Trans

You can look for political organisations near you and see if one aligns with your views and goals. Especially if you want change on a local level it’s not necessary to join one of the big ones. Small orgs (if they’re well structured and focused) usually influence people by organising lectures to educate and actions to spread awareness. Some organisations also have a mutual aid program, these are more common in places with oppressive governments because there you have to look out for one another and ensure survival.

There are trans organisations who do all the things I mentioned and they are focused fully on trans issues. In my opinion the best trans organisations are those that have a focus on the oppression of immigrants, ethnic minorities and people of colour, because trans people in those groups face more oppression, more discrimination and can have more difficulty transitioning through the ‘official routes’.

Trans orgs will often educate people in DIY hrt and are even more focused on mutual aid. However there are trans organisations who also organise public events and actions to spread awareness. They can also play an educative role for political parties that want to improve the lives of trans people, but also for schools and workers unions.

To give an example, I have a local organisation near me that provides educative workshops at willing schools where they talk about their queer experiences and the political and social struggles that come with being queer. There have been studies that show that these kinds of workshops make children more aware of queerphobia and they reduce bullying based on queer traits (one part of the workshop is to ask the class if anyone has ever used ‘gay’ as an insult to start a discussion on why that is so common and how that makes (closeted) gay people feel).