Our Commitment to Health Equity Requires Investing in Trans Leadership

To transform health, we’re working with trans-led organizations to create new data, new narratives, and new policies that honor trans people and their families.

Everyone deserves a healthy, safe future regardless of their gender expression or sexual identity. We live in a time where more people than ever openly identify as transgender (trans), meaning they identify with a different gender than they were assigned at birth, which also includes nonbinary and gender nonconforming people. We have openly trans representation in elected office, serving as CEOs and executives, as artists and poets, and increasingly more authentic representations of trans experiences in the entertainment industry than ever before. Yet trans people face more barriers to equitable, healthy futures than any other community, exacerbated by a constant deluge of political attacks on their right to determine their own pathways to health for themselves and their families.

Trans leaders have been denied seats at tables of power throughout history. We're working with trans leaders to build entirely new tables of power that they head. RWJF’s commitment to health equity means we must elevate trans leaders and organizations working toward a healthier future—that is why we are one of the largest funders of trans health and trans research.

Developing an evidence base.

There’s a saying in research that goes, “What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get funded, and what doesn’t get funded can’t get measured.” When I realized just how little data existed on trans people and their experiences, I immediately knew this needed to change—this lack of data meant that the trans experience wasn’t reflected in policy or funding decisions.

To create an evidence-based policy agenda, we need evidence. And as with any community, trans people are best suited to both provide and collect data on themselves. As funders, we must recognize the historical harms that trans people and people of color have suffered in the name of research and progress, and how often their perspective has either been improperly tokenized or left out of conversations entirely. We need to engage trans researchers who know what questions need to be asked.

That’s why RWJF is investing in initiatives like the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey (USTS), conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality* in partnership with the National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, the TransLatin@ Coalition, and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance. An unprecedented 92,329 trans people ages 16 years and older took the survey, capturing data and opinions from respondents in every corner of the country and from diverse backgrounds. As the largest ever survey of trans people, by trans people, in the United States, the 2022 USTS provides an essential data set which trans leaders and other advocates need to advance evidence-based policy at the local, state, and national levels.

Creating more inclusive narratives.

Early insights from the 2022 USTS show that most trans people feel supported by their families. And these families are leading the way in showing the world what an expanded idea of family looks like. But our systems—from childcare systems and school systems to our federal tax system—favor nuclear family models. This limited view of families hurts all “nontraditional” families—not just those with trans members.

To advance policies that support all families, RWJF is supporting trans-led organizations like the Transgender Strategy Center (TSC) that are working to reshape and expand the understanding of what it means to be family. As part of its work to elevate and amplify trans and gender nonconforming voices and leadership within communities across the United States, the TSC is challenging harmful narratives about trans children and families and working with them to co-create and promote positive narratives that honor their dignity and joy. TSC also regrants funds and provides coaching, training, and capacity building support directly to other trans-led organizations in states with severe anti-trans legislation.

RWJF is also proud to support leaders at the Transgender Law Center (TLC), who are using storytelling and powerful messaging strategies to create new narratives about trans people that are fueling community-driven organizing and activism.

Building a better future for all—through policy.

With new data and new narratives about what it means to be trans, advocates are better positioned to shape policy. Groups like the TSC, the TLC, the Black Trans Fund, and the Trans Justice Funding Project are organizing communities across the nation to come together against anti-trans political attacks and build a new policy infrastructure by and for trans people.

So far in 2024, there have been more than 500 anti-trans bills across the country aimed at further taking away the autonomy of trans people by limiting their access to healthcare, housing, public spaces, and more. This is despite the fact that trans people often have limited means to stay healthy and safe. Discriminatory laws threaten the physical and economic security of trans people and their families and threaten the rights of everyone. When one group’s rights are eroded and denied equal rights, it undermines the very ideals our country was built on.

To create better, more equitable systems that honor trans people and ensure a better future for everyone, we must center and prioritize the needs of trans people and their families. That means investing in trans organizations and leadership.

*The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF), have now merged into a new organization: Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE).