The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance

Abstract: Trans politics are gaining visibility and momentum and, increasingly, trans activists are form-ing projects and organizations focused on promoting political change. Given this context, this article examines how critiques of the nonprofit industrial complex might be incorporated into trans political analysis and how they could inform this moment of trans political institutionalization. Taking tools and lessons from antiracist and feminist scholars and activists and recognizing widespread critique of the co-optation of the lesbian and gay rights movement by neoliberalism, this article highlights alternatives to traditional nonprofit structures. The authors provide an in-depth look at 1 trans organization that employs a collective governance model and encourages the leadership of trans people of color, offer-ing it as a potential model for emerging trans organizations. Key words: transgender; racism; organizational development; neoliberalism; co-optation; gay; lesbian “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it ” (Feinberg, 1998, p. 61, quot-ing a Chinese proverb). Since the 1990s, trans politics have decidedly emerged on the national scene in the United States, wit