Advocates for Trans Equality

Advocates for Transgender Equality is the leading civil rights organization led for trans people, by trans people, winning real policy changes that improve our lives. In the nation’s capital and throughout the country, A4TE works to replace disrespect, discrimination, and violence with empathy, opportunity, and justice.

A merger of Transgender Legal Defense And Education Fund (TLDEF) and National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), we bring a combined 40 years of experience on the frontlines of advocacy. Since 2003, we have made enormous progress for trans people and our broader LGBTQI+ movement, and there are still many challenges ahead, but it is important to know where we’ve come from. Over the last twenty years, NCTE secured over 100 federal policy changes in various agencies and helped to defeat hundreds of anti-trans state bills across the country, and TLDEF saw major victories and had unflappable persistence in courtrooms across the country, having worked on some of the most significant trans legal victories in the nation.

When NCTE and TLDEF were first established, elected officials refused to meet with the organizations simply because of the word “transgender” in our name. Today, we are making our voices heard and pushing for change in the halls of power. Both organizations increased and strengthened nondiscrimination protections for trans people at work, in housing, and in government services, demanded that medical professionals and elected officials protect our healthcare, made it possible for trans people to change our names and update our documents, and so much more. Because of our strong individual legacies, our new, combined efforts as A4TE give us the ability to meet the current and future challenges to trans rights.