Transgender Day of Empowerment

Transgender Day of Empowerment 2023

Join us in celebrating the rich diversity of San Diego’s transgender community.

Hello Trans/GNC Community and Allies!

Come join us for a night of entertainment, food, fun and empowering our transgender community through the voices of our youth and our elders.

Entertainment from our local gender diverse population, food, and local youth speakers Awards for our local superstars Keynote Speaker Miss Venice “Lady Pepper” Price.

When: Friday April 7, 2023 6 pm -9 pm
Where: San Diego LGBT Community Center 3909 Centre St, San Diego

Scholarship Details

This scholarship is open to students from or residing in San Diego County that identify as transgender, are living outside of the gender binary and/or are in the process of transitioning their gender. This scholarship fund will grant monetary scholarships every year, as funds permit, to students that will be starting or continuing their education at 2-year College, 4-year College, technical, grad school, or vocational training programs. This year’s scholarships will be awarded at the Transgender Day of Empowerment on Friday, April 7, 2023.

Recipients must complete an application and provide all required information to substantiate eligibility. Failure to provide the required information will render the application ineligible. Applicants may apply for four consecutive years. After the fourth year of funding, awardees will no longer be eligible.

We invite you to join us in donating to the Tracie Jada O’Brien Transgender Student Scholarship fund this year. As always, 100% of the funds raised will go directly to the scholarship awards and your donation is tax-deductible.

Scholarship Application Donate Here

Thank you to our sponsors!

Tracie Jada O'Brien

Learn more about the founder, Tracie Jada O’Brien.

Learn more

Why Do We Focus on Transgender Students?

A national school climate survey by GLSEN showed that found that 75% of transgender youth feel unsafe at school, and those who are able to persevere had significantly lower GPAs, were more likely to miss school and were less likely to plan on continuing their education.

The scholarship fund is one of the first scholarships of its kind focused on transgender student success in San Diego. We believe that strong community support can give our local transgender students the confidence to beat the odds. Our volunteer-led committee has been able to distribute scholarships totaling $48,000 to local transgender students over the past 6 years. We are proud to report that their average GPA was 3.5. Our students are studying law, medicine, social work, psychology, and more. They are attending schools as close as City College and SDSU to as far away as the University of Chicago and Harvard University!

Have questions? Please contact Lo Horst, Philanthropy Manager at [email protected].

Thank you for giving these high-achieving students your support!