The Marsha P. Johnson Institute

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute The Marsha P. Johnson Institute protects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people.

We do this by organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting our collective power.

ATLANTA, WHO’S READY TO GET THIS BAG? 💰🏳️‍⚧️Pride Corps is one of MPJI’s major programs, creating paid pathways for Blac...
09/22/2026

ATLANTA, WHO’S READY TO GET THIS BAG? 💰🏳️‍⚧️

Pride Corps is one of MPJI’s major programs, creating paid pathways for Black and Brown trans leaders to flex their local Pride, connect with community and represent the Marsha P. Johnson Institute where the movement is happening.

We’re looking for Pride Corps representatives to hold down the MPJI table at Atlanta Pride for two powerful days:

📍 Piedmont Park, Atlanta
📅 Saturday, October 10 and Sunday, October 11
⏰ 10:00 AM–7:00 PM each day
💰 $40 per hour

We stand at the crossroads between where Pride began and what Pride has become. MPJI exists to keep Marsha P. Johnson’s living legacy in motion by investing in Black and Brown trans leadership, building community power and making sure the people carrying this movement are paid for their labor.

Come represent MPJI. Connect with your local community. Help us bring Marsha’s fire, joy and political clarity into the heart of Pride.

Who’s getting this bag with us?

Interested? DM us “PRIDE CORPS ATL” for next steps.

MarshaPJohnsonInstitute

09/21/2026

Shay Walker! Shay the They! Ayyyyyy… ayyyyyy… IYKYK 💜

Shay shares key takeaways from our inaugural Marshal of Joy Summit and what becomes possible when Black and Brown trans leaders gather, dream, and build together.

Stay connected. Share the work. Support the movement. Invest in Black and Brown trans leadership. Invest monthly if you can!

Follow our Marshals of Joy:
💜 Shay: Shay the They
💜 Jayden: Jayden Ruff
💜 Jae: Jae Douglas
💜 Dio: Dio Aldridge

09/19/2026

Wisdom does not move in only one direction.

In this video, Regina Livingston, our Advisor of Strategic Programming, shares reflections from the Marshal of Joy Summit advisory sessions, where our Ambassadors pitched their three-day community events.

What surprised and energized everyone was how much knowledge already existed in the room. Advisors offered guidance shaped by experience. Ambassadors brought fresh strategies, local insight, and bold visions that challenged everyone to think bigger.

That is the power of intergenerational exchange: we do not gather simply to teach one another. We gather to listen, sharpen the work, and build something stronger together.

When Black trans people across generations share what we know, everybody leaves with more.
Follow Unspoken Treasure Society and stay in touch with the incredible work Regina is up to in FL. Supporting MPJI with your monthly gift ensures spaces like this one can grow and continue.

History was in the room.At the first-ever Marshal of Joy Pitch Day in Columbus, four emerging Black trans leaders; Jae D...
09/17/2026

History was in the room.

At the first-ever Marshal of Joy Pitch Day in Columbus, four emerging Black trans leaders; Jae Douglas, Shay walker, Dio Aldridge, and Jayden Ruff shared what they are ready to build in their communities across the country with five trusted Black trans advisors and MPJI staff.

This is what intentional investment looks like: funding paired with strategy, care, legal guidance, fundraising support, hospitality, transmasculine leadership, and access to people who have already proven their commitment to our communities.

Our advisors, Marissa Miller, Love Latonia, Brittan Bowick-Hardgers, Bryanna Jenkins, and Regina Livingston, brought so so much care and years of experience to the table. Every person in that room poured in and was poured into.

We flew these leaders to Ohio to build together, sharpen their visions, and leave equipped to turn bold ideas into lasting community impact.

This is what your support and your monthly gift make possible at the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. Together, we are carrying Marsha’s legacy forward. Her fire lives in us, in these leaders, and throughout this movement.

Join us however you can. Give monthly. Share this post. Tell someone about Marshal of Joy. Apply next year. Stay connected to what MPJI is building.

This is Marshal of Joy. This is history in the making.

Keep an eye out for our team on the ground!!!
09/17/2026

Keep an eye out for our team on the ground!!!

This Latine Heritage Month, MPJI is celebrating Latine trans leaders in our network and beyond who are actively doing th...
09/16/2026

This Latine Heritage Month, MPJI is celebrating Latine trans leaders in our network and beyond who are actively doing the work to build a freer future for our communities. 🏳️‍⚧️

Across organizing, advocacy, art, and everyday acts of care, trans leadership reminds us that our communities deserve more than visibility. We deserve safety, resources, joy, and the power to shape our own futures.

There is no community without UNITY. Our namesake, Marsha P. Johnson, worked alongside Sylvia Rivera, sisters, and both mothers of our movement. Their legacy reminds us that Black and Latine trans solidarity AND S*X WORK is part of our foundation, and it lives on through those building community and fighting for our collective liberation today.

