National Center for Transgender Equality
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| Founded | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Mara Keisling |
| Type | Advocacy |
| Location | |
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Area served
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 United States
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| Website | TransEquality.org |
The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) is a nonprofit social equality organization, founded in 2003 by transgender activist Mara Keisling. NCTE is dedicated to advancing the equality of transgender people by providing a voice for advocacy in Washington, D.C.
NCTE's mission statement reads,
The National Center for Transgender Equality is a national social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people through education and advocacy on national issues of importance to transgender people.
By empowering transgender people and our allies to educate and influence policymakers and others, NCTE facilitates a strong and clear voice for transgender equality in our nation's capital and around the country.
NCTE monitors federal activity and communicates this activity to transgender people and allies around the country. NCTE educates members of Congress on issues that impact transgender communities and provides a center of expertise on transgender issues.
The organization works to strengthen the transgender movement and individual investment in the movement by highlighting opportunities for coalition building and providing technical assistance and training to transgender people and allies with the goal of empowering state and local advocates.
NCTE works on any issues affecting transgender people, including:
NCTE works to make it easier for transgender people to obtain accurate identity documentation, including birth certificates, Medicare cards, driver licenses, immigration documentation, and passports. In 2010, after years of effort by NCTE and many other LGBT groups, the State Department changed its policy to allow transgender people to change the gender on their passports without undergoing surgery. NCTE engaged with the State Department on revisions to this policy and educated the transgender community about the changes. NCTE is advocating with the Social Security Administration to change their policy in a similar way. NCTE also advocates repealing the REAL ID Act, which imposes federal standards on state driver licenses and ID cards, and amending the Model Vital Statistics Act, which applies to birth certificates.
In 2008, NCTE and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force launched a comprehensive national survey of discrimination against transgender people. Over 6,450 transgender and gender non-conforming people, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, responded to the survey. Preliminary findings were released in November 2009, focused mostly on employment disparities. Full findings were released in 2011, describing the discrimination transgender people face in education, employment, health care, housing, public accommodations, police and prisons, documentation, and family life, and outlining policy priorities. This is the first large-scale study of its kind, and both verified anecdotal information about the lives of transgender people and provided stunning new information, especially related to the far more extreme discrimination faced by transgender people of color and the high rate of attempted suicide in the transgender population. It has already begun to inform federal policy making.
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