Visibility matters. But visibility without context does not tell our whole story. This Transgender Day of Visibility, we asked, exploring decolonial philanthropy for trans movements: who gets to be visible? And on whose terms?

These questions do not stop at representation. Trans movements across the globe are actively resisting violence and exclusion in the face of rising anti-gender movements, and challenging the deeper frameworks that determine who gets funded, who gets recognised, and who gets to define the terms of their own liberation.

For funders, this raises the critical question: what does a genuinely decolonial approach to trans movement building actually require?

Western-centric models of knowledge, research, storytelling, and funding are continuously shaped by extractive colonial histories. These are legacies that have not ended but have changed form to determine whose voices are resourced, whose knowledge is valued, and whose stories get told.

As a global funder, the International Trans Fund (ITF) is not outside of this dynamic. We hold real power: we decide where money flows, whose work gets resourced, and whose does not. But we are actively working to subvert that power.

ITF has partnered with trans-led groups organising across vastly different contexts, each bringing their own understanding of what it means to be trans, with definitions that stretch well beyond, and often challenge, those that dominate global discourse.

These perspectives have deepened our understanding of trans movements and allowed us to bear witness to lived experiences that are expansive, lush and cosmic in their proportions, alive in ways that no single definition can hold.

This Transgender Day of Visibility we hope to bring their stories to the surface.

Exploring Decolonial Philanthropy and Trans Organizing

For our partners, decolonisation is not an abstract concept. It is a daily practice rooted in history, survival, and resistance.

In Aotearoa (New Zealand), Rainbow Path highlights how colonisation disrupted Indigenous understandings of gender. Māori concepts such as takatāpui, encompassing diverse genders, sexualities, and sex characteristics, were suppressed under colonial rule, replaced by rigid binaries and pathologising frameworks.

Read the full article about decolonial philanthropy for trans movements by Ayan A at Alliance Magazine.