Trans digital rights: Improving data visibility, privacy and belonging for gender-diverse communities

If we could reimagine digital rights frameworks that center the needs of gender-diverse communities, what would they look like? This is the guiding question in the report "Trans digital rights: Improving data visibility, privacy and belonging for gender-diverse communities." The increasing attacks on trans rights are part of a coordinated global agenda, and responding to them will help us reflect on adjacent digital rights and data justice issues, from reproductive rights to freedom of expression. In the report, we propose a Trans Digital Rights (TDR) framework based on a transnational two-year research project that explores specific challenges gender-diverse communities face in data collection, citizen-generated data, AI and platform regulation. It is divided into six parts: (1) Informing data collectors, (2) The role of citizen-generated data, (3) The intersection of trans and digital rights, (4) Emerging issues: big data and artificial intelligence, (5) Reimagining a trans digital rights framework, and (6) Policy and advocacy recommendations. We hope that the TDR framework can be used, changed, adapted, critiqued and built upon.

Reia, J., Leach, R. & Li, S. (2025). Trans digital rights: Improving data visibility, privacy and belonging for gender-diverse communities. Digital Technology for Democracy Lab, University of Virginia.