transgender Youth Support Network in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the work of grassroots activists there that did amazing work with few resources to make sure CeCe did not get lost in the criminal justice system.

“The way in which CeCe advocated for herself and the way in which her support committee advocated for her is a template for the way we do activism all over this country. It started with CeCe and it started with her having this profound sense of love for herself, that everyone around her felt. Everybody I talked to who has come in contact with CeCe talks about this woman who inspired them and who had so much hope and propelled them to have hope to and to fight on her behalf. Love for a black trans woman freed her and kept her safe on the inside. …I believe when we love someone, we respect them and we listen to them, and we feel like their voice matters… We let them dictate the terms of who they are and what their story is.”

What was truly incredible about watching Cox speak is that she didn’t just talk about the revolution — she made her speech a revolutionary act in itself. Even a year ago, it seemed unlikely that a black trans woman could have that kind of platform, speaking to the public of the LGBTQ community as an actor who already has recognition in the mainstream community at-large. Cox named how much has changed, how much trans women have been at the center of that change, and also how much still needs to be done. “Trans women supporting and loving each other is a revolutionary act,” she said. Referring to the responses to her and Carmen Carrera’s interview with Katie Couric, she said, “We are changing the conversation right now.” And you know she was including Mey’s response.

Throughout her speech, Cox was interrupted by applause over thirty times. “It really is a big deal to have this kind of support,” she said. She talked about having lived most of her life being chased by people who were trying to beat her up, and struggling with self-hatred.

“I’ve always been like, ‘Love myself? How the heck am I supposed to do that?’ …I believe, now, I’m starting to understand a little bit of what it means. I don’t internalize all the negative things and negative stereotypes that people have of trans women of color. I don’t do that number on myself anymore… I am starting to believe that in the deepest core of myself that I am beautiful, I am smart, I am amazing.”

Cox brought a clear call to action for the audience at Creating Change: support trans women, and make their voices the ones which define the struggle. She used her platform to breathe life into the room and the movement, speaking to the realities of the lives trans women of color live today, reminding all queer people that we cannot be complacent, that there is always more work to be done in the struggle for justice for trans* people, and that that work must be done from a place of love.

Take some time to listen to Cox’s speech for yourself. You can tune into other Creating Change plenaries online at the Gay and Lesbian Task Force Livestream.

feature image via National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change facebook

The 2013 Trans 100 Chicago Launch Event: I Went, I Saw, They Inspired

“As we carry ourselves over the hurdles, [we must also] reach out a hand to help another trans sister over them as well.” –Trisha Lee Holloway, honoree of the 2013 Trans 100

The inaugural Trans 100 selection was released last week (read Autostraddle’s coverage of it here), the result of a collaborative effort headed by Antonia D’orsay (This is H.O.W., Arizona TransAlliance, Dyssonace) and Jen Richards (We Happy Trans, WTF Trans* Dating, Trans* Love Stories, Sugar and Spice). From the get-go, the goal of the project was to recognize a diversity of trans* Americans who are currently doing work to better the lives of other trans* people. This is not at all a list of the “Top 100 Trans* People” (whatever that would mean), but rather “a curated set of examples [of activists]” according to D’orsay, who refers to the Trans 100 as a “selection.”

As Richards explained to me, and highlighted in an audio interview with JRV MAJESTY, a Trans 100 focused on recognizing “how much great [activism] work is happening” serves multiple, important purposes. It is a valuable resource for other trans* people who need advocates or are looking to become more active (like yours truly), “a positive way of drawing attention to…our needs [as a community]”, and a key component in helping to diversify the broader, cultural narrative of trans*ness in America by telling the media, “These are the people doing the work; these are the people you should be talking to.”

And although the Trans 100 was published online on April 9th, official launch events took place in Chicago and Phoenix to announce the selection on March 31st , coinciding with the 4th annual Transgender Day of Visibility, a fitting choice to celebrate the righteous work of trans* activists. (While this article will focus on the Chicago launch, a parallel event also took place in Phoenix, which, given the recent passage of SB-1045 by the Arizona House Appropriations Committee, “expanded into a rally and acquired a different tone [than originally intended],” according to D’orsay.)

