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What you can do

Taking action to end discrimination against transgender people

What can you do about the discrimination and disrespect transgender and gender non-conforming people face? There are a lot of things! Here are some ideas to get you started, and they work regardless of your gender identity or expression or sexual orientation:

Support Friends/Family

• Provide emotional support for the transgender and gender non-conforming people you know, especially when they are struggling because of rejection from family members and friends, or struggling because of discrimination out in the world
• Provide a place to stay/sleep if folks don’t have a good and safe place to live
• Speak up if other friends or family members are treating transgender people poorly and not respecting the gender they live as, or not respecting anyone’s gender expression
• Support transgender and gender non-conforming people who bring complaints of discrimination to the authorities, and, if you are transgender and discriminated against, bring a complaint and speak out if you feel it is safe to do so

Create Opportunities and Support in Your Community

• Create programs, working with local or state governments or non-profits (potentially LGBT community centers) to support transgender people who have lost their jobs, housing, or educational opportunities and provide needed assistance with getting more education, job training, housing and other services so that they can support and house themselves
• If you are part of an LGBT organization, civil rights organization, or progressive organization, help make the organization truly transgender-inclusive and help it to prioritize transgender-related work, using the guide Opening The Door to Transgender Inclusion

Create Fair Workplaces

• Make sure your workplace has a written policy against discrimination based on gender identity or expression
• Speak up when you hear anti-transgender jokes and demeaning jokes about masculinity and femininity
• If you have a transgender coworker, do all in your power to ensure they are being treated fairly by supervisors and coworkers
• When there are job openings, reach out to transgender people who are unemployed or under-employed to fill positions
• Make sure that transgender customers or clients are being treated fairly too!

Improve Schools

• Make sure your school and school district has a written policy against discrimination based on gender identity or expression
• Make sure that there is a strong anti-harassment and bullying policy that includes gender identity or expression that students know about it and staff enforce it
• If there is a Gay-Straight Alliance, make sure that transgender issues are covered, even if there aren’t any out transgender students
• If there is a transgender student who is being ostracized, be their friend
• Speak up in the face of anti-transgender jokes and demeaning jokes about masculinity and femininity, even when there are no transgender or gender non-conforming people around

Pass and Enforce Laws and Policies

• Work to pass laws in your city or state, and on the federal level, that outlaw discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and education based on gender identity/expression  (For a list of current laws, click here).
• If there is a non-discrimination law, make sure it is being implemented by the government agency in charge of enforcement through compliance guidelines and easy-to-understand brochures that say what entities have to do to follow the law
• Work to pass safe schools laws that include gender identity or expression
• Work to ensure that transgender people can change the gender on their driver’s license or state ID, and their birth certificate, to match they gender they live as, without having to show that they have had some type of surgery

Fix Health and Social Service Systems

• Change the curriculum of medical, health, crisis response and social work programs to include information about transgender people and how to treat transgender and gender non-conforming people with respect and professionalism
• Change the curriculum and continuing education programs for health, crisis response and social service providers to include information about the rejection, discrimination and violence that transgender people face and how to provide services and support to transgender clients given those realities
• Work with homeless shelters to make them safe for transgender people by implementing all the recommendations in Transitioning Our Shelters: A Guide to Making Homeless Shelters Safe for Transgender People
• Work with suicide prevention, HIV prevention and treatment, alcohol and drug abuse treatment, and anti-smoking programs to ensure that their work is trans-inclusive and their staff is knowledgeable about transgender issues
• Work to develop and enforce non-discrimination policies for medical, health, or social service providers, programs, and institutions
• Work to fix health systems and health insurance systems to end discriminatory exclusions for transition-related health care

Train Police and Fix Jails/Prisons

• Work with police departments to have written and fair policies with regard to interacting with transgender members of the public, regardless if they are seeking assistance or being arrested, and make sure all police officers are trained on the policy and how to treat transgender and gender non-conforming people with respect
• Work with jail and prison systems to ensure the respectful and safe treatment of transgender prisoners, starting with implementing the recommendations of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission

Educate Court Systems

• Ensure that judges, guardians ad litem, and Court-Appointed Special Advocates receive training on transgender people and how to treat them respectfully and fairly
• Ensure that family courts and staff are aware of research showing that children should not be separated from transgender parents

Detailed recommendations are available in the full report.

The National Transgender Discrimination Survey is a joint project of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality.

National Center for Transgender Equality
1325 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
202.903.0112

www.TransEquality.org