National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)

In January 2024, it was announced that the National Center for Transgender Equality planned to merge with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) to create a new organization, Advocates for Trans Equality. The purpose of the new group would be to advocate in favor of protecting pro-transgender rights and legislation at the state and national levels as well as an increased focus on political campaigning. The merger is planned for around Summer 2024. ²

Mission

The Center’s principal object is to advocate on behalf of Americans who identify as transgender. ¹ It has four major initiatives: Racial and Economic Justice (REJ), Legal Services Network (LSN), Voices for Trans Equality (VTE), and Families for Trans Equality (FTE). The REJ Initiative focuses on advocating on behalf of non-white people related to prison, housing, and other policies. ³ The LSN consists of the Center’s 80-plus legal allies across the nation. ⁴ The Center’s VTE initiative provides resources and information for transgender people and their “allies” to advocate more effectively for the Center’s priorities. ⁵ FTE is an initiative which provides families of transgender people with training and support to use their personal experiences to advocate for pro-transgender policies. ⁶

In addition to these initiatives, the Center engages in media advocacy, state and federal regulatory lobbying, and grassroots advocacy training. ⁷ The American Bar Association (ABA) and Lyft both publicly ally themselves with the Center. The ABA identifies the Center as an official resource. ⁸⁹

In January 2024, it was announced that the National Center for Transgender Equality planned to merge with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) to create a new organization, Advocates for Trans Equality. The purpose of the new group would be to advocate in favor of protecting pro-transgender rights and legislation at the state and national levels as well as an increased focus on political campaigning. The merger is planned for around Summer 2024. ² The Associated Press (AP) reported that the TLDEF’s executive director Andy Mara would become the new group’s CEO while the NCTE’s executive director, Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, would be appointed as its executive director.²

Initiatives

Federal Judicial Confirmations

After President Trump nominated Neomi Rao for the D.C. Court of Appeals, the National Center for Transgender Equality announced its opposition on January 28, 2019. In its official statement, the organization accused Rao of “hostility to critical civil rights protections, to sexual assault survivors, and to the LGBTQ community.” The group directly accuses Rao of “victim blaming” people who have been through a sexual assault, among other claims to advocate against Rao’s nomination. ¹⁰

Section 1557

National Center for Transgender Equality supported an Obama administration effort to expand the definition of “sex” in healthcare nondiscrimination law to include gender identity and “termination of pregnancy”; NCTE opposed a proposed rule by the Trump administration to restore the previous definition in response to injunctions issued by federal courts against the Obama administration changes. ¹¹¹² Catholic healthcare institutions had asserted that the Obama administration proposals violated religious freedom by requiring them to perform or to provide insurance coverage for sex reassignment surgeries and abortions. ¹³

Legislation

The Center supports the Equality Act, proposed legislation that would override religious exercise protections established in federal law concerning sexuality and gender expression. ¹⁴¹⁵ The organization provided official testimony to Congress on April 2, 2019 in favor of the Act. ¹⁶

In 2017, the Center launched a lobbying and political arm called the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund. Its engages in political work that the Center cannot due to its legal status. ¹⁷

Controversy

In November of 2019, the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU) filed an unfair labor practice charge against the National Center for Transgender Equality after it tried to prevent its employees from unionizing. In a press release, the NPEU claimed there had been “years of systemic issues” within NCTE, which led employees of the Center to try to unionize. In August 2019, NCTE staff members staged a “walk out” in protest of the firing of a transgender person of color, and sent a letter to the board demanding the removal of the Center’s leadership. This triggered a series of hostile interactions between staff and leadership within the organization until the leadership began breaking up the union and putting pressure on staff members to resign from their positions should they continue to protest. ¹⁸

Funding

The National Center for Transgender Equality raised over $2.5 million in 2017. ⁷ Much of its funding comes from foundations which explicitly back left-leaning social policy, including the Gill Foundation, the Arcus Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. ¹⁹ The Rockefeller Brothers Fund provided $25,000 to the Center in 2018. ²⁰ The Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, which primarily advocates for and funds left-leaning immigration and LGBT priorities, gave the Center $150,000 from 2016 to 2018. ²¹

The Center received a two-year grant in 2007 to pressure governments to allow people to change their sex on government identification documents like driver’s licenses. ²²

The Center received $1,351,300 from the members of Funders for LGBT Issues from 2011 to 2013. ²³

Leadership

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen is the executive director of the NCTL, serving in the position since 2021. He previously worked as the deputy executive director for the organization from 2019 to 2021. Prior to working at the center, he served in several positions with Freedom for All Americans from 2016 through 2019 including theVice President of Education, several position with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) from 2014 to 2016 including as Membership Manager, and the Development and Donor Services Assistants for Liberty Hill Foundation from 2013 to 2014. ²⁴

Mara Keisling is the founder and the former executive director of the center. Keisling led its twice-published National Transgender Discrimination Survey. ²⁵ Keisling was born male and now identifies as a woman. ²⁶

Lisa Mottet is deputy executive director at the Center. Lisa’s background is primarily focused on transgender people’s experiences in homeless shelters. ²⁷