Celebrating 15 Years

Fifteen years ago today, the National Center for Transgender Equality opened for business for the first time. Through my work at NCTE, I’ve been privileged to be a first-hand witness to the progress of trans rights. I have been so fortunate to be a part of this community, this movement, this organization, and how far we have come.

When I started NCTE, less than four percent of the U.S. population lived in jurisdictions that protected trans people from discrimination. Today, that number is more than 50 percent — and we’ll keep working until it’s 100.

Also around that time, a Pennsylvania state senator told me that I should be pleased to meet with him, because five years earlier he wouldn’t have even let me in his office, and members of Congress we met with at the time would flinch when a trans person tried to shake their hand or change seats to avoid sitting next to one of us. Last November, only 14 years later, I had the opportunity to personally thank President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. That is progress.

There’s no better way to really understand how far we’ve come than to look back on 15 of NCTE’s accomplishments from the last 15 years.

Read more at NCTE's Medium page.

By National Center for Transgender Equality