National Center for Transgender Equality

1. Change federal policies addressing a variety of topics (health care, housing, employment,, criminal justice) to improve the lives of transgender people across the country.
2. Change state and local policies addressing a variety of topics (e.g. health care, identity documents, schools, and jails and policy) to improve the lives of transgender people in those state.
3. Fight anti-trans actions at the federal, state and local level.
4. Educate policy makers and the public about trans people and their lives.

Goal 1 Strategies
1: Identify policy needs and create a create a strategic federal agenda document .
2: Develop a set of high-level briefing memos outlining federal policy priorities.
3: Educate relevant federal and state policymakers on discriminatory policies and regulations impacting trans individuals.
4: Track, analyze, and create strong administrative record and case for protections with strong legal arguments, real stories of discrimination, and authoritative experts for each of the proposed policy change.

Goal 2 Strategies
1: Educate governors and state policymakers on discriminatory policies impacting trans people.
2: Provide state and local advocacy partners legal analysis, draft policies, talking points, and other technical assistance to persuade policymakers.
3: Collaborate with state agencies, partner organizations, and other stakeholders on policy changes and media strategy to elevate trans voices.

Goal 3 Strategies
1: Educate relevant federal and state policymakers on discriminatory policies and regulations impacting trans individuals.
2: Track, analyze, and create strong administrative record and case for protections with strong legal arguments, real stories of discrimination, and authoritative experts for each of the proposed rollbacks.
3: Provide strategic advice, legal analysis, and other technical assistance to state and local advocacy partners.
4: Train and mobilize trans people and allies to directly engage in policy change.

Goal 4 Strategies
1: Release and distribute a U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS), which is a collection of data on transgender peoples experiences of discrimination, violence, and acceptance within schools, jobs, criminal justice, housing, public accommodations, and family relationships.
2: Prepare public-facing documents to educate trans people and allies on NCTE's policy agenda.
3: Use press and social media to educate the public about the experiences of trans people and their families.

NCTE has 17 years of experience working with federal, state, and local policy makers on policy change. It works closely with other national organizations and state and local partners. NCTE is committed to supporting and training local advocates to help it accomplish the work.

Throughout NCTE’s 17-year history, it has worked with the federal government to first acknowledge the existence of transgender people and their policy concerns, and later, to persuade it to change more than 150 policies to address the pervasive barriers to opportunity, justice, and well-being for transgender people.

In the past 4 years, states introduced more than 150 anti-trans policies attacking the rights of trans people. NCTE, with partners, was able to stop most of these state attacks, it has not been able to block all of the attempted direct attacks on trans people at the federal level.

NCTE has worked with several states to change their policies. Many states have updated their policies to decrease the administrative burden to change a person's name and gender on their state ID and/or birth certificate. Many states have also updated their state employee health care and Medicaid policies to remove restrictions to trans health care.

What's next? The Trump Administration has advanced major policy rollbacks regarding many important, life-affecting issues (, including those relating to trans students’ rights in school, rights to transition-related health care, open military service, trans people’s treatment in federal prisons, and trans data collection. NCTE is still working to delay or prevent more coming and must work to reverse these policies as soon as it is able.