Alyssa was a Puerto Rican trans woman from the Bronx. She was incarcerated at a few points in her life, including when she was young. While in juvenile detention, she fought for access to healthcare and freedom from gender-based discrimination and violence. Her work led to teens in NY juvenile jails getting access to puberty blockers and hormones. She also made it less common for teens to get punished for their femininity, masculinity, or gender nonconformity in the system. She continued her advocacy over the years through different organizations, including the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and Bronx Defenders. Many loved her. She passed away in 2020.

We recognize that incarcerated and marginalized advocates have done the most critical, ground-breaking gender justice work for decades with the least resources and support. We bring in more resources and support, so people can have even greater impact. Our work has three main parts:

• Facilitating opportunities for gender justice advocates to learn from one another, build shared analysis, strategize, and collaborate to end gender-based violence;

• Creating and distributing advocacy materials and other resources to support the gender justice work of jailhouse lawyer survivors and other advocates; and

• Organizing to shift power through fighting for changes to court, administrative, and legislative procedure to make it easier for grassroots leaders, including incarcerated survivors, to participate politically. 

We are by and for survivors and those vulnerable to gender-based violence who are who are underrepresented in mainstream feminist, LGBTQI+ and anti violence movements. That includes incarcerated, Black, Indigenous, people of color, disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill people who are also cis or trans women or femmes, nonbinary or Two Spirit people, trans or gender nonconforming men, or survivors of gender-based violence. Part of our goal is to build collaboration, solidarity, and understanding across differences. So our leadership works democratically as an inside-outside, multi-racial, cross-disability, intergenerational, and mixed-gender group. We work in Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, and Georgia.