Having recently moved to Chicago, I was lucky enough to attend the launch event there, and honestly spent over three hours with my jaw on the floor, my heartstrings in constant song, and the baby activist inside me growing more inspired by the minute.

Actually, the awesome trans*ness of my night started before I even got to the venue, when I randomly met Kate Sosin, a Trans 100 honoree and a writer for the Windy City Times, while waiting on the platform for the Red Line. I had a great time chatting with Kate as we rode the near-empty Sunday evening train to the Mayne Stage Theater. Despite my being new to the Chicago trans* community, the handful of people I’ve met here so far have all been like Kate: incredibly awesome and welcoming. And even though I only knew a few folks in the sold out crowd that night, I felt like I was among family as soon as I walked through the door.

Considering how shy and awkward I can be around new people, even when I feel welcomed, it’s fantastic that the handful of people I’ve met here have been so great at introducing me to other people and helping me get acquainted to the awesomeness of the Chicago trans* community.

Indeed, as soon as I ran into Christina Kahrl, a Trans 100 honoree working on a number of issues near to my heart (like the inclusion of trans* students in athletics) in the lobby, she started introducing me to some of the movers and shakers in the Chicago trans* community. For example, thanks to Christina, I met and had a great conversation with the lovely and talented Miss Angelica Ross (a model and entrepreneur, and one of the presenters that evening), during which we chatted about some of her recent projects and she told me how impressed she was that I was playing roller derby. :: swoons ::

However, this networking is about way more than just meeting other cool trans* people. It’s about developing important connections and building community. According to Richards, these connections were central to the development of the Trans 100 project. “It’s vital that we… increase our own professional networking and support each other’s businesses,” she said, “[to] make visibility and connection to the community an economic asset rather than a liability.”

Indeed, Richards drew on her professional and community connections and took a “for us, by us” attitude in staffing the Chicago event with a trans* designer, photographer, videographer, production manager, and stage manager. Awesomely, those individuals were all compensated for their work, thanks to monies raised via donations and sponsorships, and though services donated by the keynote speakers (Janet Mock and Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler, who were both awesome and inspiring, to say the least) and a cadre of trans* volunteers.

To me, the Trans 100 launch event reflects that the trans* community in Chicago is built from the ground up on strong interpersonal relationships and collaborations that cut across barriers that might otherwise divide people (race, class, ability, gender identity, etc.). And by bringing together a diverse crowd of trans* people and allies to celebrate activism, the event helped further that networking by facilitating interactions and discussions among people whom had never before met, yet share experiences or identities or simply the desire to make the world a better place for trans* people.

As Van Binfa, a Trans 100 honoree, cartoonist, and a facilitator of Soy Quien Soy (a Chicago-based trans* empowerment collective) put it, “I was so happy to meet folks with similar experiences and [with] intersecting identities. We are now all connected…thanks to the Trans 100 evening.”

Not long into her opening address at the Chicago event, host and performer KOKUMO poignantly stated that the Trans 100 signals “the beginning of a new era.” One where we are no longer getting together only to commemorate the victims of physical, emotional, sexual, and institutional violence, but where we now also come together to celebrate and promote those among us who are actively working to end those violences. So many trans* people have turned the energy and knowledge generated by their own personal advocacy into community activism and helping others, and it’s about time that their efforts are acknowledged.

“Trans* people are living history right now,” said presenter and honoree Andre Perez (founder of the Trans Oral History Project). And the Trans 100 project represents a broad initiative by trans* people to make sure it is the best history possible.

One of my favorite aspects of the Chicago launch event was the presenters, who in addition to naming a subset of honorees, offered their own takes on the current state of trans*ness and highlighted some of the righteous work they are doing in the local trans* community. As someone who’s trying to figure out how best to channel her activist energies in a new city, I was in complete awe at how much awesome and varied work is being done in Chicago with the goals of bettering the lives of trans* individuals and building a vibrant trans* community.

I moved to Chicago in no small part because I had learned, through conversations with friends and some personal experience, that the city was (relatively) trans* friendly and had a lot of trans*-specific stuff going on. It was a place where I hoped that I could feel (relatively) safe and meet people like me. Clearly this kind of an environment doesn’t come into being on its own, but instead is built on the hard work of awesome people advocating for themselves and for others, and many of the folks leading that push were presenting the Trans 100.

