As transgender people across the country face mounting threats to healthcare access and bodily autonomy, a newly formed statewide coalition in New Jersey is organizing to ensure the Garden State does not become the next place where that access disappears.
The Transgender Rights Coalition of New Jersey (TRC-NJ), formed in December. It is pressing lawmakers to pass long-promised “shield law” protections for gender-affirming and reproductive healthcare. Coalition members say the legislation would protect patients, families, and providers from out-of-state investigations or prosecutions and ensure New Jersey remains a safe place to seek care.
Although New Jersey has long been viewed as a leader on LGBTQ rights, advocates note that it is now one of only three states in the Northeast without durable shield protections for transgender and nonbinary people. A bill introduced in 2024, S3491/A4656, failed to pass during the most recent lame-duck session in 2025 despite broad support and commitments from legislative leadership.
Jane Buchanan is a founding member of TRC-NJ and a representative of progressive advocacy group SOMA Action. Buchanan is also the mother of a transgender young person. “This coalition emerged out of almost 18 months of grassroots activism around getting the gender-affirming care bill introduced and working with legislators to secure cosponsors and yes votes,” Buchanan said. “People came together as a group doing collective coordinated actions, so the next logical step to solidify that was to create this coalition.”
Since the end of the last legislative session Jan. 12, the coalition has grown to include 72 individual members — transgender people, parents, and allies — along with nine other organizations. Rather than operating under a single leader, TRC-NJ functions through committees focused on communications, strategy, legislation, and faith outreach.
“The coalition is a very grassroots devolved structure,” Buchanan said. “We have a few committees. We have a communications committee, a strategy committee, and more. People are taking leadership roles in that way. We have a couple [of] folks involved in the drafting of the legislation and interacting with the lawmakers, but we don’t have a designated head or leader of the coalition.”
Coalition members are closely examining shield laws in other states to ensure any new legislation in New Jersey offers meaningful, enforceable protection. “We are currently looking at what the best practice is in other states to make sure we get the best language in the bill that is going to be the most protective for trans folks in New Jersey,” Buchanan said.
“We are in touch with lawmakers to make sure we have support when the bill does get reintroduced in the Legislature,” she said.
Despite the bills failure to be considered in 2025, Buchanan said the coalition believes conditions are now aligned for passage. “We are confident that the bill will be reintroduced [in 2026] and passed because it is the right thing to do for New Jersey,” she said. “It has a lot of support from lawmakers because they are listening to their constituents and their constituents are asking for this bill to be passed to make sure New Jersey remains a safe and welcoming place for trans folks.”
“My son was able to get the gender-affirming healthcare that he needed, as a teenager,” she said. “It was totally transformative.”
The human stakes behind the legislation
For families in the coalition, the bill is not an abstract policy debate. “Following our daughter’s transition, she blossomed into an amazing young woman — one that was happy and thriving,” said Shelly Richards, a coalition member and parent of a transgender daughter. “With the constant threats on her basic rights and her very right to exist, it has taken a significant toll on the mental and physical health of her and our entire family.”
Buchanan shared similar concerns, describing how access to gender-affirming healthcare was lifesaving for her son as a teenager. “My son was able to get the gender-affirming healthcare that he needed, as a teenager,” she said. “It was totally transformative.”
She said the fear of losing that care is overwhelming — not only for her family, but for others already seeing disruptions as providers halt or limit services preemptively.
“It is extremely stressful and upsetting that this healthcare may not be accessible in the future,” Buchanan said. “If that healthcare is taken away, then that has a direct and serious impact on my son’s wellbeing, his quality of life, and on his physical and mental health. It’s terrifying.”
Buchanan said the coalition has heard from parents forced to scramble for new providers, pay out of pocket, or consider traveling out of state for reliable care.
“I felt that, as an ally to the trans portion of the community, I had to use my experience and my expertise to help ensure that trans people were able to lead with their own voice.”
Organizing with history — and urgency
Louise Walpin, another founding member of TRC-NJ, said her involvement grew out of decades of LGBTQ advocacy, including her role in New Jersey’s marriage-equality fight from 2009 to 2013. She became involved after transgender people and parents reached out for help navigating legislative systems.
“People had approached me, because my wife and I were the lead couple in the fight for marriage equality in New Jersey both legislatively and in the land of legal suits from 2009 to 2013,” Walpin said. At the time, she said, organizing efforts were fragmented across the state.
“There were probably five or six separate groups. Everything was separate,” Walpin said. “When it came time, we asked people if they wanted to be combined into one big group. A WhatsApp group is how it started.”
Walpin said her role has been to support transgender leadership by sharing organizing expertise while ensuring trans people remain centered. “I felt that, as an ally to the trans portion of the community, I had to use my experience and my expertise to help ensure that trans people were able to lead with their own voice,” she said.
She said the coalition made a deliberate decision not to push forward a version of the bill that attorneys warned might no longer offer sufficient protection, even if it could have passed quickly. But she is worried about delays.
“One person that I know has cut their estrogen down to a third of what they should be getting, which isn’t good for your body,” said Walpin. “I understand why it has to be done,” she said. “People are making their own hormones, which reminds me of when people had to do their own abortions. None of this is healthy, yet people are being forced to do it.”
Others, she said, are not only rationing medication, but stockpiling prescriptions, or considering leaving the state entirely. “If this bill continues to stall, people will be moving out of New Jersey,” Walpin said. “They will be moving out of the country because people will not be able to stay here.”
Walpin said the current moment echoes earlier civil rights struggles — and that transgender people are once again leading. “One of the most rewarding things, as an LGBT elder and working with trans families, is the sense of empowerment among people,” she said. “It’s very reminiscent of Stonewall. We didn’t have the term ‘transgender’ then, but that’s who started Stonewall. That’s who threw the first brick.”
She cautioned that while trans people are the immediate targets, the implications are broader. “While trans people are currently the target, the entire LGBT community will be at risk,” Walpin said.
Jennifer Hernández, another coalition member and parent, said the fear many families live with is constant — particularly in black and brown trans communities. “In this political climate, transgender people and their families live with constant uncertainty,” Hernández said. “Trans people, especially black and brown trans communities, are being asked to justify their humanity again and again. That is exhausting, and it is dangerous.”
She emphasized that the coalition’s work is grounded in lived experience and collective action. “This fight is about real people, not abstract ideas or sensational headlines,” Hernández said. “These decisions are not theoretical. They carry real, life-and-death consequences for real people.”
An open invitation
Coalition leaders say the work ahead depends on community — transgender people, parents, healthcare providers, faith leaders, and allies showing up together. “Anyone who wants to become involved can go to our Facebook page or our Instagram page,” Buchanan said. “There’s a link for people to sign up for the coalition and to receive updates. It’s open to anyone.”
She said the coalition website is being constructed currently. As the legislative session moves forward, TRC-NJ members say their goal remains clear: to secure strong, enforceable protections that match New Jersey’s stated values — and to ensure no family is left navigating fear alone.
