Recent data show that only 4¢ of every $100 of foundation funding goes to trans organizations and causes. Only four cents.What does this historic disinvestment in our communities mean for how we envision our future? And what can we do about it?

This Pride, I am not just honoring past resistance and celebrating ourselves now. I am reflecting on the importance of joining together to shape our future. In the face of escalating attacks against so many of our communities, Pride is all of it: It is about showing up for trans youth, defending Black lives, fighting for reproductive justice, and demanding an end to the detention of trans immigrants. 

A well-worn playbook—from bathroom bills to sports bans

At the end of February 2022, the Texas attorney general and governor declared that families who support their transgender children and access transition-related health care are committing child abuse. Soon after, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services began investigations of the families of transgender children and youth (there is currently a statewide injunction under appeal). This situation is part of amarked escalation of anti-trans policies specifically seeking to utilize the child welfare system to target transgender youth and their families. And this system has long been used to enact violence against BIPOC, disabled, trans, queer, poor, and migrant families.

Trans organizations in Texas and nationally, along with allied organizations, sprang into action to support terrified trans children and their families and fight back. Transgender Law Center organizers and board chair Imara Jones went down to support our partners on the ground, Transgender Education Network of Texas, rallying, speaking out, and spending time with trans youth, their families, and local trans leaders. 

Unfortunately, what happened in Texas is not an isolated incident. Anti-trans bills have been proposed in states throughout the South and Midwest, including South Carolina and Alabama. One year ago, Arkansas was the first state in the country to criminalize gender-affirming health care for trans youth, then just two months ago, Alabama passed the worst ban on trans health care we have seen, making providing gender affirming care to minors a felony punishable with up to 10 years in prison. Florida recently passed the “Don’t Say Gay and Trans” bill, which restricts school instruction related to LGBTQ issues, including forcing school staff to inform parents when their child accesses mental health support at school (a major lifeline for trans youth).

In 2015 there were 15 anti-trans bills enacted into law. This year, at last count, there were 140 anti-trans bills introduced in 34 states. What we are seeing now in the United States is an unprecedented level of attack.

These bills seek to keep transgender children and youth from living their full, authentic lives—whether it is playing sports, accessing life-saving health care, or simply acknowledging in schools that they exist. Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and others are fighting such legislation in courts across the country. Local organizations like The Knights and Orchid Society and TAKE Resource Center in Alabama are doing all they can to fight these bills and keep communities safe. But we know that even if these bills do not pass, they have a chilling effect on our communities. Trans communities, particularly trans youth and their families, are terrified.

Why is this happening? These anti-trans laws and policies have long been a strategy of the conservative right to motivate their base constituents during election cycles, especially in states with governors and other state legislators who are aspiring candidates for national office—and they are deeply investing in this strategy. These efforts are part of a well-worn playbook used by political conservatives that include attacks on voting rights, racial justice, and reproductive rights.

An urgent call to invest in trans futures

While many organizations and activists are doing all they can to defeat these attacks and literally keep our communities alive, the long-standing lack of investment in trans leaders and organizations severely limits what is possible. Meanwhile, the 11 nonprofit organizations behind the majority of the most recent round of anti-LGBTQ bills received over $110 million from right-wing funders in 2020 alone.

So what can we do? The Trans Futures Funding Campaign is an urgent and immediate call for $10 million in new funding to invest boldly and deeply in local trans organizations.

Trans-led grantmakers have joined together to make this call for support, which will send a clear and unequivocal statement of support for trans communities at a time of escalated attacks on the rights and lives of trans people, their loved ones, and their allies. We are particularly interested in partnering with grantmakers who have never funded trans communities before.

Experts in funding transgender communities involved in this effort include those from the Fund for Trans Generations at Borealis Philanthropy, Grantmakers United for Trans Communities, and the Out in the South Initiative at Funders for LGBTQ Issues, the Third Wave Fund, the Transgender Strategy Center, the Black Trans Fund, and the Trans Justice Funding Project.

This funding will strengthen local, grassroots trans organizations in states facing these hostile policies—both to respond now and to build for the long haul. Many of these activists and community organizations have been on the frontlines long before the current cycle of attacks but have been under-invested in for decades. We know that activists “in the margins” and most under attack must lead the way, so priority beneficiaries will include groups who do not have access to traditional funding streams and are led by, or working with, some of the most vulnerable communities within the trans communities and their families: BIPOC communities, trans women and femmes, migrants, youth and elders, people with disabilities, people living with HIV, and poor and rural communities.

We are grateful to the California Endowment and the Ford Foundation, which have already made commitments. Ford is doubling its annual investment in trans communities, committing to at least $10 million over the next five years.

While the Trans Futures Funding Campaign seeks to raise these funds immediately, this is not a request for one-time, rapid response funding. Instead, this campaign is the first phase in a multiyear effort to bring in new funding partners and significantly more resources to local trans-led organizations.

Why? Because our future depends on it.

Kris Hayashi is executive director at the Transgender Law Center, the largest trans-led organization in the country working to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation. For more on the need to increase funding to trans organizations, please see Grant Makers United for Trans Communities.