T.A.K.E. Birmingham

Founding and History

TAKE Birmingham was originally formed as a peer support group for transgender women of color. The group eventually formed a more formal organization to advance trans-related issues in the Birmingham area. These issues included workplace discrimination, services for transgender individuals, and support for sex workers. The group eventually expanded to address the issues of trans men of color. ¹ In 2020 the group was granted non-profit status by the IRS. ²

Finances

TAKE Birmingham was granted non-profit status in May of 2020, and as a result its financial filings are not available as of mid-2021. ² However, a 2020 impact report from Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation indicates that it sent TAKE Birmingham a grant of over “six figures” that year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. ³ The project has also received from the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice in partnership with Funding Queerly. ⁴

Priority Issues

TAKE Birmingham runs a variety of transgender-focused programs. These include the Healthy Educational Living Prevention Program (HELP) that assists with healthcare access and health information, as well as exercise classes; ⁵ the Crisis Assistance Fund, which assists transgender people of color with food, bills, and medication costs; ⁶ and a Drop-In Center that provides clothing, access to wi-fi, and a library. ⁷ TAKE also provides life coaching, street outreach to reintegrate homeless trans people into normal society and work, and provide financial assistance for trans related legal services. ^{8 9 10} TAKE administers Gloria’s Safe Haven, a housing resource for transgender people of color, and a “trans-masculine” support group called the Black Knightz that assists with name changes and birth certificate amendments. ^{11 11}

TAKE Birmingham administers Monica Roberts Freedom School, an eight month training program for Black transgender and gender-nonconforming people that is focused on leadership development, organization building, and self-care. ¹²

Leadership and Staff

Daroneshia Duncan-Boyd founded TAKE Birmingham and worked as its first executive director. She has been a transgender activist for eight years and is well known in LGBT circles in Alabama. Duncan-Boyd formerly worked as a sex-worker. In 2019, Duncan-Boyd became the executive director of Trans United, a national left-of-center trans organizing group, and it is not clear who the executive director of TAKE is as of July 2021. ^{13 14 15 16 17}

Morissa Ladinsky is a board member of TAKE Birmingham, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a transgender activist. Ladinsky has spoken out in opposition to Alabama Senate Bill 10, a state legislative proposal to ban gender reassignment therapy for children, claiming that it would prevent doctors from providing medical care to transgender children and subject them to arrest. Ladinsky also opposed the bill’s requirement that school employees to tell a child’s parents if he or she has expressed a transgender identity. ^{13 18 19 20}