Avenger of the Week: Harper Jean Tobin, Trans Rights Changemaker

A protester with a Support All Students sign from the National Center for Transgender Equality. Photo credit: Lorie Shaull [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Lawyer Harper Jean Tobin is “one of the most consequential transgender changemakers that you’ve likely never heard of”, according to The 19th. We agree so meet our Avenger of the Week.

Over the past decade, as former policy director for the Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), Tobin has been a key player in developing and advocating for a range of model transgender policies, focusing on the federal level, in the ongoing pursuit of modern transgender rights.

Her efforts have impacted the treatment of transgender citizens in health care, travel, housing and shelters, immigration, restroom access, interactions with law enforcement and prison systems, credit, and other areas.

“Anytime you hear anything about a model policy on transgender rights,” Mateo de La Torre, an activist who worked with her at NCTE, told The 19th, “…everything, everything, everything… has Harper Jean’s fingerprint on it.”

“None of us do this work by ourselves,” Tobin said in response. “We stand on the shoulders of so many other people.” 

Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, her parents are both lawyers. Her mother, who is legally blind, provided a role model for advocacy as she had to fight for the right to practice law.

Tobin sensed she was different in high school, and that feeling intensified during her years at Oberlin College. She went on to earn a law degree from Case Western University, and over time she began to understand that she was a trans woman. Before joining NCTE in 2009, she became an intern at the Gay and Lesbian Taskforce (now the National LGBTQ TaskForce) and Lambda Legal in Atlanta, and later she worked for transgender military advocacy organization Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (now Modern Military Association of America) and the National Senior Citizens Law Center (now Justice in Aging).

She left the NCTE in 2019 and now runs her own consulting firm, working with LGBTQ+ organizations to develop model transgender policies, as well as training younger organizers.

“I am in some ways incredibly hopeful for the possibilities for change in the world for trans people and for all people,” she said. “At the same time, I have never harbored the illusion that I will see a day when we live in a fully adjusted equal society.”

For her dedication and effectiveness in fighting for transgender rights, we salute Harper Jean Tobin as our Avenger of the Week.

“I am in some ways incredibly hopeful for the possibilities for change in the world for trans people and for all people,” said Harper Jean Tobin. @GenderAvenger salutes its #AvengerOfTheWeek’s powerful hope and dedication to #TransRights. #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/avenger-of-the-week-harper-jean-tobin