About
Our Mission
Since the dawn of colonialism, the assignment is to build a collectively-liberated world. Our communities are not adequately trained and prepared to build that world.
MASGD strives to build accessible ways to access political education and skill-building. Ultimately, we want to equip community members with organizing tactics they can apply within their own communities to launch campaigns that move us to build a collectively liberated world.
We believe that providing material support as organizers develop these skill-sets increases their capacity to mobilize and organize together. We see training as one of the keys to unlocking a liberated world.
In addition to our programming that is committed to serving the most marginalized of the most marginalized Trans and Queer racialized Muslims, MASGD’s main role is to utilize tools that individual and community organizers might not have access to on their own. We are honored to serve as a way to support parts of our community in surviving capitalism so that we may focus on the real work externally.
MASGD has supported the community care work which has raised and distributed over $750,000 directly to Trans & Queer folks most impacted by genocides. We’ve also supported the distribution of over $1 million to Trans and Queer Global Majority grassroots organizations around the world.
We could not have done any of this without your zakat and generosity. Similarly, Trans Muslim Liberation is all of our responsibility, and MASGD is only a very small part of that work.
MASGD Publications
Our contribution to Trans Muslim Liberation.
Please click on the image to access the resource!
Read our political education essays on Substack!
Listen to Mx. Yaffa’s Be Cute. Stay Dangerous. podcast!
Listen to Mx. Yaffa’s Trans Muslim Liberation podcast!
Our History
After our founding in 2011, MASGD experienced three major turning points: one in 2016 with the Pulse Nightclub shooting, another in 2020 as a result of COVID, and yet again in late 2022 when we hired our first staff members. This was nearly a year prior to our largest turning point yet — the continuation of the genocide in Gaza following Oct 7th, 2023. In between hiring staff and Oct 7th, there were two other critical turning points that aren’t often discussed, yet are potentially more influential for the work we are doing today.
After recently completing coalitional Ramadan programming, on April 15, 2023, the genocide in Sudan begins — again. Trans-queer Muslim organizers are tired, and MASGD and its partners lacked infrastructure for a coordinated response.
On May 23, 2023, the Yaqeen Institute releases a statement entitled “Navigating Differences” led by Omar Suleiman. The letter outlines a concerted collaboration with zionists and white Christian nationalists to remove us from schools, public spaces, and completely erasing us from our rich Islamic history. It is painful when our own people support our genocides.
These two events created the largest ripple effect in MASGD. That summer, plans began for the launch of the TQM Inara Helpline, skill-building programs, and revamping our in-person gatherings. Then, Oct 7th, 2023 happened.
As one of the few, if not only Trans Palestinian led orgs, our responsibility was different. We had authority to mobilize the community and speak for our community when far too many were speaking on our behalf, claiming expertise in areas they did not understand and ultimately not supportive of Trans and Queer Gazans.
As the needs and challenges facing our communities have drastically increased, so too has MASGD risen to face them. For the past two years, we've built partnerships and relationships with organizers on the ground from over 13 countries, over 25 states, DC and Puerto Rico, through book talks, organizing workshops, bootcamps, and in-person/in-depth conversations.
Meet the Team!
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![Photo of a deep canyon within green woodlands. At the bottom are running pools of water. At the top are layers of green moss and tree leaves glowing with light as sunbeams shine through the canopy.]()
Kris
they/them | Grant Manager
Naoise is a Trans Queer AuDHD Muslim. They are a white settler with Irish Catholic ancestry living on the occupied lands of the Piscataway People, in Chocolate City. They are committed to Islamic tenets of Justice by working to dismantle the Shayateen of white supremacy, settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and u.s. empire. They organize in community for Black Liberation, to repair ancestral harms perpetrated by Irish diaspora on Turtle Island, and to build solidarity with organizers across Ireland. Their past experience includes research and analysis on Islamophobia, surveillance, and state violence, as well as community organizing against settler colonial resource extraction and data centers.
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![Pink flower with pronounced petals on a bright green stem holding 3 leaves. Flower includes smiling, blushing face.]()
noon
they/she | Communications Coordinator
noon is a 23 year old healer and settler on Unceded Ohlone Land (colonially known as Oakland, California). She is a working-class, trans-femme, queer Muslim. They were born in Egypt and immigrated to South Brooklyn in 2007 and experienced and organized against NYPD surveillance towards Muslim, Black, and Latiné communities in her neighborhood. Their specific focus is in Medical Industrial Complex abolition, refugee and disability health, and trans and queer Muslim organizing. She's also a big musical theater girlie! In medical school, they hope to continue organizing healthcare alternatives for working-class people. She is also committed to her on-the-ground grassroots movement work with the SWANA region. Overall, she loves working at MASGD and deepening her understanding of an Islam that seeks for the liberation of all oppressed people. For all those reading this, Noon loves you and would love to meet you!
