Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund

The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) is an American civil rights organization that focuses on transgender (LGBT) equality through impact litigation and public policy work.

History
TLDEF was founded in 2003 by Michael Silverman to advocate for transgender rights including health care and restroom access.

In January 2024, TLDEF announced that they will be merging with the National Center for Transgender Equality to form a new organization, Advocates for Trans Equality. The merger is planned to happen by the summer of 2024.

Programs
TLDEF's name change project pairs private attorneys with transgender clients and has helped about 1,500 transgender people change their names.

Notable cases brought by the organization include In re Mathis, the successful 2013 petition of first-grader Coy Mathis to the Colorado Civil Rights Division for the right to use the restroom appropriate to her gender, and Schawe-Lane v. Amazon, in which the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found evidence of harassment and discrimination against a husband and wife couple at the Amazon distribution center in Hebron, Kentucky, currently pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. The organization recently won rulings from the U.S. Equal Employment opportunity against Walmart in two cases: Robison v. Walmart, and Bost v. Walmart (also in litigation in North Carolina federal court). As a result, the Human Rights Campaign suspended Walmart's rating in its Corporate Equality Index.