We’re spotlighting leaders across the diaspora, with special love for Black and Brown trans leaders and with an intentional focus on Afro-Latine voices too often overlooked in both mainstream Latine spaces and broader Black advocacy. These folx represent distinct identities and experiences; this celebration honors that diversity.

For those asked to choose between parts of themselves to belong: you deserve to be seen and celebrated in your fullness. You do not have to put aside your race, your heritage, or your transness to claim community. Our movements are stronger when we make room for all of who we are.

There is no community without UNITY and sustaining our movement takes ALL of us. By giving every month to our campaign, you help MPJI continue our mission, carry forward Marsha’s legacy, and keep working toward Black and Brown trans liberation. Fund our unity = Fuel our collective future. 🏳️‍⚧️

Pictured, from left to right:
✨ Top row: Jae Douglas Jae Douglas, Proyecto Trans Latinas Jamie Arangure, Mila Hellfyre | NGO Consultant Mila Hellfyre, Dr. Christy Perez Dr. Christy Perez
✨ Bottom row: Steph Viana Stxph Viana, Bamby Salcedo Bambi Salcedo, E.C. Pizzaro E.C. Pizarro III

Join us in celebrating these leaders, learning from their work, and supporting what they’re all building this month and beyond. 💐

S*X WORKERS BUILT THIS MOVEMENT. Marsha P. Johnson was a Black trans s*x worker. Sylvia Rivera was a Latina trans s*x wo...
09/14/2026

S*X WORKERS BUILT THIS MOVEMENT.

Marsha P. Johnson was a Black trans s*x worker. Sylvia Rivera was a Latina trans s*x worker. Together with members of STAR, they used money earned through s*x work to help feed, house, and protect their own when established organizations refused to show up.

Their labor funded liberation. Their care became infrastructure. Their refusal to abandon their people helped build the movement many celebrate today.

MPJI stands with s*x workers everywhere, especially Red Light Disco as they lead the movement for S*x Worker Pride across the country.

We stand for the full decriminalization of s*x work. Against criminalization, stigma, policing, and every attempt to erase s*x workers from the history they made and the future they are still building.

You cannot honor Marsha while criminalizing s*x workers.

Respect the work. Protect s*x workers. Decriminalize s*x work. Fund their leadership.

09/14/2026

💜MOJ FAMILY! : Let’s start with the obvious: we looked GOOD.

Hair done. Faces beat. Line up looking sharp. Cameras rolling. Black trans brilliance everywhere you turned.

But Glam Day was never just about looking beautiful.

This was one full day of our inaugural Marshal of Joy Ambassador Program Summit in Columbus, Ohio this past August, a gathering created to invest in Black trans leadership, connection, visibility, and the people carrying this work forward.

And yes, part of that investment meant making sure our ambassadors left with the headshots, portraits, footage, and documentation they deserve.

Because being documented matters.

We were here.
We gathered.
We built together.
We laughed.
We learned.
We led.
And chiiiile; we served while doing it.

There is power in seeing Black trans people photographed with intention, softness, confidence, joy, and care. There is power in creating an archive that shows us not only surviving history, but shaping it.

None of this happens without community.

To every one time donor, every recurring donor, and every person who believes Marsha P. Johnson’s legacy should remain alive, active, and moving through today’s Black trans liberation movement: this is what your support makes possible.

You helped us create a space where Black trans leaders could be poured into, connected to one another, celebrated, and documented in their power.

The glam was real.
The purpose was deeper.

And since history is watching, we made sure the lighting was right. 📸✨

Some of us are changing what our families thought was possible just by living a life we can finally call our own.Choosin...
09/12/2026

Some of us are changing what our families thought was possible just by living a life we can finally call our own.

Choosing our names. Keeping our cultures. Refusing to pass down the harm we were told to keep quiet about. Making plans to grow old.

For Black and Brown TRANS people, those choices have power. That power grows when we show up for each other, share resources, fund our leaders, and organize until our freedom has more protection than someone else’s good intentions.

Our trans, nonbinary, and Indigenous Two-Spirit communities carry histories that didn’t begin with us. We may be the first to speak openly in our families. That doesn’t mean we’re the first who existed.

At MPJI, we carry Marsha’s legacy forward by putting resources behind Black & Brown trans leadership and the futures we’re building together. Because being the first should come with people behind you.

So tell us: what are you the first in your bloodline to do?

Finish the sentence. Repost the slide that speaks to you. Your answer might give somebody language they’ve been looking for 💜 VISIT THE LINK IN BIO AND BE ONE OF 41 people donating $41 in honor of our EDs 41st birthday💥 Chastity Jamaria Bowick-Hardgers

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