Trans United Fund Launches

4/4/16 Monica Roberts

from http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2016/04/trans-united-fund-launches.html :

"Trans United Fund is committed to building the political power of trans and gender expansive communities and our allies to advocate for trans equality."

" Trans United Fund will accomplish this mission by engaging trans people and our allies in the political process at the federal and state level, building the political leadership and capacity of trans people and allies, and endorsing candidates with a platform and proven track record that reflects a meaningful commitment to fight for human rights for our community.

Trans United Fund is also putting together the first ever trans focused Presidential Candidate Questionnaire.  It will be distributed to all potential candidates as part of the 2016 election cycle, in addition to a legislative scorecard program.   Trans United Fund is also looking at key races in the 2016 election cycle in which its efforts and resources can be strategically targeted for maximum effect"

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My question is, is this a good thing?  Is it being done by trans people, for trans people? Or is this just a handful of politicians who realized that it could be a good salary and many enjoyable fundraisers? I'm a bit...jaded, when it comes to trans inclusion in political advocacy groups.

It's probably is a good thing. Some of the people attached are trans people active in the trans activism scene. I have a lot of respect for Monica Roberts and transgriot in particular. They seem to have a good amount of diversity, according to their website at least. I've been voting with money for a long time, either by refusing to eat at Homophobic Chick Fil A, or by helping pro trans projects on Kickstarter and other things like it.

Still, we shall see how and what they do. I just tried to contact them, because I'd like to help in some capacity besides monetarily. I'd be glad to get involved in something like this.

     Hugs,
- Katie
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here's Dana Beyer's Huffpo piece on it:

A New Day Dawns - America's First National Trans Political Advocacy Group Lifts Off

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-beyer/a-new-day-dawns---america_b_9609440.html

Dana Beyer
Executive Director, Gender Rights Maryland     04/04/2016 10:39 am ET

"North Carolina. Georgia. Tennessee. South Dakota. Mississippi.

Just a few of the states pushing anti-LGBT, and, particularly, anti-trans legislation this year. They are the ones recently in the news. We've won, for the time being, in South Dakota, Tennessee and Georgia, because their Republican governors prioritized business over evangelical hate.

But we won because the national community and its allies were able to mobilize business interests in those states. The ground game in those states was limited, at best, with few resources, and that has been the case for many years. On occasion, as happened last week, a national organization like the Human Rights Campaign will step up and invite a trans person to participate in the political process. That's no longer sufficient."

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Dana knows what's what, and if she's on board with this, I'd say it's for real, something we can all support, and from which we'll likely benefit. And, yes, their advisory board is impressive.