Contents 1 Acknowledgements 473 Terminology 474 Dear Community 4710 Our Grantmaking Year in Review 4716 Grantee and Applicant Issue Areas 4717 Grantees and Applicants by Region 4718 The 2016 TJFP Team 4722 New Staff, New Office 4723 On Moving Resources 4726 Funding Criteria 4727 Doing Philanthropy Differently 4729 With All of Us at the Table 4731 Black Trans #sayhername 4733 Reflections From the Table 4736 Our First Full Year as a Non-Charitable Trust 4740 From the Ground to the Sky: An Ongoing Journey 4743 Map of 2016 Grantees 4744 Our 2016 Grantees 4751 Donor Reflections 4752 Thank You to Our Donors! 4755 Honoring the Legacy of Ms. Cheryl Courtney-Evans This report is available at transjusticefundingproject.org, along with more resources. Acknowledgements We recognize that none of this would have been possible without the support of generous individuals and fierce communities from across the nation. Thank you to everyone who sub- mitted an application, selected grantees, volunteered, spoke on behalf of the project, shared your wisdom and feedback with us, asked how you could help, made a donation, and cheered us on. Most of all, we thank you for trusting and believing in this project. A special shout out to our TJFP panelists and facilitators; Ben Reichman; Roan Boucher; Julie Blydenburgh; Bishop Tonya Rawls and the staff of Trans Faith in Action Network; Nakisha Lewis, Beatrice Abreu, and everyone at Ms. Foundation for Women for lending us their space for our community grantmaking meeting; Miss Major; Stephen Switzer; Mykal Shannon; Rev. Debra J. Hopkins; Rebecca Fox; Irit Reinheimer; Funders for LGBT Issues; Gender Justice League and the organizers of Trans Pride Seattle; Kris Hiyashi, Isa Noyola, Elliott Fukui, and the staff at the Transgender Law Center; Amy Reddinger and Rhonda Mellinger; Lisa Hager and the University of Wisconsin; Cynthia Beard; MAC AIDS Fund; Ryan Li; Carol Cantwell; Kendra Johnson; Micky Bradford; Trudie Jackson; Jon Beebe Guidice; Dagoberto Bailon; Karyna Jaramillo; Quentin Bell; Renae Taylor; Sadie Lee; RJ Robles; Rae Nelson; Zachary Miler; Daroneshia Duncan; Genie and George Taylor; Marisa Richmond; Wes Ware; Paulina Helm-Hernandez; Kate Shapiro; Suzanne Pharr; Jessie Spector; Ms. Kim Watson; Mister Cris; Olympia Perez; Sasha Alexander; Renae Swope; Andrea Quijada; Adrien Lawyer; Zane Stephens; Alison Anyx; Joy Reardon; Candice Metzler; Anna Tremonte; Turner C. Bitton; Allison Blaylock; Austin Sims; Angel; Vic Wiener; Ezak Perez; Shear Avory; Greta Martela; Nina Chaubal; Rickke Mananzala; Andrea Zekis; English Fields; Lorenzo Van Ness; Pooja Gehi; Avi Cummings; Emani Love; Rev. Jakob Hero; Dexter Thompson; V. Chaudhry; Celiany Rivera Velázquez; Marisa Franco; Dylan Waguespack; Corinne Green; Jose Gutierrez; Adriann Barboa; Christopher Ramirez; Cori Parrish; Penelope Poppers; Jen Richards; Sydney Freeland; Janet Mock; Kassidy Wahoo and the community members of IDA, Daffodil Meadows and Sojourners Land; the 2015–2016 AFBE Fellows; Erica Atwood; Nell Gaither; the Leeway Foundation; Shelby Chestnut; Nora Rasman; Caitlin Breedlove; Veronica Garcia and the staff at GIFT; Asher Torres; Alina Mogilyanskaya; The Arcus Foundation; M.A.C AIDS Fund; Park Slope Copy; and our families, the Pittelmans and the Fosters. This report is dedicated to the beloved Juan Evans and Ms. Cheryl Courtney-Evans, both fierce black trans leaders in Atlanta who we lost in 2016. Thank you for finding your way and for leaving your mark. 1 Trans Justice Funding Project Report 2016 Cover art by Micah Bazant, micahbazant.com Graphic design by Micah Bazant and Querido Galdo, queridomundo.com Infographics by Chris Carlon, chriscarlon.com Staff Gabriel Foster, Co-founder and Executive Director [email protected] Marin Watts, Operations and Communications Director [email protected] Connect with us online at transjusticefundingproject.org facebook.com/TransJusticeFundingProject twitter.com/TransJusticeFP youtube.com/TransjusticefundingprojectOrg Visiting panelist Emani Love in her garden, Detroit, MI 2 Terminology Terminology is constantly changing as we grow, expanding our knowledge while finding home within ourselves and in our identities. We realize the definitions below may not speak for each individual’s experience, but we hope they are broad enough to create a useful base- line of understanding for the purposes of this report. Trans: An umbrella term for people whose Two-Spirit: A contemporary term that gender identity, expression, or behavior is references historical multiple-gender different from those typically associated traditions in many First Nations cultures. with their assigned sex at birth, including Many Native/First Nations people who but not limited to transgender people, are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexuals, crossdressers, androgynous intersex, or gender non-conforming identity people, genderqueers, and gender non- as Two-Spirit. In many Nations, being conforming people. Two-Spirit elicits both great respect from one’s community and carries additional Sometimes