Yet while the need to do this work has only grown amidst rising anti-trans attacks, philanthropy has decided to decrease or outright cut funding for trans communities.
To be clear, philanthropy has never given BIPOC, queer, and trans organizations the money we need to do our work. For every $100 US foundations doled out in 2024, only three cents went towards serving transgender and gender nonconforming communities. Not only is this number incredibly low, it’s actually a decrease from the 3.5 cents per $100 given in 2023. Fast forward to 2026, and we have now reached a near complete exodus of philanthropy from the trans movement.
Just as trans people have always shown up in other movement spaces for social justice, we need our partners working across issue areas to integrate trans leadership and incorporate trans rights into their work.
Divesting from the trans community is a choice, because this is not about a lack of money. Having worked in trans justice for nearly two decades, I saw funders and donors spend over $150 million dollars to enshrine equal protections for marriage. But when our trans community fought harder and louder every year to have our lives be taken seriously, we’ve been met with scraps. Not only is philanthropy retracting from putting money towards trans justice, but organizations are actively being advised to do so by their boards.
It is cruel for philanthropy to under-resource and withdraw from the trans movement in a moment where our community is being flooded with attacks from all levels of government. It’s a vicious cycle, with real-life and dire consequences on people’s lives.
It’s no secret that trans people have become political scapegoats. Election losses were blamed on trans people fighting for dignity, respect, and basic rights to life. But those losses happened because we were never given a chance to meaningfully fight. And in the vacuum that “progressive” philanthropy created, our opposition filled it with over $200 million dollars to spread lies and disinformation about our community.
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The opposition’s strategy has worked. Their use of advertisements and the media make it seem like most people hold anti-trans beliefs. This creation of social proof works to the opposition’s advantage. When people are unsure about a topic—or when philanthropists are unsure whether a movement is worth investing in—they default to what they believe is the majority opinion.
But we know that in reality only 35 percent of people believe there should be anti-trans policies in place. We can win because most people are on our side. But to win, we need those who are with us to be loud and unapologetic in their support. The clothes we wear with affirming messages, the signs we put in our front lawns, the things we share on social media, and the conversations we have with friends and family all work to drown out the opposition’s message. All of that is needed to build our own social proof, and demonstrate that backing trans people isn’t just morally right, but that it is the majority opinion.
Winning will also require us to build power both within and outside of our movement ecosystem. This means organizing with people of all races, ages, abilities, and those with expertise outside of trans rights. Just as trans people have always shown up in other movement spaces for social justice, we need our partners working across issue areas to integrate trans leadership and incorporate trans rights into their work. Building power also means organizing at a scale we’ve never been able to achieve before. We need progressive trans, queer, and BIPOC people in every part of society and government—in our schools and cities, in our state and administrative offices, at the court and federal levels—who will fight for the liberation of everyone.
We know these ballot measures can be defeated. But the money being given to these campaigns is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of dollars flooding the states with anti-trans propaganda.
Lastly, to win, we need philanthropy to step up and fund us. Not just nonprofit organizations, but the campaigns on-the-ground that will put the right people into positions of power and defeat ballot measures targeting all our communities. Right now, five states (Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Washington) are facing anti-trans ballot measures in what is yet another litmus test for the opposition to confirm whether their strategy of division and disinformation is working. The people pushing anti-trans ballot measures are the same people advocating to repeal millionaires’ taxes to protect their own wealth. We know these ballot measures can be defeated. But the money being given to these campaigns is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of dollars flooding the states with anti-trans propaganda.
Trans people deserve better. We deserve a fighting chance. Sacrificing trans people has never been a winning strategy and it never will be. We know that ceding ground hurts everyone because the opposition’s efforts to control people’s bodies and lives will not stop with trans people.
Resourcing trans communities means investing in a future democracy that liberates us all. What gives me hope is knowing that we’ve always found ways to builds trans power, to run campaigns, to keep each other safe, and to hold community spaces for grief and joy, even as the dollars barely trickle in. Imagine what we could accomplish if philanthropy invested in us the way we invest in each other.
