National Transgender Advocacyconvening
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National Transgender Advocacy Convening November 12, 2013 | New York City National Transgender Advocacy Contents The Arcus Foundation The Arcus Foundation is a leading global foundation National Transgender Advocacy Convening advancing pressing social justice and conservation issues. Summary Report Specifically, Arcus works to advance LGBT equality, as By Rickke Mananzala, Convening Facilitator 3 well as to conserve and protect the great apes. SECTION 1 Convening Background 4 Goals of Convening 4 Purpose and Structure of this Report This report is a summary of the Arcus Foundation National SECTION 2 Convening Design and Participation 4 Transgender Advocacy Convening held on November 12, SECTION 3 Convening Approach 5 2013, in New York City. The report intends to capture major What Are the Pressing Issues? 5 highlights, themes, and next steps for consideration from the Best Practices and Recent Successes 6 convening. The primary audiences for the summary report Wall of Victory 7 are convening participants, transgender rights organizers Opportunities for Intervention 7 and advocates, and funders invested in supporting the Movement-Building Approaches 8 transgender movement. SECTION 4 Overall Themes and Implications for The report has four sections: 1) Convening Background Supporting Transgender Advocacy 8 and Goals; 2) Convening Design and Participation; 3) Convening Approach; and 4) Themes and Next Steps. Trans Leaders Gather to Chart © 2014 Arcus Foundation A publication of the Arcus Foundation Tomorrow’s Direction By Andrea Plaid 9 2 National Transgender Advocacy Convening Summary Report By Rickke Mananzala, Convening Facilitator SECTION SECTION 1 2 Convening Background Convening Design and Participation The Arcus Foundation held a series of conversations with Arcus Senior Program Officer Roz Lee and consultant transgender leaders and activists prior to the convening Rickke Mananzala coordinated the convening design. The to learn more about critical issues facing transgender agenda was guided by input from an Advisory Group of five communities as well as successful and potential strategies people who represented grassroots organizing, research to address those issues. During these conversations, and academia, faith, grassroots fundraising, and media anti-transgender violence was a consistent theme, with advocacy. The primary purpose of the Advisory Group the understanding that violence was a symptom of a was to give feedback about the agenda for the convening larger social problem of stigmatization and discrimination to ensure that the approach met the stated goals while against transgender people. Many leaders noted the value encouraging meaningful participation among attendees. of having a space to discuss these issues and strategies in The Advisory Group members were: greater detail. Therefore, the Arcus Foundation proposed n Katie Burgess, executive director, Trans Youth to organize a National Transgender Advocacy Convening Support Network to identify specific opportunities to increase support and n Gabriel Foster, cofounder, Transgender Justice advocacy for transgender and gender nonconforming Funding Project & Sylvia Rivera Law Project communities, and to explore ways to draw public attention n Janet Mock, writer, advocate and Arcus Foundation to the violence and other issues facing transgender people, board member particularly transgender women of color, in the United n Chris Paige, executive director, Transfaith Online Arcus Found States. The convening would also inform Arcus’ strategic n Bamby Salcedo, president, Coalición TransLatin@ grantmaking and leadership in the priorities for trans- n Susan Stryker, director, Institute for LGBT Studies, gender communities and issues. associate professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Arizona A Goals of Convening tion n The Transgender Advocacy Convening had almost 45 To provide transgender leaders and allies from | across the United States with an opportunity to network participants, including transgender rights organizers, nA and engage in critical dialogue about key issues facing advocates, and funders from across the United States. tion The participants represented the grassroots, faith, legal, trans communities A l policy, arts/culture/media, philanthropic, and academic t n r To share information, ideas, and research A n To surface strategies and solutions that are ripe sectors, and were diverse in several other ways, including nsgender Advoc for intervention race, ethnicity, and geography. While the Arcus Founda- n To enjoy our time together tion aimed to have balanced representation, there was acknowledgement that some constituencies were under- represented at the convening, which Arcus will factor into its next steps from the convening. A cy c onvening 4 4 Violence n Violence, stigma, and harassment of transgender people on the streets, in the media, and within institutions n The need to deal with domestic and intra- community violence without relying on police who are often perpetrators of violence n Sexual violence directed towards trans women of color SECTION 3 Employment n Employment discrimination Convening Approach n Lack of employment opportunities, especially for The convening approach covered four major areas through transgender women of color a mixture of small-group activities and large-group discus- n Lack of jobs leading to homelessness sions. Each area of the agenda was intentionally sequential, building off of the others to connect the important n The need for identity documents for employment elements of issues, strategies, and movement-building. n Lack of and/or discrimination in public- benefit access n Identifying the pressing issues: Participants brainstormed the range of pressing issues facing transgender communities and categorized them Criminalization & Incarceration into broad issue areas. n n Sharing recent successes and best practices: Profiling and harassment by police Participants learned about several best practices n Disproportionate incarceration and impacts of and diverse strategies to address the pressing issues criminal records leading to barriers in other areas through an interactive “talk show” panel. Participants of life also developed a “Wall of Victory,” demonstrating recent n Lack of traditional legal channels for undocumented victories across the U.S. to further highlight best practices. transgender people n Exploring opportunities for intervention: Based n on the recent successes and best practices from the Violence within prisons and jails Arcus Found interactive panel and Wall of Victory, participants broke into small groups by issue area to discuss Health care opportunities for change in each area. n Brainstorming key elements of movement- n Health care discrimination for transition-related care A building: Based on the issues, best practices, and n Mental health and substance-abuse issues tion opportunities, participants brainstormed successful n | Access to emotional and spiritual wellbeing needs approaches to movement-building to uplift and nA sustain the work ahead. tion Other A l What are the pressing issues? t r n A Media representation of transgender people Over 150 issues were identified in this brainstorm activity. nsgender Advoc The following is a summary of the themes that emerged n Lack of transgender people of color, particularly from the key challenges mapped under the broad issue women of color, in leadership roles in LGBT areas. During the observations and large-group discussion, movement organizations many participants noted how each of these issues often n Inter-community tensions – racism within intersects with others, such as the lack of employment LGBT movement A leading to criminalization and incarceration. Additionally, cy n c Trans youth in schools it was noted how differences in race, immigration status, onvening class, ability, and other identities shape the experiences of transgender people across these issue areas. 5 5 Best Practices and Recent Successes The best practices and recent successes began with an interactive panel discussion on “What’s Being Done” panel to showcase a few best practices (of many) in transgender advocacy work across a variety of areas. The panel was a launching point for the conversation about recent victories and best practices, which followed the panel. The panel had four participants representing best practices in grassroots organizing, faith, grassroots fundraising, and policy/aca- demic work. The questions each panelist was asked along with the summary of their key points are below. Dee Dee Chamblee | LaGender Inc. n This past February your organization was a part of a coalition that held off a proposed local ordinance in Atlanta known as the Stay Out of Areas Prostitution proposal, which would have banned sex workers from Atlanta. How were transgender people targeted by this proposal, and what leadership role did transgender people play in the coalition that defeated the ordinance? n What were the successful elements of building a strong, diverse coalition to defeat the anti–sex worker ordinance in Atlanta? n The City of Atlanta has now formed a working group to Gabriel Foster | Transgender Justice Funding Project determine strategies to reduce street-level sex work. With some coalition members on this working group, what are your plans for continuing to ensure that the city n Please give a brief description of the Transgender doesn’t further criminalize sex workers? Justice Funding Project, including the purpose of and motivation behind launching