Transgender Scholarships and LGBT

Transgender Scholarships

While there are many LGBT scholarships for members of the LGBT community, there are surprisingly few opportunities for the transgender individuals in that community. The Transgender Scholarships and Education Legacy Fund is one of those few.

Founded in 1987, the International Foundation for Gender Education, or IFGE, is the organization that manages and administers the Transgender Scholarshisp and Education Legacy Fund, also known as TSELF. This organization is a leader in educating the public and the LGBT community about the free expression of gender identity. This is done through the distribution of information and through referrals concerning anything that has to do with gender identity.

It is important to note how this organization defines the term ‘transgender.’ This term can apply to a person who does or does not live fulltime in a sex that is different from the sex that they were born to. You are not required to have had a sex reassignment surgery to be considered transgender, or to apply for and win this scholarship award. Furthermore, this person does not have to identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual – only transgender.

The Transgender Scholarships and Education Legacy Fund, created for the purpose of strengthening the transgender community through education, is awarded to a student who has the potential to be a leader and to help build and strengthen the transgender community. He or she must have a true desire to improving the health, education, and culture of that community as well.

This scholarship fund is only awarded to transgender students who will be studying in the fields of social services, religious instruction, teaching, law, and health care. The organization considers these fields to be caring and helping professions. The winner will reside in either the United States or Canada, and they must be attending or planning to attend an accredited college.

Winners may be graduate students or undergraduate students, but they must be a full time student, and they must attend a school in the United States. You must be out as a transgender individual, and you must have a commitment to helping and improving the transgender community. Winners are selected based on their academic successes, honors that have been received, financial need, and service to the transgender community. Above all else, you must show that you have respect for diversity.

These transgender scholarships are worth up to $10,000 and the application deadline generally occurs in January, but an award has not been made for the Transgender Scholarships and Education Legacy Fund since 2009, due to lack of funds, and the awards for that year were reduced, but there is no indication as to how much they were reduced. The organization has not indicated when awards will be made again, or when applications will be accepted.

It is our recommendation that transgender students seek out scholarships for LGBT students and not just transgender scholarships only because you will have a much larger selection to apply to.


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