Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund
The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund is an American civil rights organization that focuses on transgender equality through impact litigation and public policy work.History
TLDEF was founded in 2003 by Michael Silverman to advocate for transgender rights including health care and restroom access.Executive Directors
Programs
TLDEF's name change project pairs private attorneys with transgender clients and has helped about 1,500 transgender people change their names.
Notable cases brought by the organization include In re Mathis, the successful 2013 petition of first-grader Coy Mathis to the Colorado Civil Rights Division for the right to use the restroom appropriate to her gender, and Schawe-Lane v. Amazon, in which the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found evidence of harassment and discrimination against a husband and wife couple at the Amazon distribution center in Hebron, Kentucky, currently pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. The organization recently won rulings from the U.S. Equal Employment opportunity against Walmart in two cases: Robison v. Walmart, and Bost v. Walmart. As a result, the Human Rights Campaign suspended Walmart's rating in its Corporate Equality Index.
