Our Movement Principles

Our mission is to build a powerful, trans-led movement fighting for freedom, justice, and equality for all trans and gender diverse people. We are working together with our loved ones and allies to bring about a future where all trans people are safe, celebrated, and free.

Our nine movement principles layout the most important elements of the strategy and culture of the Trans Justice Project. We ask that any group or individual seeking to work towards achieving the aims of the Trans Justice Project aligns themselves with these principles.

Our movement is led by trans and gender diverse people, and invests in our leadership. But we know that building the power that we need to create real change will require thousands of allies to take action alongside us. Whether you are a parent, a loved one, a friend, or an ally, we welcome and encourage you to run a local group, participate in actions, and to join our campaigns.

The powers that be try to turn us against each other based on our class, our genders, where we were born, or our cultural identities. They want to fuel hate and division so that they can hang onto power and distract us from working together on the issues that unite us.

We work to push back against the politics of hate by boldly organising in our communities, calling out the agenda of those in power, and by standing in solidarity with other movements that fight for freedom, justice, and equality for all.

To build a powerful movement we need to engage, empower, and activate as many people as possible. We focus on listening, building relationships, and having conversations with people in our communities . We meet people where they are at, educate and inform the public, and move people to action, organising our schools, workplaces, industries, and places of worship.

We take bold action as one united, national movement, because we are more powerful when we work together. We make sure we’re all on the same page when it comes to our strategy, demands, and messages so that we speak with one voice, and then adapt these national tactics for our own backyard community.

We value leadership that brings people together, moves people to action, and supports others to grow. We believe that celebrating others, creating a positive team culture, and prioritising action and friendship, are essential to sustaining ourselves and creating impact.

Movements are most effective at building popular support and creating change when they remain non-violent. The conditions we live under are violent but we cannot win by responding in kind to the violence, harassment, and threats of our opponents.

Instead we combat their hate by organising our communities, building our power, and winning over the public to create long-term change. We don’t support threats, violence, or the harassment of anyone, either online or in-person. Whenever you are acting as a supporter of this movement remember that your actions will reflect on everyone else.

All of our leaders, regardless of their political leaning or affiliations, should support our community to thrive. We will hold leaders accountable for the policies, words, and actions that harm our communities, but we do not endorse, condemn, or tell anyone to vote for any particular political party or politician.

Standing up for our right to exist can be exhausting and heart-breaking. We take regular breaks, check-in on each other, and debrief after doing hard things.

Everyone is in a different place on their learning journey. To build a large and inclusive movement we need to take people where they are at, recognising that everyone brings differences in life experiences, opinions, and ideas. We encourage everyone to be open to considering feedback, hearing when their actions or words have hurt someone else, and to respond appropriately.