Tonga Leitis Association

Location: Tonga

Focus: Supporting the trans and gender non-conforming community in Tonga

Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tla.galaxy/

TLA are Tonga’s only organisation focused on transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming communities. Leitis are transfeminine and gender non-conforming people traditionally working as domestic servants for the Tongan royal family. However, leitis are often shunned and face incarceration. Tonga criminalises cross-dressing and sodomy, which carry sentences of up to 10 years.

GiveOut supports TLA with funding to cover staff and building costs, allowing the team to focus on advocacy, outreach and community-building work. In 2020, planned consultations among decision-makers and community influencers about LGBTQI and leiti identities – some related to the discriminatory ‘cross-dressing’ law – were postponed. During the pandemic, TLA received government approval to provide the community with food, water and information. They continued their HIV-Awareness Programme for men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people and sex workers.

In 2021, GiveOut’s grant is supporting TLA’s climate justice research and advocacy. LGBTQI communities will be among the most vulnerable to climate change, but are scared to access emergency shelters that are largely controlled by religious organisations often hostile to them. TLA have been training those running shelters to accommodate LGBTQI people, and are campaigning to include the community in climate change consultations.

GiveOut is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Registered Charity Number 1176434).