I Live for Trans Education

Under the Direction of André Pérez, 20+ trans people of varying skill levels worked together to create four documentary shorts and an accompanying curriculum called I Live for Trans Education. The Trans Oral History Project partnered with six LGBTQ+ youth organizations across Chicago including the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, the Read-Write Library, the Broadway Youth Center, and Chicago Freedom School to host a brain trust of youth leaders who tested and refined the curriculum alongside mental health professionals, teachers, and trans elders.

We worked with Lambda Legal and Illinois Safe Schools Alliance to host a youth conference where intergenerational teams facilitated train-the-trainer sessions with 400 youth leaders. We successfully reached over 15,000 people through online views, conferences (ie. Creating Change, Allied Media Projects, and Philadelphia Trans Health Conference), and community events.

Our Toolkit

We launch and disseminated this toolkit in 2014 that would function as a trans 202, going beyond the basics to discuss some of the more nuanced issues our community faced. The curriculum addresses four topics from the mini-documentaries – media literacy, health care, employment, and creating acceptance – in addition to bonus materials on civil rights and intersectionality.