Take for example, Channyn Lynne Parker (also an honoree), who as the Care Coordinator for Chicago House’s TransLife Project, is working to provide “a seamless continuum of care by offering potential housing, job trainings, and connecting HIV impacted individuals into medical care”, so that trans* women of color are not “forced into stereotypical roles” but rather are empowered to “take whatever place we please.”

While the launch event brought together a diverse group of Chicago activists and allies (and a few people who could make the trip), the full Trans 100 selection highlights the diversity of work being done in the trans* community across America, and the diversity of people doing it. Everyone named is an awesomely different trans* individual whose activism is manifest in a uniquely fantastic way. The honorees represent community organizers, authors, musicians, bloggers, academics, video game designers, historians, health care workers, lawyers, etc., reflecting the reality that trans*ness truly does cut across society.

As different as the honorees are, not one of them is working in a vacuum. Rather, each is engaged in the trans* community and many are sharing resources and experiences across populations. As a result, while the Trans 100 is a selection of awesome individual activists it is also a reflection of the awesomeness of the broader trans* community and all those who are working to make the world better for trans* people.

Janet Mock touched on this in her moving closing address, telling the Chicago audience that “I am here tonight because of the 99 other names on the inaugural Trans 100 list and the unrecognized thousands who are not on this list whose quiet acts are changing lives.”

In an interview after the event, photographer Andy Karol (an honoree whose photos are featured in this article) echoed Janet’s sentiment, telling me that “no person got here on their own. Each name [on the Trans 100] is a representation of more than a handful of people within the trans* community.” For me, this inaugural Trans 100 really opened my eyes to the awesomeness of my community, certainly in my new home, but across the country, as well.

However diverse the honorees and their work are, similarities certainly run through the Trans 100, with a number of people working on a common issue (say, homelessness reduction), but in different locations or with different populations. A future layer to the Trans 100, known as breakouts, will highlight some of these commonalities in the work being done in the trans* community. Each breakout will feature activists working on a particular topic, ranging from stigma reduction to prison reform to entrepreneurship, and the folks included will not be limited to the 100 honorees, but will also highlight individuals whom were nominated or whom the curators were only more recently made aware of. Up to 25 breakouts will be published over the course of the year starting in May. (The original plan was to start publishing the breakouts with the full selection, but the debate, rally, and hearings over SB-1045 in Arizona took time and energy from the list, and delaying curation of the breakouts.)

In talking to those involved with and honored in the Trans 100 following the launch events and publication of the selection, it is clear that no one involved is resting on their laurels. Many honorees I spoke to are already working to broaden and increase the impacts of their work. For example, Trisha Lee Holloway, a case manager at Howard Brown Health Center (where I and many other trans*folks go to receive health care) and a force behind the Trans Life Center is now working on exporting the model to other cities.

“It is going to open a whole new world for young trans women who have been kicked out of their homes,” Trisha told me in an interview after the event. “We [can and need] to get these services in other cities.”

Christina Kahrl echoed that sentiment, telling me, “There’s no victory lap here. Being named is not merely an honor, [but] a reminder of responsibility and a call to duty [so that we may] achieve a better future for every trans* person to come.”

And neither are the project directors taking a breath. In addition to working towards the release of the breakouts and fighting for the rights of trans* people in their own communities, both Richards and D’orsay are already planning for the Trans 100 in 2014. Having pulled together the inaugural run of this amazing and inspiring project in just a few short months, I can’t even fathom how awesome future Trans 100s will be.

What I do know, however, is that the work being done by the inaugural Trans 100 is simply awesome and purely inspirational.

And if there’s one thing I took away from the Trans 100, it is that I need to turn that inspiration into action. Indeed, Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler challenged me, and the rest of the audience to this very task in his keystone address, saying, “It is my hope that everyone in this room will use the names on this list as inspiration to continue doing the necessary work. Let them propel you to be the advocates and activists our community needs.”

Challenge accepted, Dr. Ziegler. Let’s get to work.

As a final note, if any readers are interested in getting involved with or lending their support to the awesome projects of the Trans 100, I encourage them to check out the official publication, which links to the websites of the honorees and directors, or Autostraddle’s 51 Women Of the Trans 100, which discusses the trans women on the list in depth, with quotes!

