Areas of Work: Broader Issues

  • It's So Queer to Give Away Money
    Tikkun Magazine | July 1, 2010

    In recent years, we've witnessed an increase in media, legislative, and judicial activity surrounding the issue of same-sex marriage. It's an issue that has prominently featured images of upper-class, white, professional gay and lesbian couples. "Gay politics" has been defined most visibly as concerning whether couples like these can be legally recognized as co-parents, can inherit each other's wealth, and can share health benefits from each other's jobs.

    While this sort of gay politics has been growing more visible, a different queer politics, focused on racial and economic justice and grassroots activism, has been growing stronger. Queer and trans people concerned about the growing wealth divide in the United States, the stagnation of wages, the increase in immigration enforcement and imprisonment, and the U.S. government's assault on poor people and people of color, both domestically and internationally, have been organizing. The activists and organizations leading this work have reframed queer politics and queer activism. They have declared that property rights associated with marriage and access to military service are not the greatest needs of the most vulnerable queer and trans people. They have been working on police brutality, welfare rights, immigration, health care access, foster care, criminalization, and other key issues facing queer and trans poor people and people of color.

  • Flow Chart: Disproportionate Poverty
    Transgender and gender non-conforming people are much more likely to be poor or homeless than the average person. This flow chart shows how various factors combine into an interlocking system that keep many trans and gender non-conforming people in situations that are vulnerable and unequal.

  • SRLP Receives the Cesar Perales Community Advocate Award from the Brooklyn Law Latin American Law Students Association!

    Stefanie Rivera and Elana Redfield of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project were pleased to accept the Cesar Perales Community Advocate Award on Friday April 16,2010.

    Stefanie Rivera and Elana Redfield of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project were pleased to accept the Cesar Perales Community Advocate Award at the Brooklyn Law Latin American Law Student Association Alumni Dinner on Friday April 16,2010. Read more »


  • Community Organizing Support

    What is Community Organizing Support?

    Community Organizing Support means that as a legal organization SRLP believes in building the political voice of our communities.  To accomplish this vision, we provide legal services that community members need to survive and participate politically, leadership development and skills-building opportunities, and support to community organizing projects that prioritize and support the leadership of transgender people, gender non-conforming people and people with intersex conditions who are low-income and/or people of color.  Read more »


  • Trans Dad Wins Right to Contest Custody Due to "Extraordinary Circumstances"
    http://newyorklawschool.typepad.com/ | October 23, 2009

    SRLP connected a transgender man with legal representation, ending in an Oct 2009 win for the client in a custody dispute. Check out this link for more info!

  • Policy Work and Campaigns

    Current Policy Work and Campaigns



    Stop Transphobia at HRA


  • The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance
    BY RICKKE MANANZALA, DEAN SPADE. SEXUALITY RESEARCH & SOCIAL POLICY (MARCH 08:5,1) Taking tools and lessons from antiracist and feminist scholars and activists and recognizing widespread critique of the co-optation of the lesbian and gay rights movement by neoliberalism, this article highlights alternatives to traditional nonprofit structures. The authors provide an in-depth look at one trans organization that employs a collective governance model and encourages the leadership of trans people of color, offering it as a potential model for emerging trans organizations.

  • GETTING IT RIGHT FROM THE START: Building a Grassroots Fundraising Program
    BY DEAN SPADE, JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2005 • GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING JOURNAL "When we heard that only about 11 percent of the money the private sector gives to nonprofits comes from foundations, while close to 80 percent comes from individuals, and specifically from families with incomes of only $60,000 or less, it made perfect sense to me. I had come from communities of people barely scraping by who were always helping each other out and never afraid to talk about money, which is apparently taboo among upper-class people. Now I could also see that seeking our support from our community matched our by and for approach to the work and would make us more accountable to the communities we serve."

  • The Impact of the War on Terror on LGBTSTQ Communities

    Since September 11, 2001, the mobilization of racist, anti-immigrant, and anti-activist sentiment in U.S., and major law and policy changes which undermine civil rights and civil liberties of all people, have harmed communities around the country and the world. Read more »