Gender Justice League

For most people, using an ID is routine. You’ve handed over that thin, laminated card with your name, date of birth, and gender to countless TSA agents, store clerks, hiring managers, bartenders, and bank attendants. It’s a basic formality that you don’t think about twice. It’s no biggie, right?

But for many transgender people (> 80%) their IDs are often outdated, reflecting a mismatch of who they are, what they look like, and what their IDs say about them. This is a recipe for not only awkward conversations but also serious discrimination that affects their ability to travel and to find employment and housing. A Washington state-based LGBTQ advocacy group, Gender Justice League, hopes to change this reality by helping the trans community update their IDs to reflect their true and authentic identity and protect against discrimination. While having a legal ID that reflects your identity won’t be a shield from the blitz of transphobia in our country, it can be an important first step to protecting an individual’s rights and existence.

While having accurate documents is important for the trans community, many are unable to afford the fees that come with updating legal documents. Awesome Without Borders is going to step in to provide a $1000 no-strings-attached grant to financially support individuals in their pursuit to change legal name and gender marker changes on various official documents including birth certificates, state IDs, and passports. Awesome.

You can find out more about Gender Justice League’s work and the details on the name and gender changing clinic on facebook.