TGIJP Black Trans Cultural Center

Miss Major Alexander L. Lee TGIJP Black Trans Cultural Center is a grassroots non-profit founded with the intent to end civil rights violations against incarcerated Black TGI folks in the California Bay Area and at the national level.

Our founding as a legal advocacy and support organization began in 2004 with the help of Alexander Lee, a Soros Justice Fellow from the Open Society Institute. Since our founding, leadership and staff positions have been and continue to be composed of a majority of Black transgender people.

In 2005, TGIJP merged with the organization Transgender in Prison Committee (TIP), an offshoot of HIV-in-Prison Committee, to directly support and advocate for TGI people beyond the prison system. The main San Francisco programs for TGIJP clients include: the Re-Entry Program, the Legal Program, and the Housing and Supportive Services Program.

TGIJP's mission is to challenge and end the human rights abuses committed against Black and Black/Brown Trans people inside of California prisons, jails, detention centers and beyond. 

TGIJP builds voice, power and leadership among transgender, gender variant and intersex people – inside and outside of prisons, jails and detention centers – creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom which centers Black TGI people.

Our values

Fighting for the freedom and liberation of Black TGI lives with an abolitionist liberation framework. 

Centering lived experience of Black and Black/Brown Trans women impacted by criminal injustice institutions and systemic oppression.

Harm reduction framework for service plans.*

Trauma informed practice for engagement and collaboration.*

Dismantling the ladder of oppression by breaking the bottom rung.* 

Intersectional analysis of positionality in access to power and voice. 

Horizontal power structure in leadership and governance.

Transformative Justice framework for working on conflict.

*Defined by directors and informed by community constituents