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Historic trans rights organizations

Transgender advocacy groups Reviewed June 21, 2025 2 min read

Below are some of the important early trans advocacy groups. More to come!

Pre-internet

Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee

  • Scientific-Humanitarian Committee

Erickson Educational Foundation

  • Active 1964–1977. The most important organization in transgender history.

National Transsexual Counseling Unit

Transsexual Action Organization

Janus Information Facility

Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries – STAR

Queens Liberation Front

Post-internet

IFGE: International Foundation for Gender Education (ifge.org)

  • Published Transgender Tapestry, an important pre-internet publication.

Remembering Our Dead/TDOR (rememberingourdead.org)

  • Also gender.org/remember

NTAC (ntac.org)

  • National Transgender Advocacy Coalition

GenderPAC (gpac.org)

  • aka Gender Public Advocacy Coalition genderpac.livejournal.com
  • Transexual Menace
  • In Your Face newsletter

American Educational Gender Informational Service, Inc. (gender.org/aegis)

  • Founded by Dallas Denny. Published the important periodical Chrysalis Quarterly.
  • Later part of Gender Education and Advocacy, Inc.

Gender Education and Advocacy (gender.org)

  • Maintained a large suite of sites
  • Gender Advocacy Internet News (GAIN) gender.org/gain
  • Remembering Our Dead (gender.org/remember)
  • AEGIS (gender.org/aegis)

International Conference on Transgender Law & Employment Policy (ICTLEP)

  • By Phyllis Randoph Frye

AIDS Education Global information System (aegis.org)

  • by Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark

Tri-Ess (tri-ess.org)

  • SSS, or Society for the Second Self, a prominent crossdressing organization

It’s Time, America! (tgender.net/ita)

  • Executive Director Jessica Xavier. A big part of early transgender lobbying days in Congress.

Transgender Nation

  • Susan Stryker and others. Offshoot of Queer Nation.

End Trans Discrimination (endtransdiscrimination.org)

Survivor Project

Transgender Law and Policy Institute – TLPI

Gender Education and Media

Australian WOMAN Network (w-o-m-a-n.net)

Congress of Transgender Organizations

Transgender Officers Protect and Serve – TOPS

Transgender Alliance for Community

Transgender Fund (tgfund.org)

Trans*topia (youthresource.org)

GID Reform Advocates (gidreform.org)

  • transgender.org/gidr

Renaissance Education Association (ren.org)

  • aka Renaissance Transgender Association
  • Gender Proud
  • Trans United Fund
  • Trans Athlete
  • Transgender Forum (tgforum.org)
  • JoAnn Roberts (circa 1948–June 7th, 2013) 3_D Communications, Inc. partnered with Cindy Martin of Transgender Forum and Jamie Faye Fenton, owner of transgender.org

Organizing for Transgender Rights: Collective Action, Group Development, and the Rise of a New Social Movement. Anthony J. Nownes, SUNY Press (March 1, 2019). ISBN13: 978-1-4384-7301-7

How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Joanne Meyerowitz (April 1, 2004). ISBN-10: 0674013794

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