Trans* is also used to include commitments and responsibilities to it. a wide range of identities and expressions within trans communities. Trans Justice: A movement that works to mobilize trans and allied communities into Gender Non-Conforming: A term for indi- action around pressing issues like access viduals whose gender expression is different to education, employment, health care and from societal expectations related to gender. basic needs, incarceration, immigration, disability rights, policy reform, racial and Intersex: A general term used for a vari- economic justice, art and culture, and ety of conditions in which a person is born coalition building within trans communities. with reproductive or sexual anatomy that On the simplest level, it is based on the right doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of to self-determine our gender and gender female or male. Individuals who are Intersex expression, free from all forms of violence can have variations in their gonads, chro- and oppression, including personal and mosomes or genitalia. state violence. 2016 Grantee TAJA’s Coalition 3 Trans Justice Funding Project Report 2016 Dearest friends, family, and community, Thank you for the making the extraordinary possible! When the Trans Justice Funding Project (TJFP) was still an idea and being formed , we couldn’t even imagine everything that we would one day make into reality. And we certainly never dreamed for one moment that any of it would be possible without you. Can you believe that in 2016, as the result of community generosity, TJFP was able to raise and give away $427,000 to 102 grassroots groups with no restrictions and no strings attached? Astonishing! If you can, I’d like you to imagine how it must have felt being in the room as our community grantmaking panel made their final decisions. What an exhilarating joy it is, to know that you are part of moving much-needed resources to communities across the country and support- ing them in doing some of the most difficult liberation work of our times. Even if you weren’t in the room selecting grantees, I hope it feels just as celebratory as you read on. Trans Justice Funding Project Report 2016 4 We gave more this year than ever before! “I constantly quote the TJFP has a process. It’s not a perfect one, and we constitution, “equal continue to fine-tune it as we learn and grow. But we believe our process is something special, and protection of the law.” To we’re moving money into trans communities like me that is the definition we’ve never seen before–with our communities at the core of everything we do. [of trans justice]. No After the election of Donald Trump and so many discrimination to anyone, other conservatives in November, several foun- anywhere, for any dations started to provide rapid response grants, knowing our communities will be needing ad- reason.” ditional support. It’s important for us at TJFP to remain as true to our community-led grantmaking — Marisa Richmond, process as possible, so instead of making rapid response grants — and because we were given Tennessee Transgender an extremely generous contribution from a very Political Coalition (TTPC) caring donor — TJFP decided to give an additional grant to all 102 groups selected in the 2016 cycle. Aaryn Lang and Joshua Allen lead Black Trans Lives Matter action in Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Meredith Talusan. 5 Trans Justice Funding Project Report 2016 We also gave an extra $5,000 through our grantmakers, donors, supporters, applicants, Sweetgrass awards, which was a special one- volunteers, and staff. Year after year, we can time award that went to trans justice groups never find the words to fully express our in Native American/Two-Spirit communities, gratitude for everyone who believes in jus- particularly in rural areas. tice enough to make TJFP possible. That means in 2016 we distributed an We hope you’ll take some time with this re- outstanding total of $427,000! port to read the guest articles, meet our Every year we’re fortunate to have the most 2016 panelists, and learn about our fabulous incredible base of grantees, community grantees and applicants. “From the Ground to the Sky” and Louisiana. Driving in and out of hal- Listening Tour Update lows, along the historic Blues Highway, past swamplands and cotton plantations, every- In 2015, when TJFP set out on the first leg of thing felt like a reminder that the beauty of our “From the Ground to the Sky” listening this region is abundant and complex, much tour, we began what would quickly become like the other areas we’ve traveled to. an eye-opening journey. During the second year of our tour in 2016, we ventured out to But it was in Selma, Alabama, where our the Southeastern and Southwestern United hearts jumped into our throats. Often re- States, sitting down to engage in conversa- ferred to as the birthplace of the Civil Rights tions with grantees, former panelists, trans Movement, the energy in Selma was unde- activists, and allies across the country to lis- niable.