About Gender Justice League

Gender Justice League is a Washington State gender and sexuality civil and human rights organization headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

In 2012, GJL was started by a group of long-time trans, queer, and allied activists who were looking to increase the community’s capacity to address cissexism, transphobia, transmisogyny and homo, bi, and queer phobias that trans, and gender diverse people face.

Gender Justice League has focused on elevating civil and human rights for trans and gender diverse people by creating community through advocacy efforts and shared leadership development. Recognizing that only 4% of employees in the major LGBTQ organizations are trans identified and that trans people face nearly double the unemployment rate of cisgender people, GJL is situated in a Gender Justice model that seeks to empower trans people to combat the structural oppression, discrimination, and violence that we face in our daily lives.

Gender Justice League is focused on social, economic, and racial justice at the core of our work. Our analysis of Gender Justice focuses on issues that are often left on the sidelines of traditional LGBTQ activism, like looking at issues of incarceration and the prison industrial complex, resisting gentrification and issues of homelessness and housing accessibility, creating connections to reproductive justice, working closely with the labor movement, and developing innovative strategies and programs to address unemployment. We believe that to tackle these problems, we must build our power through organizing and leadership development. As a collective, we are comprised of many individual activists (both experienced and new to activism) who have come together to work collectively to build our community's power, resilience, and autonomy.

We approach our work form a variety of methods, including:

• Traditional grassroots activism, such as creating Trans Pride Seattle to create a community forum and location for trans community to gather.
• Newer and innovative advocacy and media programs focused on elevating transgender media representation, reducing stigma, bias, violence, and hatred of trans and gender diverse people.
• Projects are proposed by members, developed by teams of volunteers, and resourced by our collective fundraising.
• Rather than adopting a one size fits all approach, we seek to be flexible and responsive to the skills and passions of our members, developing innovative, dynamic ways to address the issues most concern to our membership.

Best ways to learn about us:

• Trans Pride. Thursday's 6pm to 8pm, April through June.
• Monthly board meeting (3rd Sunday of each month). There, we review our ongoing projects, discuss future projects, review events of the last month as they relate to GJL, and make programming decisions.
• Membership Program Orientation (Currently Suspended, Will Resume Spring 2017). There you can get an overview of how GJL is organized, how we operate, and opportunities to plus in and join the team.
• Advocacy Committee meeting (2nd Tuesday of each month). The Executive Director provides updates to attendees on the status of current projects and initiatives, and reports on both the resolution of previous campaigns and direction for Gender Justice League engagement for the future.
• QTPOC (Queer/Trans People of Color) Advocacy (3rd Tuesday of the Month). Launched in December 2015, GJL provides a safe space for our people of color. Queer and Trans Communities (and Allies) to come together and to talk about the pressing issues that they face on a day to day basis.

We welcome the participation and membership of anyone interested in our mission, values, and vision! Check out our Calendar Page for more meeting dates and times.