Mara Keisling

During her tenure as executive director, the National Center for Transgender Equality has had numerous political victories. In 2007, Keisling and NCTE co-led "United ENDA," a coalition of over 400 LGBTQ rights organizations lobbying for a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that had explicit protections for transgender individuals.[1][8] Although the bill ultimately failed to pass, it was the first-ever transgender-inclusive legislation to be proposed to the U.S. Congress and yielded the first-ever Congressional hearing on transgender rights issues.[3] Under the Obama administration, NCTE also successfully lobbied for the modification of State Department regulations, allowing transgender people to change the gender marker on their passport without necessarily having undergone genital reconstruction surgery.[3][9][10]

In 2008, NCTE partnered with the National LGBTQ Task Force to launch the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS).[11] Then the largest study of transgender individuals in the United States, the NTDS surveyed 6,450 transgender residents about their experiences of discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, health care, and education, among others.[12][13] The findings of the NTDS have since informed public policy in the United States, such as at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which based new housing regulations to protect LGBTQ people on the study.[14]

In 2015, NCTE followed up the NDTS by launching the U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS), thus far the largest survey of transgender individuals in the United States.[15][16][17] Nearly 28,000 transgender residents participated in the survey, which covered a broad range of topics pertaining to family life, health, housing, income, employment, discrimination, harassment and violence, military service, political participation, and others.[16][17][18][19] In addition to the full national report, NCTE has released various breakout reports focusing on specific states.[20]

In her capacity as executive director of NCTE, Keisling has been an oft-cited source of political commentary in mainstream American media. She has appeared as a guest on news channels such as CNN,[21] C-SPAN,[22] Fox News,[23] and MSNBC.[24] She is frequently quoted in newspapers, news magazines, and online news sources, including The New York Times,[25] The Washington Post,[26] The Guardian,[27] Time,[16] Buzzfeed,[28] and The Huffington Post. Keisling has also published op-eds in numerous outlets, including The New York Times,[29] Time,[30] NBC,[31] CNN,[32] and The Huffington Post.[6]

In 2016, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act into law, thereby eliminating anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people and legislating that, in government buildings, individuals may only use restrooms and changing facilities that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates.[33] In an act of protest while visiting the North Carolina State Capitol to ask the governor to repeal the law, Keisling used the women's restroom in the governor's office, posting a photo of the restroom door to social media.[34] As she recounted to BuzzFeed News, other women in the restroom did not respond negatively to her presence and a state police officer in the area took no action to prevent or reprimand her.[34] Keisling was subsequently arrested along with other demonstrators for holding a sit-in at the North Carolina State Legislative Building.[35][36][37]