The Transgender Law Center is the largest American transgender-led civil rights organization in the United States. They were originally California's first "fully staffed, state-wide transgender legal organization" and were initially a fiscally sponsored project of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The stated mission of TLC is to connect transgender people and their families to technically sound and culturally competent legal services, increase acceptance and enforcement of laws and policies that support California's transgender communities, and work to change laws and systems that fail to incorporate the needs and experiences of transgender people. TLC utilizes direct legal services, public policy advocacy, and educational opportunities to advance the rights and safety of diverse transgender communities. Since launching in 2002, TLC has held over 250 transgender law workshops providing legal information to more than 3,250 community members, attorneys, social service providers, and business owners, as well as collaborated on public policy initiatives designed to improve safety in schools and prisons and safe access to public restrooms for transgender people in San Francisco. TLC successfully helped to revise San Francisco's "Regulations to Prohibit Gender Identity Discrimination" in December 2003, making them more inclusive of people who do not identify as strictly female or male, and to pass legislation in the City of Oakland banning gender identity discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodation, and city services.
Transgender economic health
The survey Good Jobs NOW!, conducted jointly by the Transgender Law Center and the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 2006, provided data on the economic reality experienced by transgender people and their families. The team surveyed 194 self-identified transgender people living, working, or looking for work in San Francisco. Survey findings included:
Nearly 60% of respondents earned under $15,300 annually
A statewide survey, "The State of Transgender California Report," was conducted in 2008. Findings included that respondents were more than twice as likely to live under the poverty line as the general population.
