Beyond Survival: Building a Boston Where Trans and Gender-Expansive People Thrive
A Kuumba Conversation on Solidarity, Power, and Collective Action

As attacks on trans and gender-expansive communities intensify nationally and locally, Greater Boston faces an important question: what would it truly take to build a city where trans and gender-expansive people — especially Black, Brown, immigrant, and low-income community members — are not simply surviving, but thriving?

This installment of Kuumba Conversations, convened in partnership with Representative Samantha Montaño, will bring together community leaders, organizers, advocates, care providers, and elected officials for a roundtable discussion centered on collective vision and action. During this conversation, we’ll explore such questions as:

• What does a Boston where trans and gender-expansive people can thrive look like?

• How can we all – grassroots organizers, institutional leaders, funders, care providers, and legislators – work together to make progress towards this future?

• Across sectors, roles, and systems, what does solidarity look like, and how can we practice it with each other? How can we build trust, collaboration, and shared strategy?

Grounded in the spirit of Kuumba — creativity, collective responsibility, and community-building — the conversation aims to foster deeper connection, alignment, and sustained collective action across movements, sectors, and organizations. The event is envisioned as a participatory experience that centers dialogue and engagement over a traditional panel format, with opportunities for attendees to contribute ideas, identify priorities, and shape future collaborative efforts.

Audience members will include organizers, LGBTQ+ advocates, healthcare leaders, youth-serving organizations, philanthropic partners, elected officials, and community members committed to advancing equity and liberation for trans and gender-expansive communities across Greater Boston. 

Funding for this event generously provided by the Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation.

Facilitated by Representative Sam Montaño (she/they) and YW Boston’s President & CEO Aba Taylor, this event will bring together a small group of Boston-area trans community leaders for a facilitated conversation focused on working together, across sectors and roles, to create a more liberatory Boston for the trans community. The panel will include:

• Lakia Doncheva (she/her), Executive Director, Trans Emergency Fund

• Dallas Ducar (she/her), Chief Strategy Officer, Fenway Health

• Finn Gardiner (he/they), Director of Advocacy and Organizing, Mass Trans Political Coalition

• Jullieanne Doherty Lee (she/they), Executive Director, Boston Mayor's Office of LGBTQIA2S+ Advancement

• Nicholas McCaskill (he/they), Interim President, Trans Resistance MA

• Grace Sterling Stowell (she/they), Executive Director, BAGLY