In particular, please consider supporting the work of Toni D’orsay, who is leading the rally against Arizona SB-1045 and supporting trans* Arizonans of all stripes via This is H.O.W.

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About the author: Joseph L. Simonis (“Joe”) likes stuff. And things. Except when things get in the way. Then she just likes stuff. She’s not exactly the biggest fan of labels and identities, but she works at a zoo, plays roller derby, and makes sound collages, amongst other, less interesting, activities. She can be found in cyberspace at her website trannysauruswrex.com/ or Twitter @josephlsimonis

Meet 51 Kickass Women From The 2013 Trans 100

The 2013 Trans 100, the brainchild of Jen Richards of We Happy Trans and Antonia D’orsay, Executive Director of This Is H.O.W, aims to provide “an inaugural overview of the breadth and diversity of work being done in, by, and for the transgender community across the United States.” The cultural conversation around trans* people tends to err on the side of “non-existant” punctuated by brief forays into “tragedy,” but Richards and D’orsay wanted to shift that conversation towards the accomplishments and strength of individuals within the trans* community.

From over 500 nominations, 100 lucky humans were chosen and the list was announced at a March 29th event sponsored by Chicago House, GLAAD, The Pierce Family Foundation, Orbitz.com and KOKUMOMEDIA; featuring Janet Mock, Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler, musicians Namoli Brennet and Joe Stevens, performer/activist KOKUMO and producer Jen Richards.

Antonia D’orsay said this about the Trans 100: “The value of the work that is represented by the 100 people on this list is immeasurable. These people demonstrate the diversity, the determination, and the incredible triumph of spirit that informs all trans people, no matter where they are. This is just a glimpse of what trans people can accomplish.”

Buzzfeed offered some brief bios of each honoree, but other news outlets have mostly just published a list of names. We here at Autostraddle wanted to feature a bit more in-depth information and some actual words from the many inspirational humans on this list — more specifically, from the ladies. To that end, we’ve erred carefully to include only those who clearly identify as women, but there are heaps of genderqueer folks, trans men and non-binary-identified people on the list that you should check out, though, so GET ON IT!!!

We included quotes for everybody we were able to find online writing by or an interview with.

As always, let us know if we’ve made any mistakes by emailing riese [at] autostraddle dot com!

Abigail Jensen

Tucson, AZ

Website: Arizona Abby

• President of QSquaredYouth
• First transgender attorney to appear before the Arizona Supreme Court

“…mostly [my advocacy] takes the form of simply being who I am, a woman of integrity and grace who lives in peace with herself, allowing others to see and learn about who I am and, in that process, to see that trans people are no threat to them and thus build tolerance and acceptance of who we are.”

via who i am and why i do what i do

Alexis Martinez

Chicago, IL

Read her life story: The Transgender History Project

• Evangelical Christian, Mexican, Apache, Lesbian
• Activist for living-wage employment, housing, education and quality healthcare
• Core organizer of Dyke March Chicago

“Jesus surrounded himself with every kind of person imaginable. He didn’t ask people you can only come in here if you don’t have any flaws. I don’t really look at a person and say we can’t include you in here because you don’t believe what I believe or you smell funny. We all have something that we can contribute. Something that we can put into the pot. It’s hard to understand that idea because you’re dealing with real human beings, their egos and all. There’s a lot of people, I’m talking about really brilliant people who grew up in church families and they were eviscerated psychologically in those churches because people twist what God says. they twist it to fit their definition.”

via Transgender Oral History

Allyson Robinson

Website: Crossing the T

• Graduated from West Point in 1994 and served as an officer in Europe and The Middle East before leaving the U.S. Army in 1999
• First Executive Director of OutServe-SLDN and the first transgender person to lead a national LGBT rights organization without an explicit focus on transgender issues.
• Former deputy Director for Employee Programs for the HRC Foundation.
• Board of directors for International Foundation of Gender Education and Knights Out.

“A lot of people think that because we’ve repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ we’re done. I don’t think that’s the case. I think we are at the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end of the work we need to do to make the military, which is the largest employer in America, into a truly fair workplace for LGBT people.”

