Action Items for Allies: Do Your Homework

Scroll to the bottom of this post to see a list of educational resources and links to National Transgender Organizations

North Shore Pride hosted a community forum on Thursday, August 27 titled Violence Against the Transgender Community. During the forum, the panelists discussed action items for allies – individuals who want to support the Transgender individuals in their communities. 

These action items include:

• Check Your Biases
• See Something, Say Something 
• Do Your Homework 
• Do What You Can 

We have been posting a series of Blog posts centered around these topics. This week we’re discussing why it’s important to do your homework and educate yourself about issues affecting Transgender individuals in the LGBTQ+ community.

Action Items for Allies: Do Your Homework

“Right now you have a lot more information, you have a diversity of opinions, you have really helpful and very positive new developments and new terms for talking about what it is to be transgender.” – Grace Rousseau, Veteran Educator, Past President of the City of the Lakes Cross Gender Community, Advisor to GSAs

“Go beyond doing your homework, check the history and check where all of these terms came about. A lot of people think that being Trans is a new thing, and it’s not.”  – Laura Assade:  LGBTQ Liazon for the City of Salem

The internet is an incredible resource. It gives us the opportunity to access and learn about things we’ve never even heard of. As an ally, it’s essential to use this resource to learn about the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ community members. 

Being an Ally means keeping up to date and informed about the communities you’re allying with. Asking your friends in the LGBTQ+ community about their experiences, without doing any alternative research yourself, puts undue pressure on LGBTQ+ community members to be educators. Doing your own homework takes some of the burden of advocacy off of these members who already face significant challenges in their daily lives.

Lift the Burden of Education by Checking Out These Helpful Links and Learning about Issues Affecting Transgender Individuals

Transgender Allyship Tips and Resources

• Guide to being a Trans Ally from Straight for Equality 
• Tips for Allies of Transgender People from GLAAD
• A Guide To Being An Ally To Transgender And Nonbinary Youth from The Trevor Project
• Supporting the Transgender People in Your Life: A Guide to Being a Good Ally from The National Center for Transgender Equality
• Trans Ally: Do’s and Don’ts from University of Southern California LGBT Resource Center
• 6 Resources Every Trans Person (and Ally) Should Know About from Pride.com
• Transgender Resources from The New York Times
• 5 ways employers can support transgender employees from Employee Benefit News

National Transgender Organizations:

• The National Center for Transgender Equality
• Transgender Law Center
• The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)
• Black Trans Advocacy Coalition Mission
• Honor 41 (Latinx LGBTQ Advocacy)
• Trans Women of Color Collective
• Trans Lifeline
• The Jim Collins Foundation
• Center of Excellence for Transgender Health
• Black Trans Men
• Transgender American Veterans Association
• The Transgender Oral History Project