The Gender Expansive Fund provides gap scholarships to low-income transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive students.Gender expansive youth often move to King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties to leave violence and discrimination in rural areas. Although transgender Washingtonians have legal protections in housing, more than 1 in 4 (26%) transgender residents reported experiencing housing discrimination, such as being denied housing or being evicted because of their transgender status. A national survey by GLSEN has found that 75% of transgender and gender expansive youth feel unsafe at school, and those who are able to persevere had significantly lower GPAs, were more likely to miss school out of concern for their safety, and were less likely to plan on continuing their education. Rather than focusing on their education, many students struggle for the ability to come to school and be themselves without being punished for wearing clothes or using facilities consistent with who they are.Transgender and gender expansive people continue to face extreme societal, political, and economic marginalization: they experience a disproportionate percentage of hate crimes and police brutality; 1/3 of transgender and gender diverse people live in extreme poverty (in WA and USA) and earn less than $20,000 per year; 97% of transgender people have experienced employment discrimination and harassment; 47% have been fired due to being transgender. LGBTQ-related hate crimes have nearly tripled in WA since 2014, and transgender and gender expansive people are most often the target. In this context, it is difficult for transgender and gender expansive people to assume they will even HAVE a future.The Gender Expansive Fund is about investing in the future of transgender and gender diverse folks, and supporting them as they dream and envision a future. The Gender Expansive Fund is about centering the dreams, imagination, and desires of transgender and gender diverse people.
NW Education Access’s former Executive Director of 12 years (2007-2019), Fiona Smith (she/her), started the Gender Expansive Fund during her tenure at NWEdA. Fiona arrived at this work based on her own experiences as a queer & transgender young person who was an unaccompanied minor and experienced youth and young adult homelessness. Fiona's experiences of homelessness while pursuing her undergraduate degree are all too common for transgender and gender diverse people.
With this fund, we hope to reduce the barriers our transgender and gender expansive students experience.