We are saddened to share that due to a loss of state grant funding for the Trans Leadership Academy (TLA), we will be unable to hold a second cohort of the TLA in Spring 2024 as originally planned. This is not a decision that we have made lightly. After careful consideration, we have concluded that securing enough funding in time to run a second cohort effectively is not possible this year. Instead, we will focus on continuing to expand the TLA program and securing more stable and sustainable funding. The loss of this funding is an example of an ongoing issue in social justice movements in wh ..read more

The first Trans Leadership Academy (TLA) cohort celebrated graduation this past July, marking a momentous achievement for the program graduates and for trans leadership in Massachusetts! The TLA is a leadership and job-skills development program designed for BIPOC, low-income, and/or formerly incarcerated transgender and nonbinary adults with the overarching goals to build trans power and advance lived equity. When MTPC conducted our Working for Lived Equity (W4LE) Community Needs Assessment in 2019, at least half of all respondents identified employment, housing stability and homelessness ..read more

BOSTON – June 21, 2023 – Namesake Collaborative and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) are thrilled to announce the launch of the Namesake platform to help transgender and nonbinary Bay Staters navigate the legal name and gender marker correction process as a part of MTPC’s Identity Document Assistance (IDA) Network. This launch follows a successful year-long testing period during which over 100 community members provided incredibly important feedback, recommendations, and quality assurance to the development of the platform. These testers were able to utilize the platf ..read more

I stand on the shoulders and backs of those who came before. Trans people, black and brown people, who risked their lives in their unapologetic authenticity, in their flamboyancy, in their pain, in their trauma, in their complexity, in their resistance, and dare to dream bigger because we deserve better…we deserve more. Pride is a complex nature; too much leads to arrogance, and too little leads to feelings of worthlessness. We as human beings are also complex in nature, we come with a multiplicity of identities, histories, and experiences. When I think about Pride, I think about complexity ..read more

Alejandra Caraballo Trans Activist Award Alejandra Caraballo (she/her) is a Clinical Instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic where she focuses on the intersection of gender and technology. Prior to joining the clinic, Alejandra was a staff attorney at the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and a Staff Attorney at the LGBTQ Law Project at New York Legal Assistance Group. In her spare time, she can be found playing guitar, building computers, creating electronic music, and brewing beer. Ashton Mota Trans Excellence Award Ashton Mota (he/h ..read more

Will you join us in fighting for more? Today is International Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) – a complicated day for many trans people. Visibility can mean being seen and understood, but it can also mean being vulnerable, unsafe, and threatened. This is particularly true as trans and nonbinary people are facing such a tidal wave of anti-trans sentiment, legislation, policy, and media coverage, most prominently in the US and UK, but also throughout the world. These threats to the well-being and very existence of trans and nonbinary people can make visibility dangerous and completely inaccessib ..read more

The TLA is a job skills and leadership training program for trans and nonbinary people who are BIPOC, low income, and/or formerly incarcerated who live or work in the City of Boston. The program is designed to provide trans and nonbinary people with the skills, knowledge, experience, and support that are often not accessible to them in traditional educational or workplace settings. Through the TLA, we seek to alleviate major hurdles that trans and non-binary individuals face due to disproportionate rates of unemployment, incarceration, poverty, and houselessness among gender expansive populati ..read more

As a kid born in 2000, it is very easy to place yourself in the 21st century. No math is required to figure out how old you were when this or that historic event happened. This never bothered me or really affected me. It was a party trick, at best. When looking at the MTPC website archive that all changed. Suddenly my life could be conceptualized by the contemporary trans political rights movement.  I was one year old, drooling and teething when MTPC was founded by a group of trans lawyers and youth professionals looking to gain concrete rights in their state. I was two years old whe ..read more

This June we have many moments for joy and celebration, like at the Trans Resistance March and Festival and other wonderful LGBTQ+ centered spaces. At the same time, recent Supreme Court rulings and the continued legislative attacks on transgender healthcare remind us there is still work to do in fighting for trans liberation.  Curious about how Massachusetts is doing regarding trans-related issues? Read below to recap trans-related news in the Commonwealth from the last month.  Photo by Aubrey Odum Mabey Most Massachusetts public schools receive a failing score for LGBTQ+ youth ..read more

UPDATE 9/23/21: Senate bill S.2282 “An Act Relative to Gender Identity on Massachsetts Identification” passed today! Thank you to our community and cis-allies who provided testimony in support of this bill! This bill will codify the right to change one’s gender or self-identify as nonbinary on driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and all state identification documents. It also directs the state to develop a plan to allow a nonbinary option on all state forms whenever a gender choice is required. There are currently two bills up for consideration in the MA legislature, H.3216 “An Act Providi ..read more