TGEU celebrates 20 years of trans-led change and calls for your support

In November 2005, trans activists gathered in Vienna to imagine a safer, freer world. Today, TGEU connects more than 200 organisations in over 50 countries, building power, sharing knowledge, and defending trans rights across Europe and Central Asia.

For two decades, TGEU has been the crucial link connecting trans communities, advocates, and allies — from grassroots organising to international advocacy, from training new trans leaders to policy change. Now more than ever, your support keeps this movement connected.

Why we exist

Human rights and trans people are under attack. Authoritarian regimes, anti-gender movements, and rising hate threaten decades of progress. Trans communities remain among the most underfunded and underrepresented globally — facing enormous risks and very limited resources. 

TGEU is the leading trans-led organisation in Europe and Central Asia, the only one that bridges local activists, regional policymakers, and global institutions at this scale. Our work makes the struggles and needs of trans people visible, legitimate, and impossible to ignore.

When trans people are targeted by violence and anti-gender campaigns, we make it visible at the Council of Europe and the UN. When institutions need firm data and trans expertise, they come to us. When crises hit — from COVID-19 to financial cuts —  our networks activate. These networks are irreplaceable.

Now more than ever, TGEU needs your support.

Photos: The First European TransGender Council in Vienna, 2005

Two decades of impact

From Vienna 2005 to today, TGEU has been shaping policy change, strengthening communities and trans leadership, building the most reliable data on trans lives, and leading the depathologisation of trans identities. We are proud of what we have achieved together so far.

• 680 individual and group members in over 50 countries.
• 9 Trans Councils organised: gatherings of activists, allies, and strategic stakeholders in Vienna, Berlin, Malmö, Budapest, Dublin, Bologna, Antwerp, Malta.
• Our advocacy contributed to self-determination-based legal gender recognition in 12 countries.
• 22 ECtHR cases won; 4 watershed CJEU cases for trans and non-binary recognition.
• 13 years of legal data mapping in the region: Trans Rights Index and Map.
• 18 years of tracking trans murders globally: Trans Murder Monitoring.
• More than 50 publications: reports, recommendations, and toolkits.
• Over 300 trans leaders from underrepresented groups trained for effective advocacy, strategic communications, movement building, fundraising, and collective care.
  

This anniversary, we’re raising €50,000 to fund the ongoing work that protects and connects our communities.

We do what no one else does

TGEU combines policy advocacy, evidence-based research, and movement building to ensure trans people can live safely and happily, and participate equally in society.

We train and connect activists from Central Asia to Western Europe to advocate effectively in national parliaments, courtrooms, and at the Court of Justice of the EU and the UN.

We gather verified data to close knowledge gaps through projects such as the Trans Rights Index & Map, Trans Murder Monitoring, and Trans Health Map.

We centre the most marginalised, and respond to crises: from attacks on trans refugees and asylum seekers to violence against trans sex workers, from COVID-19 to the war in Ukraine, ensuring no trans person is left behind.

We strengthen under-resourced regions through sub-grants, mentorship, and cross-movement solidarity. In 2018, TGEU officially expanded its regional scope from only Europe to include Central Asia.

We run networks that sustain movements and foster horizontal collaboration, organising, knowledge exchange, and mutual care. Over the years, we have developed programs such as the Trans Refugee Network, the Trans Feminine Leadership Academy, and the Trans Health Network.

The people who built this

This 20-year milestone belongs to our community. From Lisbon to Almaty, TGEU and our movement are trans-led and member-driven. Every policy win, every research project, every training, every crisis response happened because trans people organised, persisted, and connected across borders.

Everything we do is guided by TGEU’s values: centring community involvement, an intersectional and decolonial approach, and a focus on wellbeing.

Photos: TGEU members, Board, staff and trans advocates throughout the years

Looking ahead

In a time when human rights of trans people are questioned and rolled back, with misinformation and anti-rights narratives shaping policies across the region, TGEU’s work is more vital than ever. Our work in 2026-29 will focus on: 

Community empowerment and movement building: TGEU will invest in strengthening the capacity, skills, resilience and wellbeing of trans communities at the local level.

Policy advocacy: TGEU will protect, advance and uphold the rights of trans people across Europe and Central Asia, fostering resilience and hope against anti-equality forces to ensure trans people can thrive.

Research: TGEU will produce data-driven insights and knowledge on the diverse lived realities of trans people in the region, and globally, to inform and guide our work.

Organisational sustainability: TGEU will strengthen its governance, sustainability, and inclusivity, becoming a fully accountable, transparent, resilient and intersectional membership organisation.

Strong movements need sustained support. Join us in building trans futures. Support TGEU’s mission to protect and enhance the rights and wellbeing of trans people in Europe and Central Asia.

Photos: TGEU members, Board, staff, trans advocates and allies throughout the years