(via metroweekly)

Anna Anthropy

Website: Auntie Pixelante

• Video game designer and critic, freeware games include Mighty Jill Off, REDDER and Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars
• Co-founder and Associate Editor of The Gamer’s Quarter
• Author of Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, released in March 2012 from Seven Stories Press

“We’ve entered this vicious cycle where this small group of mostly straight cisgendered white dudes are making games for other straight cis white dudes who will grow up and be allowed to make the next generation of games. And so what we’ve got is a monoculture. Well, a monoculture’s not going to be the defining cultural form of ANYTHING.”

(via Anna Anthropy: The Autostraddle Interview)

i seem to have been nominated for something called the “trans 100” because i am one hundred years old

— mean queen machine (@auntiepixelante) April 3, 2013

granted, being a trans woman and making it to one hundred would be a hell of an achievement

— mean queen machine (@auntiepixelante) April 3, 2013

Andy Marra

New York, NY

Website: GLSEN

• Public Relations Manager for GLSEN
• Youngest leader to co-direct the New York State Dignity For All Students Coalition
• Became Board President for The National Center for Transgender Equality at the age of 20
• Senior Media Strategist for GLAAD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), where she established three programs focused on the Asian Pacific Islander community, Chinese language media and young adults.
• Led national boycott against Details‘ “Gay or Asian?” piece
• Work and commentary has been featured on programs including Access Hollywood, Ellen, Oprah and The Rachel Maddow Show and outlets like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Korea Times and MTV.

“Why do I care about Korean reunification? Or even about full equality for LGBT people? As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” I am not a conundrum nor am I challenged. I simply dare to be.”

via I Am Korean American

Bamby Salcedo

Los Angeles, CA

• Head of Health Education and HIV Prevention Services with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
• President and founder of the TransLatin@ Coalition
• Publisher of XQsi Magazine.

“My only advice [to transgender youth] is that we recognize that as a community we are very strong, and as individuals we are also very strong. Do not lose your strength, do not let anyone tell you that you can’t be who you want to be. As long as you follow your heart, as long as you don’t harm yourself or anyone in your process, whatever this may be… understand that as an individual you are unique, and your uniqueness is what ensures your place in this world.”

-via Latina Transgender Advocate Bamby Salcedo on Youth and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education

Bree Sutherland

Missoula, MT

Website: MontanaTDOR

• Star of the documentary Just Bree, by Kate Lykins
• Executive Director of the Gender Expansion Project
• Co-Chair of Western Montana Community Center
• Vice-president of Montana Pride Network
• Facilitator of Montana Gender Alliance in Missoula

Cecilia Chung

San Francisco, CA

Websites: Cecilia Chung // Just Detention

• Internationally-recognized leader in health & human rights and advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness.
• Among advocates who served on the 1994 Transgender Discrimination Task Force, when the Human Rights Commission constructed its report on transgender discrimination.
• First transgender woman and first Asian elected to lead the Borad of Directors of The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration
• First transgender female and first person living openly with HIV to Chair of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission
• Served on Health Commission of the San Francisco Public Health advocating for inclusion of gender-affirming surgery.
• Founder of San Francisco Transgender Advocacy and Mentorship, which hosts quarterly events at the SF LGBT Community Center
• One of the original founders and producer of the annual Trans March.

“We, as trans people, are a very small group. We need to build alliances and coalitions with marginalized and oppressed groups in order to be heard. Doing this kind of work is an important component of that. I think that this is a better way to fight our fight because in return when we look to find supporters for our issues, such as ENDA, we might be able to count on them to support us rather than feeling like we’re all alone on that.”

(via huffington post)

Channyn Lynne Parker

Chicago, IL

Website: Chicago House

• Care coordinator for the TransLife Project at Chicago House.

Christina Kahrl

Chicago, IL

• Co-founder and former managing editor of the website for Baseball Prospectus
• Writer and editor for ESPN.com
• Appeared in the GLAAD-Award winning HBO Real Sports segment “Transitions,” which told her story of publicly coming out as a transgender sportswriter.
• Board director for Equality Illinois, helped launch Trans-Friendly Bathroom Initiative.

