Introducing our New Mission: thoughts from Executive Director, Jaelynn Scott

Happy Fall Fam,

I am so excited to share with you our new mission statement for Lavender Rights Project. Mission statements can feel like a bit of navel-gazing and are often a routine, thoughtless exercise of a nonprofit. I find them vague at times and, for those not in our industry, they have little to no meaning.

For us, this mission statement is the result of two years of hard work and restructuring. We have shared with you along the way about becoming a Black-led organization with a majority Black trans and gender non-binary staff. We have shared our refocus, our central operating principle: the protection of Black trans women and femmes. For us, the mission statement and the exercises leading up to it required accountable, trauma-informed praxis and lots of healing. We hope that our new statement means as much to you as it means to us.

Lavender Rights Project’s Mission Statement

Lavender Rights Project elevates the power, autonomy, and leadership of the Black intersex & gender diverse community through intersectional legal and social services. We utilize the law as an organizing principle to affirm our civil rights and self-determination.

Our organization disrupts oppressive systems that target Black gender diverse and intersex communities of color and lead to disproportionate levels of poverty, housing disparities, and gender-based violence, especially among Black and Indigenous people.

What does this all mean?

We are now officially and formally committed to Black intersex and gender-diverse leadership and services. This mission will shape what it means to do work that protects of Black trans women and femmes, to see abolition in our community, and to be in solidarity with our Indigenous siblings. By allowing our primary focus to be the protection of Black trans life, we can better inform our priorities and improve our advocacy for the entire community.

The legal system is often a barrier to true justice. The law itself, however, can be used as a tool for creating pathways to liberation. We will take a more holistic approach to justice-seeking, including legal advocacy and wrap-around services by and for our community. We are committed to centering Black trans women and femmes in our services, always. We are committed to systemic disruption, but not at the expense of the basic needs of our community. We are now committed whole-heartedly to Indigenous solidarity and decolonization.

How does this relate to you, our supporters and donors?

The nonprofit is accountable to the public. You are our family and we work for the needs of trans and gender diverse communities across Washington State. This statement, this mission, is a promise to you. It is an accountability mechanism that we ask you to utilize in relationship with our organization. In return, we ask you to commit to this work.

We will share more of our vision, our new programming, and leadership as we approach 2022, but today we celebrate the hard work of our staff, and especially the leadership of Black trans women and femmes who guide the work of the Board and staff.

Thank you for reading and for being our biggest cheerleaders. Please stay in touch with us, you are appreciated and needed.

Jaelynn Scott
Executive Director