Founded in 2003, Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to end discrimination and achieve equality for transgender people, particularly those in our most vulnerable communities. Transgender people have been subject to pervasive discrimination that has kept them, with rare exceptions, hidden from public view. While this discrimination has begun to lessen, transgender people still experience much prejudice and violence.

Our strategies include pathbreaking trans rights cases and "friend of the court" briefs regarding the key issues of employment, health care, education and public accommodations. We seek to coordinate with traditional civil rights organizations and other LGBT civil rights organizations. We also provide public education on transgender rights.   

Our Name Change Project provides pro bono legal name change services to community members through partnerships with some of nation's premier law firms and corporate law departments, including Davis Polk & Wardwell, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, Sullivan & Cromwell, Reed Smith, and more.