SYLVIA RIVERA LAW PROJECT INC
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Mission Statement
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. SRLP is a collective organization founded on the understanding that gender self-determination is inextricably intertwined with racial, social and economic justice. Therefore, we seek to increase the political voice and visibility of low-income people and people of color who are transgender, intersex, or gender non-conforming. SRLP works to improve access to respectful and affirming social, health, and legal services for our communities. We believe that in order to create meaningful political participation and leadership, we must have access to basic means of survival and safety from violence.
About This Cause
Over the past decade, the movement for transgender rights has gained visibility and witnessed remarkable successes. Unfortunately, these advances have yet to have any real effect on the lives of most transgender people, especially those most vulnerable to discrimination and violence. Transgender communities, especially communities of color, continue to face severe discrimination in employment, housing, health care and education, leading to disproportionate poverty, increased engagement in criminalized economies for survival, heightened police exposure, and greater entry into criminal justice systems, where they suffer additional harms. Furthermore, those who seek legal and social services often encounter ignorance or discrimination at the door. All of these factors create interconnected systems of inequality and often violence that keep many trans and gender non-conforming people in cycles of poverty and incarceration and underrepresented in movements for social change. SRLP addresses these issues by reducing discrimination and harassment in institutional settings and increasing access to gender-affirming health care, identity documents, and services while growing the leadership of trans and gender non-conforming people. We use a multi-strategy approach to actualize change at every level of the system. We provide direct legal services to meet immediate needs; bring litigation and work on policy reform for systemic change; and utilize public education, leadership development and community organizing strategies for long-term sustainable impact. In all of our work, we prioritize the issues that disproportionately affect low income trans people and trans people of color: overexposure to police harassment and immigration enforcement; discrimination and harassment in criminal justice settings; and lack of access to identity documents, Medicaid and public assistance, housing, employment and education. SRLP is the only legal organization in the nation that focuses specifically on the needs of low-income people and people of color who are transgender and gender non-conforming. Since inception in 2002, SRLP has provided free legal services to over 1,500 trans and gender non-conforming people facing discrimination. We have educated and trained over 6,500 service providers, students, attorneys and community members about transgender awareness and legal issues. We have published an important report challenging the brutal treatment of transgender women in New York State men’s prisons and nine Know Your Rights pamphlets to build skills and knowledge in our communities. Our leadership development efforts have increased the political voice and visibility of transgender, gender nonconforming and intersex people of color in our movements for social justice. Our policy work and litigation, usually undertaken in broad-based coalitions, has led to many important victories, including, policies prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in juvenile justice facilities and foster care in New York City, successfully pushing the National Commission on Correctional Health care to adopt a position statement supporting the provision of gender-affirming health care to transgender inmates in correctional settings, and winning a new procedure to protect transgender and gender nonconforming people from discrimination when accessing public benefits from New York City’s Human Resources Administration.