About Us

We are a trans led, radical mutual aid group, set up to help trans and non-binary people in Greater Manchester support each other through direct action. We run a small mutual aid fund, giving our community a way to help each other out with essential costs. We raise money via fundraisers and donations which is then used by Trans Mutual Aid Manchester to give money, services or items to people in need who contact us. We are also building a grassroots aid network which will enable trans people in Manchester to help each other with things like attending medical appointments, support after surgery, befriending and social outreach. We aim to work closely with other groups in order to maximize our outreach and provide support and community to as many people as possible. We are entirely volunteer run so consider getting involved.

We seek to empower our trans community in Greater Manchester to decrease reliance on state institutions for our care and safety.

Our goal is to be there for each other when people inevitably fall through the cracks of the system, or when they are let down due to institutional transphobia or intersectional systemic oppression. We are one of the many mutual aid organisations that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and have continued since as we believe it is necessary and worthwhile. We have assisted people getting heavy bags home after surgery, run clothes swaps that help rebuild entire wardrobes after coming out, and generally attempted to ensure people have what they need to thrive.

Our financial operations are handled through a CIC managed by a subset of our members. Due to legal requirements this part of our organisation has a more formalised structure. We remain committed to upholding our founding principles while ensuring the continued existence of the fund.

What is Mutual Aid?

In simple terms mutual aid is when you let your neighbour have some milk because you know they will give you some eggs next time you run out. It is the acknowledgment that we don't need a reward monetary or otherwise to help each other. It is a non-hierarchical form of organising to ensure we have our needs met. It is not charity. We believe that those we assist provide or will provide equal or greater value to our community.
Mutual Aid is a philosophy of sharing resources and building support that doesn't involve an external body, like a government or state, and so hopefully avoids many of the problems that come with relying only on the state to look after you.

Our Goals

Our capacity varies with our volunteers availability and financial means, our primary focus is on assisting trans people living in Greater Manchester in whatever form that takes. We are not however a campaigning or protest group, several of those already exist.
TMAM exists to reduce the harms of poverty and discrimination on the trans community in our city.

In order to have a community who understand us we have to congregate in large cities, it is our desire to ensure that Manchester is a welcoming city and that those arriving are able to find a healthy community easily. Unfortunately, housing costs can be prohibitive. The most frequent reason for people requesting financial assistance from us is due to high rents in the city. This is indicative of the levels of poverty within our community. We are struggling with the cost of living before we even get to the costs related to transition.
Like many other minority groups trans people are often not given the bare minimum of respect that should be commonplace in any just society. This discrimination is not just from specific people who hate us but is built into the legal and healthcare systems. We are a trans specific organisation but cis people are encouraged to donate to the fund.

Our core team does something both mundane and radical operating a direct giving programme. Giving cash grants of notable size to individuals without any restrictions on what they can be used for. This type of work is extremely rare despite being an incredibly efficient way of helping people.

Things we aren't

Trans Mutual Aid Manchester is not a political organisation. That is not to say we are apolitical, far from it given many of those working here do so because of their deeply felt political beliefs, but rather that we are not organised to achieve political change. Naturally we as organisers have our political beliefs, and will advocate for those, but we are committed to the organisation being primarily around helping trans and non-binary people to survive whatever the current political situation may be.

We as an organisation do not represent trans people in Greater Manchester, as no one involved in running the organisation was elected, nor do we have a way of democratically representing the views of our community. We do though happily work with anyone who we feel supports our aims of protecting and helping trans and non-binary people.