GenderPAC

GenderPAC (the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition) was a LGBT rights organization based in Washington, DC working to ensure that classrooms, communities, and workplaces were safe places for every person to learn, grow, and succeed, whether or not they conform to expectations for masculinity or femininity. It was active from 1995 to 2009.

Generally considered the first national political organization devoted to issues of "gender identity and expression" and representing the transgender community, GenderPAC aimed to promote understanding of the connection between discrimination based on gender stereotypes and gender, sexual orientation, age, race and class. GenderPAC's major programs were Workplace Fairness, Gender Equality National Index for Universities & Schools (GENIUS) Congressional Diversity Pledge, GenderYOUTH Network, and the Children As They Are parenting network.

The organization argued that violence and discrimination based on gender variance was not limited to people who identified as trans. It was often, however, categorised as a transgender rights organization.

GenderPAC's annual budget grew to $250,000 in its first five years of existence, and topped out at $1,200,000 when it ceased operations in 2009. Most of its revenue came from LGBT funders and also from corporate sponsorships, with small amounts from individual donor contributions and events.

GenderPAC was founded in 1995 by Riki Wilchins as an association of existing transgender organizations, in response to a lack of inclusion of transgender and gender-variant issues by national gay and lesbian organizations, and grew quickly. Its areas of activism included incidents of discrimination against trans and gender-variant people, as well as youth and issues of workplace fairness.

In 1996, the group began holding National Gender Lobby Days, during which activists would meet with members of Congress to discuss discrimination and violence. One part of these events was a Congressional Diversity Pledge, which asked Members of Congress to affirm that their own office would not discriminate against employees because of their "gender identity or expression." Signers included Jan Schakowsky, Jerrold Nadler, and Carolyn Maloney. Eventually almost 200 Members signed the Pledge, including two dozen Republicans and over a dozen Senators.

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