The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the Transgender Legal Defense Fund (TLDEF) – two of the largest trans rights organizations in the country – have announced plans to merge amidst endless legislative attacks against trans folks across the United States.
This summer, the organizations will become one under the name Advocates for Trans Equality.
“We’ll be able to operate with double the influence, double the power,” NCTE executive director Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen told NBC News. “At a time when states are considering a record number of anti-transgender bills, trans voices are needed now more than ever, and we have to be operating at a different scale.”
TLDEF executive director Andrea Hong Marra added that despite the immense growth of her organization over the past several years, “It’s not enough.”
Heng-Lehtinen will take on the role of executive director at Advocates for Trans Equality, and Marra will become CEO. The pair says the merger is not at all about business, emphasizing that both organizations are financially stable and that no staff will lose their job.
“This is a values decision,” said Marra. “This is about strengthening our movement and giving trans activists a real opportunity to lead and drive progress towards equality and freedom.”
“I think that this merger is going to create greater hope for not just the activists that give 125% each and every day, but also the kiddos and their parents at home in their communities across the country that are looking for the national voice for trans rights.”
The decision to join forces was spurred by an especially chilling situation in Texas.
In 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called for the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents who provide gender-affirming healthcare to their transgender kids. Abbott issued a letter to state agencies directing them to report the parents of transgender children for supposed child abuse after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a non-binding opinion stating that gender-affirming health care for transgender youth is a form of child abuse.
In the wake of this disturbing sequence of events, Heng-Lehtinen said the two organizations realized they needed “something cataclysmic.”
“This was next level: An undemocratic and draconian assault on trans families. Our families,” the two leaders wrote in an essay for the Washington Blade. “It was also, we realized, a moment of deep reckoning for the trans rights movement. Our opponents were outgunning us, outspending us, and essentially doing everything in their power to dehumanize trans people — along with all LGBTQ+ people — in the eyes of the American public.”
The pair explained that they are part of “the first generation to wrestle with trans rights as part of the public discourse.”
“This was simply not happening 20 years ago,” they continued, “even while gay rights were moving ahead. But here we are, and we have a window of perhaps five to 10 years, while public opinion is still flexible, to win the hearts and minds of the American people.”
“Together, we will be twice as loud. This merger is about galvanizing our advocacy power on behalf of trans people, marshaling our diverse strengths, and ensuring trans people have a real opportunity to participate and succeed in American life. Right now we have a unique opportunity to turn the tide of anti-trans propaganda and legislation.”
