Gender Proud is an advocacy and awareness campaign, founded by Geena Rocero, that aims to elevate transgender visibility. In March 2014, Geena made the decision to ‘come out’ as trans at TED; since then, the organization has been working to create a world where all transgender individuals are able to self-identify with the fewest possible barriers, by focusing on gender marker policy.

In 2005, Geena was traveling through the Tokyo Airport on her old passport, and was detained, extensively interrogated and searched. The experience left her feeling embarrassed and exposed — but inspired. After having her own reassignment surgery, she spent the next 12 years building a successful career as a fashion model. Since ‘coming out’, she’s focused on bringing her platform — and the spotlight of attention – to countries at a ‘tipping point’ in their legislation on gender marker, so that nobody else has to experience the injustice that she did in Japan years ago.