Please read through the nominations below and click on a button to vote one you are ready. You are encouraged, but not required to vote in all categories.
The T.R.U.T.H. Project is a Houston-based nonprofit dedicated to educating and mobilizing LGBTQ+ communities of color through social arts that promote mental, emotional, and sexual health. By using spoken word, dance, music, and visual storytelling, The T.R.U.T.H. Project fosters healing, empowerment, and advocacy, creating transformative experiences that uplift marginalized voices. Their work has made an undeniable impact in Houston and beyond, bringing visibility to critical issues while fostering a strong, inclusive community.
As an Organization Grand Marshal nominee for Pride Houston, The T.R.U.T.H. Project represents the power of art as activism, using creativity to spark change and build a future where every voice is heard and valued.
Tony’s Place mission is to support and empower LGBTQ+ youth. Tony’s Place opened to homeless and unstably housed LGBTQ+ youth and allies in 2016 as a drop-in center named in memory of founder Robert Anthony “Tony” Carroll. The original vision for the center was to create a safe space for unhoused LGBTQ+ youth and their allies to “survive and thrive”. Basic and immediate needs such as showers, hygiene items, clothing, hot meals, laundry, charging stations, and safe sex items would be made available to all members along with case management opportunities and supplemental programs.
In 2025, Tony’s Place focuses on supporting and empowering all LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of 14 and 25 by providing safe spaces, key services, and valuable programing. We envision a society in which all LGBTQ+ youth are universally welcomed, safe, and thriving. We value safety, empowerment, dignity, support, and social justice.
THE PROBLEM TONY’S PLACE ADDRESSES & THE POPULATION/COMMUNITY WE SERVE
Tony’s Place serves as a much-needed refuge and safe space for LGBTQ+ youth in the Greater
Houston community. We do this by:
1) Providing youth with safe access to survival resources including food, clothing, hygiene supplies, and laundry services. When homeless or unstably housed LGBTQ+ youth are ableto fulfill their basic needs like food and clothing, only then are they are able to really focus on finding a way out of homelessness. LGBTQ+ youth in crisis are at much higher risk of having poor mental and physical health outcomes. Tony’s Place is often the only place they can go to find free, consistent access to the care they need.
2) Affirming and empowering our LGBTQ+ youth through after school programming, support groups and activities. As more policies are put in place to limit LGBTQ+ youths’ access to social support groups, Tony’s Place is actively working to fill that gap for high school and college-age queer youth to engage with one another in a safe space. With programs like our art series, we can provide access to empowering methods of self-expression, and to a supportive community.
3) Advocating for the queer youth we serve by partnering and collaborating with other LGBTQ+ organizations, charities, and businesses. By participating in local initiatives like Pride celebrations and LGBTQ+ campus events, we can generate a greater network of resources for our youth and grow awareness of their needs. Through educational presentations, our organization can advocate for our LGBTQ+ youth and effect important change in our society towards greater equity for queer individuals.
CURRENT PROGRAMS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Tony’s Place current programs and services include:
Trans Legal Aid Clinic of Texas (“TLACT”) breaks down barriers transgender/non-binary Texans – both adults and minors – face while changing their names and gender markers on identifying documents, by connecting them with volunteer lawyers trained in the processes necessary to accomplish this and providing financial help to effectuate these changes. TLACT seeks to make the legal process more understandable and accessible to folks who need it most.
2014 – 2015 RECOGNIZING THE NEED | FORMATION
In 2014 trans man and advocate Lou Weaver was attending a Creating Change conference. There was a session on creating community clinics to help trans and non-binary people with legal transitions. He and Fran Watson, an attorney, went to learn. They came out of that session invigorated, inspired, and ready to get start a clinic of their own. Three other attorneys met with them over breakfast and the basis for TLACT was born.
2015 – 2019 RECOGNIZING CHALLENGES I ENERGY
In 2015, the org filed for 501(c)3 status as Trans Legal Aid Clinic Houston. Clinics were held sporadically a few times a year in-person at a local LGBTQ+ community center. For the majority of this time period, clinic participants were physically driven to Travis County so that they could file their court documents there, or instructed to do so on their own. Approximately, 200 people were helped over these four years.
2019- 2022 RECOGNIZING A CHANGE I GOING BIGGER
While volunteering at clinics consistently, working as a paralegal, and attending law school, Pete Makopoulos-Senftleber (a trans man himself), had an interest in growing the organization. The board had faith in him knowing he could help us lean into a more streamlined approach to helping participants. Clinics started happening on regular schedule, meeting twice every odd month of the year. Clinics were running smoothly, we had money in the bank and we were helping Houston trans and non-binary people.
Enter COVID in 2020. Our March 2020 clinic, which, like all of our clinics was scheduled to be held in person was canceled. The world seemed to stand still but the board knew that was not an option for the people our organization intended to serve. Beginning May 2020, we went virtual – conducting clinics via Zoom and opening our range of help to anyone living or born in Texas – not just those who lived in or could access the Houston-area. Around this time, we began doing business as “Trans Legal Aid Clinic of Texas“ to more accurately reflect the statewide work we were doing. We continued holding two clinics every odd month of the year on a virtual only basis until June 2022.
2024 RECOGNIZING REALITY I GROWING PAST LIMITATIONS
With the new year came more people turning to TLACT for help. The board had to add a second virtual clinic every month. TLACT clinic attendance has skyrocketed. The geographic reach of TLACT has expanded as it has become more well known and not strictly Houston branded. In recent years, TLACT also began providing financial help for legal transition costs (i.e., fingerprint cards, new ID documents, transportation to obtain these documents, etc.). TLACT is the only organization across Texas holding clinics like this consistently as well as offering financial help.
In August 2024, Attorney Paxton issued a memo to the Department of Public Safety to stop following court orders to update gender markers on Texas state issued IDs and to start keeping a record of people attempting to change their documents. Within two weeks, Texas’s Department of State Health Services stopped correcting gender/sex identifiers on birth certificates. Trans Texans and allies got together to access the situation and forge a path to continue forward. Filing court documents has changed. Each individual situation needs to be assessed and every contingency accounted for. Detailed instructions are now needed for each clinic attendee to understand what they can update, when, and how. The previously cookie-cutter process has gotten more complicated and TLACT’s clinics continue to get busier.
Throughout its existence, TLACT has never had an employee, and operates through the hard work of volunteers – something that is becoming harder to do as we assist 700+ people per year now. Looking forward, TLACT aims to continue growing – reaching across the great, large state of Texas, to help our community with legal information, resources, and finances, so that they can be legally them.
