Young Trans Activists Aim to Develop a New Generation of Leaders
A new nonprofit launches a programming series to bring together young trans leaders with “top voices in art, government, science, and public service.”
by Denny
A new piece in the trans rights movement came into place this week with the public launch of a group led by student activists that aims to develop and connect the coming generation of trans leaders.
The group, the nonprofit National Transgender Leadership Conference Committee, also announced a monthly series focused on creating leadership opportunities for trans professionals.
“We are looking to cultivate new and developing trans leaders,” the group’s founder and executive president, Lily E. Rood, told Assigned Media. “Maybe it's someone who is a college student engaging in leadership for the first time, maybe it's someone who's been a leader in their career for two decades but is just coming out and beginning their transition journey and is looking for new ways to engage in leadership spaces with their perspective as a trans person.”
Trans people are organizing and speaking out across the country at extraordinary levels in recent weeks, energized and uncowed by the national wave of discriminatory attacks. The activist group Transexual Menace, which traces its roots to the 1990s but had been dormant for some time, re-emerged just last weekend with a fiery rally outside Stonewall Inn.
The new group is led by Rood, 19, and fellow student activists such as Jay Jones, 22, who will serve as executive vice president for partnerships, and Forest Cusolito, who will be the vice president for administration. Senior leadership members reside across Michigan, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Texas.
While the team is young, the organization’s mission is irrespective of age.
Rood aims to fill a distinct spot. When she was looking for conferences to attend and opportunities to develop her own leadership skills, she found that many events were either regionally focused or fragmented by affinity group. She hopes her group can broaden and nationalize the appeals, creating a pipeline for young and early-career trans leaders.
“The challenges and opportunities that are unique to trans leadership need a space for specific cultivation,” she explained. “And as a trans person myself, I think it's really powerful for me to be able to walk into a room and know that every person in that room has an experience that's connected with mine.”
Launch to Lead, the programming series that will be the group’s inaugural project, aims to bring together “new and developing trans leaders with top voices in art, government, science, and public service.”
Another centerpiece of the group’s efforts will be a National Transgender Leadership Summit, scheduled for this fall in Massachusetts, bringing together 30 leaders across the country. The goal: Helping define trans advocacy for the coming generation, and building a “resilient trans movement that will only grow from here.”
The need for activism and leadership is evident: A long string of discriminatory actions undertaken by President Trump has sought to oppress, silence, and erase trans people from American society. Already this year 600 anti-trans bills have been introduced in state legislatures nationwide, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker.
“I know the importance of our affirmative work in a world that is attempting to erase us," said Jones, who will lead the group’s partnership efforts. “But you can’t erase us, you can’t pretend we don't exist, and I believe this organization will give the tools to young trans leaders to be successful in a world that believes that they can’t.”