This past month, some members of the organizing team from our Trans Organizing and Narrative Shift (TONS) Project were on the ground in Missouri. Our team worked with PROMO, our state partner defending the LGBTQ+ community's rights and fighting to expand protections in Missouri, on their deep canvassing work. Deep canvassing is a critical tool for fighting back against transphobia and bringing people further to acceptance for transgender folks. When we deep canvass, we go door to door and talk to our neighbors about why we care about different issues.

Having meaningful conversations in our communities through deep canvassing is a key part of our TONS Project, an initiative designed to build durable social change in support of transgender and nonbinary people. Led by trans leaders, TONS is building a comprehensive narrative framework grounded in organizing and capacity-building to shift worldviews toward empathy and justice. Missouri is one of four states where our TONS Project is investing deeply in changing hearts and minds on trans issues. 

Canvassers in Missouri spoke with folks in their community to hear their concerns about gender affirming care for transgender youth. They're hearing a lot about it right now—Missouri is one of seven states that will have a ballot measure this year asking voters to ban best practice healthcare for trans youth. Their ballot measure would also re-ban abortion after voters overturned a total abortion ban in 2025. Our canvassers went door to door to hear their community's thoughts and discuss them!

Hear directly from canvassers about their experience below to learn why they were knocking doors for trans rights.

KC:

“I hate bullies. I see a lot of horrific figures trying to legislate trans people out of existence, and I want to do something about it. 
I want people to realize their power, their shared power together, because a lot of people feel very isolated. So I want to try my best to uplift people from that.”

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Garratt:

“I just wanted to make a difference in my community. For me, the main inspiring factor was the pandemic, you know? I was depressed and feeling powerless, like most people, but what gave me hope was seeing all the folks that were working on our biggest problems; they were more visible than ever at that time. And so I decided that I wanted to get involved, too. I wanted to help the people that were helping things.” 

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Ellie:

“What brought me to this work was still needing to be engaged in this fight, and knowing that people who don't know they’re trans yet, whose eggs haven't cracked, and the baby trans kids of this world, I need them not to experience what I've experienced, not to experience the hate and misunderstanding.  I've always believed that we are supposed to make this world better, and at the end of the day, if I can fight to end it–if I can fight and move this ball 10 yards forward to borrow a football reference–we're in a better place. That's what brings me to the fight. I want to give [people] a light bulb moment. They don’t need them to come 100% of the way [to being supportive of trans rights]. I need them to come 5% of the way, 10% of the way, to just open that door a little bit, and then we can drive the bus through.”

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Mallory:

“We should be able to talk with people we disagree with without it, like, being an argument to the end of the world. I'm looking forward to bringing [these skills] back to Springfield [Missouri], because it's really cool to run into so many who are zero/zero [meaning they fully support of abortion rights and healthcare for transgender minors] and I know that I'll run into plenty of people [like that]. I've always shied away from having these really hard conversations, 'cause I feel like I didn't have the proper education to do that. But, feeling like I didn’t have a proper education is something that kept me from transitioning for so long, too. This makes me feel so much more confident, to advocate for my people, you know?”