TJFP presents, Critical Voices: Trans Justice in the South

Yesterday morning in Atlanta, GA, Trans Justice Funding Project Director Gabriel Foster and Caitlin Breedlove, Co-Director of Southerners on New Ground, co-moderated an unbelievably  POWERFUL panel, at Funders for LGBTQ Issues‘s Funding Forward.

This panel, Critical Voices: Trans Justice in the South featured TJFP grantee, Dee Dee Chamble of LaGender and Juan Evans from Solutions Not Punishment Coalition. Both Dee Dee and Juan gave personal testimonials sharing their challenges and successes as trans people on color, organizing their communities in Atlanta. They shared their insights on community needs, winning strategies, local collaboration, and hope.

Additionally, the panel candidly reminded the audience of some of the harsh realities trans communities are up against in the South.

“Prison’s have become the shelter system for trans women of color”

“85 percent of trans women of color in Atlanta are HIV positive. Trans women of color with bachelor’s degrees can’t even get hired at McDonald’s.”

“The only way I could get housing or services was to catch HIV/AIDS.”

TJFP would like to thank Funders for LGBTQ Issues for giving us this opportunity, but most of all we would like to thank Dee Dee, Juan and Caitlin for your time, your honesty and your consistent commitment to trans and gender non-conforming people in the South. We deeply appreciate all of you as you bravely spoke to a room full of funders telling us, “You have the power to make a difference, do so with trans folks at the table. The time is now”.

Here are the video’s we shared during that presentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5DBrqui8zQ