Sylvia Rivera Law Project Is Founded
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP), established in 2002 by attorney and activist Dean Spade, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free legal services to transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming individuals, particularly focusing on marginalized communities such as people of color, low-income individuals, and the homeless in New York City. Named after Sylvia Rivera, a prominent transgender and civil rights advocate involved in the Stonewall Rebellion, the SRLP aims to combat discrimination based on gender identity and expression through legal representation and policy advocacy. The organization also engages in educational outreach, offering training materials for workplaces and organizations on how to create inclusive environments for transgender and intersex individuals.
The SRLP has successfully argued significant legal cases that affirm the rights of transgender individuals, including rulings that protect gender-appropriate dress in foster care and equitable standards for name changes. The organization further addresses issues such as housing, health care, and employment discrimination, and it has developed resources like the documentary "Toilet Training," which examines the challenges faced by gender-variant individuals in accessing public restrooms. Overall, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project plays a vital role in advocating for the rights and dignity of transgender and gender-nonconforming people, fostering greater awareness and sensitivity around these issues.
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Sylvia Rivera Law Project Is Founded
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, named for transgender rights activist and advocate Sylvia Rivera, was formed to provide free legal services to transgender, transsexual, intersex, and other gender-nonconforming persons. The project has a special focus on persons of color and those with low incomes.
Date 2002
Locale New York, New York
Key Figures
Dean Spade (b. 1978), lawyer, activist, and founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law ProjectSylvia Rivera (1951-2002), activist and cofounder of Gay Liberation Front and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries
Summary of Event
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP), founded by transgender lawyer and activist Dean Spade, provides free legal services to transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming individuals, especially people of color, those with a low income, and the homeless in New York City. The nonprofit organization is named in honor of Sylvia Rivera, a transgender and civil rights advocate and activist whose political efforts date back to the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969. The SRLP has since grown and is now collectively run by a group of more than twenty people.
In addition to providing direct services to fight discrimination on the basis of gender identity, gender expression, or intersex status, the law project is engaged in efforts to change policies that create obstacles to full inclusion and equal access to all who are disempowered by discrimination and violence. It also provides training materials and services to organizations seeking information about transgender/ transsexual rights and the law. The SRLP also provides information on making work environments welcoming and accessible to transgender, intersex, and gender nonconforming people. Legal cases, policy formation, and training have focused on housing and homeless services, adult and juvenile justice, health care provision and insurance, police practices, employment, and education.
Significance
Several pivotal cases have been argued and won by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project on behalf of transgender clients in New York. These include the case Jean Doe v. Bell (2002), in which it was determined that “youth in foster care have the right to dress in clothing appropriate to their gender identity,” and Matter of Guido (2003), which established that “transgender name change applicants cannot be held to a higher evidentiary standard than non-transgender applicants.” In 2003, the SRLP also won a ruling enabling a transgender woman to visit her children when she expressed her gender as a woman.
In collaboration with transgender videographer Tara Mateik, the SRLP produced the 2003 documentary film Toilet Training, which explores the implications—including harassment and violence—of being gender variant and accessing not only public restrooms but also private restrooms in schools and workplaces. The production of this video was prompted by Spade’s arrest in February, 2002, for entering the men’s restroom in Grand Central Station in New York. Although he and several friends were detained by police for more than twenty-four hours, they ultimately were released from custody and charges against them were dropped. Furthermore, the SRLP’s transgender awareness and sensitivity training comes with a history of legal battles against discrimination faced by transgender and transsexual people in housing, employment, foster care, homeless shelters, and prisons.
Bibliography
Crane, Kate. “Trannie Legal Aid, Part One.” New York Press, January 20, 2004. http://www.nypress.com/17/3/news&columns/louder.cfm.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Trannie Legal Aid, Part Two.” New York Press, February 3, 2004. http://www.nypress.com/17/5/news&columns/louder.cfm.
Mottet, L., and J. Ohle. Transitioning Our Shelters: A Guide to Making Homeless Shelters Safe for Transgender People. New York: National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, 2003. http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/Trans Homeless.pdf.
Osborne, Duncan. “A Collective Effort at Change.” Gay City News, May 12-18, 2005. http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn‗419/acollectiveeffortat .html.
Sylvia Rivera Law Project. http://www.srlp.org.