NCTE Wins Grant for New "Privacy and Documentation Project"

We received some wonderful news this week that we're so happy to share with you! NCTE has been awarded a significant two-year grant to start a much needed Privacy and Documentation Project. While NCTE will raise additional funds to fully resource the program, this grant will allow us to jump start the Project.

NCTE's Privacy and Documentation Project will expand upon the work we are already doing around the REAL ID Act, the new privacy rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), employment I-9 "no match" letters, and the tightening of identification document rules and the rapid loosening of privacy protections.

Today in America, it is very difficult to work, travel, open a bank account, or enter a club or gym without government issued identification that accurately matches one's identity. The importance of accurate ID is increased for transgender people who often face discrimination or violence when ID documents "out" us as trans.

Since NCTE's founding in 2003, the demand has been overwhelming for accurate information on obtaining state and federal identification documents in one's preferred name and gender (e.g., driver's licenses, birth certificates, passports, Social Security cards, military records, professional licenses, school transcripts, etc.). Because obtaining updated ID is often tied to presentation of some type of medical "proof" in order to revise ID documents, significant medical privacy concerns also surround these records' ability to disclose a person's transgender status and confidential medical information.

Growing NCTE's work on these issues is critical. Our new two-year grant will help us do just that. So more privacy and documentation news to come!