“Perhaps the most important thing to associate with the word ‘transsexual’ is that we few, we happy few, just one in every 10,000 births, have always been here. Queens were the shock troops, the front rank at Stonewall. You may not know us, but we are just like you in most of our dreams and ambitions, expecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as is our birthright, as Americans, and as human beings. There is not a stigma to the label—I am a transsexual, and will be as long as I live. As labels go, I don’t just wear it, I own it.”

(via facebook)

Cristina Herrera

New York, NY

Website: The Center

• Identifies as “a translatina immigrant from El Salvador.”
• Gender Identity Project‘s Community Prevention Coordinator at the LGBT Community Center in New York
• Served as Chair to the Transgender Work Group of the NYC Department of Health’s Prevention Planning Group
• “Has been working in the field of HIV prevention, advocacy and community organizing for over twelve years.” (via)
• Received the prestigious Latinos/as Unidos de New York Award for Outstanding contributions to New York’s Latin@ LGBT community.

Claire Swinford

Tuscon, Arizona

Website: Trans Haven

• Projects have included rape crisis, anti-violence, HIV prevention, sex worker rights and anti-trafficking initiatives, as well as the present “bathroom bill” in Arizona
• Director of Trans Haven

Eli Erlick

San Francisco, CA

• Founder of Transgender Student Equality Resources
• Trans* activist since the age of 8, assisting educators and school administrators to better suport trans youth.
• Helped create Coming Together To Make It Better Conference
• Student ambassador for GLSEN

Earline Budd

Washington DC

Website: The Transgender Health Empowerment

• Founding member and former Executive Director of Transgender Health Empowerment.
• Consultant for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Pennsylvania Mid-Atlantic Training Center, the D.C. Department of Health and D.C Department of Corrections.

ellie june navidson

Chicago, IL

Website: Invisibly Queer

• A “queer, gender-non-conforming creature” whose “activist experience is as varied as her identity.”
• Writer for In Our Words
• Organized with Genderqueer Chicago, co-founder of No Boys Allowed.

“For all my femmes, you’re beautiful in your skirts and dresses and high-waisted jeans. Your makeup is fierce and fabulous. Your nails are divine. Sure, you don’t need any of that, nobody “needs” any form of clothing, but you sure are great in all your femme glory.”

– A Feminist on Femmephobia and The Empowerment of Femme

Harmony Santana

Website: IMDB page for Harmony Santana

• Actress, “Gun Hill Road” and “Eating Out”
• Winner of Best Supporting Actress at the Independent Spirit Awards.

“I just got a message two days ago where a girl was telling me that I inspired her. She said she was hiding for a long time and didn’t come out for a long time. She said she’s now coming out to her parents after watching the film. She’s very inspired to be herself and so happy. It makes me feel, like, I don’t know… [amazing?] … yeah.”

via Transgender Actress Harmony Santana Stuns in “Gun Hill Road”

Erin Armstrong (“Grishno”)

San Francisco, CA

Website: Grishno // Transgender Living

• “One of the founding members of the YouTube transgender community.”
• Hosts a YouTube channel with over four million views and nine thousand subscribers who have followed her transition over the last six years.
• Subject of the 2008 documentary “My Transgender Life“

Harper Jean Tobin

Washington DC

Website: Transequality

• Director of Policy for The National Center for Transgender Equality, engaging with federal agencies on administrative policies and regulations.
• Named Top LGBT Lawyer under 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association.
• Staff attorney for the Federal Rights Project

Ida Hammer

New York, NY

Website: transfeminism

• Founder of Trans Women’s Anti-Violence Project.
• Works at the Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training.
• Organizer of New York City Dyke March.
• Named Top LGBT Lawyer Under 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association
• Battles transphobia in vegetarian and ecofeminist communities.
• Brave motherfucker.
• In 2012, won insurance coverage for Gender Affirming surgery.

“It is easy to ignore an oppressed group of people once they have been systematically shut out of and alienated from a movement they rightfully belong in. Had trans people not been forcibly exiled from the women’s movement throughout the seventies and subsequently blocked from returning—at times with state supported exclusion from human right protections—things would be entirely different right now. The cycle will only be broken when cissexual feminists take responsibility for cissexism and hold themselves and their colleagues accountable.”

(via bitch magazine)