Gender Justice League trusts, believes, and supports BIPOC when they share their experiences of racism and harm. We stand in solidarity with the Ingersoll Staff and Former Staff Collective (the Collective) and support the demands for accountability and improvement from Ingersoll Gender Center.

We urge Ingersoll Gender Center’s leadership to take to heart the experiences shared by the Collective in their petition, acknowledge their pain and the ways Ingersoll Gender Center has caused and exacerbated it, and to take accountability. We urge Ingersoll Gender Center to meet the Collective’s clear demands, taking the necessary steps to address their patterns of anti-Blackness, racism, ableism, sexism, and misogyny. We support the Collective’s demands for:

The immediate resignation or firing of the Directors: Karter Booher, Jonathan (Lee) Williams, and Louis Mitchell
A complete re-envisioning of the Board to reflect community
A solid accountability process to address recent harms and prevent future ones

We also acknowledge the structural and systemic roots underneath these issues. The nonprofit industrial complex as a whole creates, perpetuates, and survives on systemic anti-Blackness and racism, which must be addressed. In their petition, the Ingersoll Staff and Former Staff Collective write, 

“The non-profit industrial complex is a system that frequently siphons labor (both physical and emotional) talent, vision, and social capital from BIPOC folks and leaves them exploited & disillusioned from the stated mission and values of an organization.” 

Gender Justice League acknowledges our place and role within these same systems. We know how challenging it can be to identify, acknowledge, and address the influence of anti-Blackness, racism, ableism, sexism, and misogyny in our work. Yet it is vitally important if we want to truly support the trans community. 

Ingersoll Gender Center has a decades-long history of being an important resource for the trans community that is incredibly valuable. We expect Ingersoll Gender Center to do the right thing and take on the necessary work to change their internal structures which have created and perpetuated significant harm, and negatively impacted our community. This work must be done in order for Ingersoll Gender Center to continue to be a powerful resource for the trans community for decades to come.

For more information, or to contact the Collective, visit ingersollcollectiveaction.carrd.co