Trans Woman Empowerment Initiative

TWEI unites to create safety, resources, and holistic health for trans communities.

The Trans Woman Empowerment Initiative’s slogan is “WE SPEAK FOR US, BY US!” TWEI unites to create safety, resources, and holistic health for trans communities. Rooted in ending the violence and injustices against Trans Women of Color, they are committed to being vigilant in addressing all the co-factors that affect trans women and families. They stand together, devoted to growing a powerful sisterhood of Trans Women of Color. In their first year, the TWEI formed a core leadership of multi-ethnic, multi-generational trans women of color.

This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.

Bold Futures (formerly Young Women United)

Founded in 1999, Bold Futures (formerly Young Women United) works to build communities where all people have access to the information, education, and resources needed to make real decisions about their own bodies and lives.

Founded in 1999, Bold Futures (formerly Young Women United) works to build communities where all people have access to the information, education, and resources needed to make real decisions about their own bodies and lives. While Bold Futures understands that the issues facing LGBTQ people in New Mexico are similar to the issues New Mexico faces everyday, whether it is poverty, anti-immigration policies, incarceration and detention, criminalization of substance use and addiction, and inadequate access to health care, they uniquely address these issues through a LGBTQ-centered reproductive justice lens. Additionally, they are one of very few organizations in New Mexico working to address reproductive health in Spanish. Working in a rural state with specific histories of displacement and colonization that deeply affect their base of LGBTQ youth, women, people of color, and indigenous/Native peoples, Bold Futures moves through and within movements for criminal justice reform, birthing justice, and reproductive justice. They uplift the voices of their base through community organizing, cultural work, policy change, leadership development, and culture shift strategies.

Image credit: Nina Freer