GenderPAC (the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition) was a LGBT rights organization based in Washington, DC working to the stated aim of ensuring classrooms, communities, and workplaces are safe places for every person to learn, grow, and succeed, whether or not they conform to expectations for masculinity or femininity. It was active from 1995 to 2009.
Contents |
GenderPAC aimed to promote understanding of the connection between discrimination based on gender stereotypes and gender, sexual orientation, age, race and class. GenderPAC's major programs were Workplace Fairness, The GenderYOUTH Network, and the Children As They Are parenting network.
The organization did not name itself a transgender organization, though it worked on issues affecting trans people: it argued that violence and discrimination based on gender variance was not limited to people who identified as trans.[1][2] It was often, however, recognized as a transgender rights organization.[2]
GenderPAC's annual budget grew to $250,000 in its first five years of existence. Most of its revenue came from contributions from members, though a few large donors and fundraising campaigns also played a part.[3]
GenderPAC was founded in 1995 by Riki Wilchins as an association of existing organizations, in response to a lack of inclusion of transgender and gender-variant issues by national gay and lesbian organizations, and grew quickly.[3] Its areas of activism included incidents of discrimination against trans and gender-variant people, such as Brandon Teena's murder.
In 1996, the group began holding National Gender Lobby Days, during which activists would meet with members of Congress to discuss discrimination and violence. One part of these events was a Congressional Equal Employment Opportunity Project, which asked congresspeople to sign a statement saying that they would not discriminate against employees because of their gender identity. Signers included Jan Schakowsky, Jerrold Nadler, and Carolyn Maloney.[3] These activities were financially supported by organizations such as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Gill Foundation, and the Human Rights Campaign.
In 1997, GenderPAC produced The First National Study on Transviolence, a large research project on violence against transgender and gender-variant people.[1] It was cited in the political struggle for hate crime protections for trans people.
GenderPAC was a member of the Hate Crimes Coalition that effected in 1999 the introduction of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, eventually passed in 2009.[1] When the organization was founded, passing a trans-inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was a priority, but during Lobby Day, members of Human Rights Campaign persuaded GenderPAC to shift its support to hate crime laws, saying that this would be more politically efficacious.[2][4]
The organization incorporated in 1999, with a new board of directors comprising individuals instead of groups, and received tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.[3]
GenderPAC held the first National Conference on Gender in 2001, coinciding with the sixth annual Gender Lobby Days; one speaker was NOW president Patricia Ireland. The June 2001 issue of Time named Wilchins one of 100 national innovators.[3]
In 2006, GenderPAC published 50 Under 30: Masculinity and the War on America’s Youth, which detailed the murders of gender non-conforming youth, particularly Black and Hispanic, over a 10-year period.[5] The report was used by the House Hate Crimes Subcommittee, the federal-level activist Hate Crimes Coalition, the International Association of Police Chiefs, and the NYC Anti-Violence Project.[6]
On May 28, 2009, GenderPAC closed its doors and shut down its website, citing the number of other organizations now doing the work that it was originally created for. Its GenderYOUTH network and resources were transferred to Choice USA.[6]
GenderPAC exemplified what certain feminists opposed about queer rights movements and certain elements of gender studies: Sheila Jeffreys wrote that its aims ignored women in favor of "transgenders, most of whom are men, and homosexuality," and that the organization's conception of gender as something that should be protected, rather than eliminated, would serve to reinforce discrimination.[7]
Conversely, other transgender rights organizations were angered by GenderPAC's rejection of the label of a transgender organization and to focus on trans issues. These latter criticized GenderPAC's shift of focus away from a trans-inclusive ENDA at the prompting of HRC, their unwillingness to engage with identity categories, and what they saw as a "violation" or exclusion of trans people through the use of their stories to raise money which was not spent primarily on trans issues.[1][2]