Gender Justice League

Last updated
Gender Justice League
Established2012 (2012)
Location
  • 1122 E. Pike St. #969 Seattle, Washington 98122
Executive Director
Danni Askini
Website www.genderjusticeleague.org

Gender Justice League (GJL) is an advocacy group for transgender, genderqueer, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming individuals in Washington State in the United States. [1] The group advocates for transgender legal, political, and medical rights as well as participating in protests, awareness raising, and fundraising events. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Former Gender Justice League director Danni Askini declaring "Trans Pride Day" at Seattle city council CM Sawant declaring "Trans Pride Day" with Danni Askini (27865441452).jpg
Former Gender Justice League director Danni Askini declaring "Trans Pride Day" at Seattle city council

History

Gender Justice League was founded in 2012 by transgender activists and allies. [3] In 2013 they organized the first Trans Pride Seattle, which has since taken place annually in June. [5]

Focuses

SafeHouse Program

Gender Justice League's SafeHouse program provides shelter and financial assistance services to transgender and gender diverse people who have experienced gender-based violence and houselessness in King county and along the Olympic peninsula.

Public Accommodation

One focus of Gender Justice League is curbing legislation that prohibits transgender individuals from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth, otherwise known as bathroom bills. [1] [6] [7] Washington currently has a law that protects transgender individual's rights in public bathrooms, but GJL's activists are concerned about petitions that are trying to get rid of these laws and legal initiatives to overrule them. [8] [9] [10] [11]

Name changes

Gender Justice League has held legal clinics to help transgender individuals legally change their names. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] These clinics were specifically held between November 2016 and January 2017, due to the group's fear that newly elected president Donald Trump might revoke transgender individual's ability to legally change their names once he was inaugurated. [13] [16] [17] These clinics invited volunteers from various LGBTQ+ law organizations to do pro bono work, and the clinics served as many as 200 individuals. [13] [18] A problem arose, however, as the Gender Justice League wanted to provide money to those trying to change their names, but were unable to due to their tax status. GJL organized with King County to be able to give individuals seeking a name change the money to do so without forfeiting their nonprofit status. [18]

Political activism

Seattle politics

Gender Justice League supports various political causes within the city of Seattle, not all of which are strictly related to transgender issues. [19] [20] GJL has also supported other efforts within the city, including bills that strengthen tenant's rights. [21]

Kshama Sawant was the recipient of a Gender Justice Award in 2015 for her political activism supporting transgender individuals. [22] Sawant has also donated money from her "solidarity fund" to GJL, citing their efforts to help transgender individuals as the reason for her donation. [23]

Washington State politics

Gender Justice League is active in influencing Washington State politics. They have had an impact in organizing against bills that they believe would harm transgender individuals in Washington, including Washington Senate Bill 6443 and state ballot initiatives 1515 (2016) and 1552 (2017). [10] [24] [23] [19] [25]

National politics

In 2017 Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN filed a lawsuit on behalf of Gender Justice League against President Trump and the U.S. Department of Defense over the transgender military ban, proposed by Trump on July 26, 2017. [26] [27] [28]

Events

Trans Pride Seattle

Gender Justice League organizes the annual Trans Pride Seattle, an event that is very similar to a Gay Pride Parade. [5] [29] [30] The event was first organized in 2013, a year after the organization was founded. [31] The 2016 event drew upwards of 5,000 participants. [32] Members of Gender Justice League claim that the event is a necessary space for transgender individuals and their allies to form community and overcome isolation. [33]

Gender Justice Awards

Gender Justice League holds an annual awards ceremony called the Gender Justice Awards, in which they celebrate individuals who have supported the transgender community. [34] [35]

Solidarity Music Festival

In 2016, Gender Justice League helped organize the Solidarity Music Festival as a form of anti-capitalist protest. [36]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender rights in Canada</span> Rights of transgender individuals in Canada

Transgender rights in Canada, including procedures for changing legal gender and protections from discrimination, vary among provinces and territories, due to Canada's nature as a federal state. According to the 2021 Canadian census, 59,460 Canadians identify as transgender. Canada was ranked third in Asher & Lyric's Global Trans Rights Index in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Center for Transgender Equality</span> U.S. nonprofit organization

The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) is a nonprofit social equality organization founded in 2003 by transgender activist Mara Keisling in Washington, D.C. The organization works primarily in the areas of policy advocacy and media activism with the aim of advancing the equality of transgender people in the United States. Among other transgender-related issue areas, NCTE focuses on discrimination in employment, access to public accommodations, fair housing, identity documents, hate crimes and violence, criminal justice reform, federal research surveys and the Census, and health care access.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) is a legal aid organization based in New York City at the Miss Major-Jay Toole Building for Social Justice that serves low-income or people of color who are transgender, intersex and/or gender non-conforming. The organization was formed in August 2002 by attorney and transgender civil rights activist, Dean Spade. The project was named for Sylvia Rivera, a transgender activist and veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, who died the same year that SRLP was formed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ rights in the United States</span>

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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Vietnam face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. From 2000, both male and female forms of same-sex sexual activity are legal and are believed to never have been criminalized in Vietnamese history. However, same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are ineligible for the legal protections available to heterosexual couples. Vietnam provides limited anti-discrimination protections for transgender people. The right to change gender was officially legalized in Vietnam after the National Assembly passed an amendment to the Civil Code in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender</span> Gender identity other than sex assigned at birth

A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender rights movement</span>

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References

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  6. "Our Support: Coalition Partners – WA SAFE Alliance". www.wasafealliance.org. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
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