National Transgender Advocacy Coalition
The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) is a lobbying and advocacy organization in the United States dedicated to protecting the civil rights of transgender and gender variant people. Its reports and spokespersons are widely cited in the media on transgender issues.
NTAC was founded in 1999, by a group of experienced transgender lobbyists, who discovered after lobbying the United States Congress in May 1999 that other organizations that were ostensibly supportive of rights for transgender people had been lobbying against the interests of the transgender community. This was documented in a report, circulated within the transgender community, called the 'transflakes' report.[citation needed]
NTAC was founded as a 501(c)(4) political lobbying organization in Virginia in 2000. NTAC hosted its first lobbying event in 2001,[1] and has organized lobbying events in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2009. NTAC keeps detailed description and statistics of what is said to its lobbyists, for future reference by activists.
Philosophically, NTAC differs from other transgender advocacy organizations in that its board is a working board of experienced lobbyists and activists, has no paid employees, has no paid office space, has not taken any money from any other organization, and remains independent and transparent in its activities, goals, and work.
The board has undergone many changes of personnel over the years, as board members have had a high turnover rate. This has been balanced by the activists who joined the board who grew in knowledge and stature during their board terms. However, from its beginning, each lobbying visit to Washington, D.C. that NTAC has planned and executed has been very effective, netting useful information on the changing points of view of elected officials, building a database of useful information on the Congress, and training more citizen-lobbyists.
References
- ^ Johnson, Holly. "Coalition for transgendered stages first public lobbying event". Idsnews.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.