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Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP)

MISSION

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. SRLP is a collective organization founded on the understanding that gender self-determination is inextricably intertwined with racial, social and economic justice. Therefore, we seek to increase the political voice and visibility of low-income people and people of color who are transgender, intersex, or gender non-conforming. SRLP works to improve access to respectful and affirming social, health, and legal services for our communities. We believe that in order to create meaningful political participation and leadership, we must have access to basic means of survival and safety from violence.

GOALS

  1. To provide access to free, quality, respectful, affirming legal services for low-income transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people.
  2. To use training, public education, policy reform, and precedent-setting lawsuits to end state sanctioned and institutional discrimination, violence, and coercion on the basis of gender identity and expression, which we understand as inextricably related to race and class.
  3. To build a non-hierarchical collective organization that internally practices what we’re struggling for by developing the leadership of low-income transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people of color.
  4. To participate in the larger movement for racial, social, and economic justice that includes gender liberation and prioritizes the issues of those most affected by the systems of oppression under which we live.

CORE VALUES/VISION

The following core values provide the basis of SRLP’s work. It is the responsibility of all collective members to recognize and promote these values in all actions taken in SRLP’s name.

  1. We can’t just work to reform the system. The system itself is the problem.
  2. Oppressed people need to be empowered with the skills and vision to fight for their own liberation. For SRLP, this includes taking reasonable steps to provide necessary training and resources.
  3. All oppressed people need to work together in solidarity to end all forms of oppression. For this reason, SRLP values coalition work with organizations whose stated missions reflect our organizational values.
  4. We believe that the struggle for gender self-determination will in the end be fought by our whole communities, and it will win liberation for all of our people.
  5. It is critical that transgender, intersex, and gender variant people and people of color, especially low-income people, youth, and people with disabilities, take leadership in our work. Furthermore, SRLP as an organization must actively work to realize this goal.
  6. SRLP strives to maintain gender parity at all levels of the organization.
  7. SRLP believes that the working environment of an organization shapes the work, and for this reason we strive to create an environment that is non-hierarchical in structure and operates by consensus.

For more information, please visit Sylvia Rivera Law Project.