Two national transgender advocacy organizations will consolidate in order to strengthen their mutual legal advocacy goals.
The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) will merge this summer under the name Advocates for Trans Equality or A4TE.
“NCTE and TLDEF already have a long history of partnering to fight for the legal rights and protection of transgender people,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the executive director of NCTE, in a Jan. 17 press release. “Even though we’ve achieved many victories over that time, it feels like it was just a warm-up for the journey ahead. With a record number of attacks on trans people and trans rights, now is the time to unite and use our combined power and influence to advance trans equality in bigger and bolder ways than our organizations could alone.”
The NCTE’s work includes lobbying for policy reforms that can benefit people who identify as transgender. The organization believes it must “work in concert with all communities who face discrimination, violence, or limitations on opportunities because of race, nationality, class, religion, ability, and other dimensions of identity.”
The TLDEF’s mission is to “end discrimination and achieve equality for transgender people, particularly those in our most vulnerable communities.”
“Transgender people have been subject to pervasive discrimination that has kept them, with rare exceptions, hidden from public view,” the group states on its website. “While this discrimination has begun to lessen, transgender people still experience much prejudice and violence.”
In addition to efforts to educate the public, the TLDEF provides legal support to transgender plaintiffs. The group represented Makyyla Holland, who identifies as a transgender woman, during a discrimination lawsuit against Broome County, New York where Holland was incarcerated. As part of the August 2023 settlement, Broome County agreed to affirm “the rights of transgender people” and “house people consistent with their gender identity or within the unit with the sex designation the person in custody believes is safest for them,” per the Advocate. Holland also received $160,000.
“With double the resources, expertise, and fearless commitment to justice, we will be a powerful national organization to lead the next chapter of the transgender rights movement,” said TLDEF’s executive director Andrea “Andy” Hong Marra of the impending merger. “Advocates for Trans Equality will show exactly what can be materially achieved when trans advocates come together and seek nothing less than equality for trans people in America.”
The two organizations predict that Advocates for Trans Equality “will be a highly influential and effective voice, ensuring that trans experiences and perspectives guide the national movement for trans rights.”
The nonprofit branch of the new organization will focus “on litigation and public education” while the 501(c)4 arm will continue to lobby for state and federal policy to “fight for transgender equality.”
