The New York City Trans Archives is dedicated to preserving transgender culture in the NYC region and beyond.
The NYC Trans Archives (NYCTA) preserves transgender culture in the New York City region and beyond. Founded in 2023, NYCTA evolved out of a dual need for independent and community-led trans archives. When we open our physical space in Brooklyn, NYCTA will be the first and only brick-and-mortar transgender archive in the Eastern United States.
As an archive dedicated to trans liberation and social justice, NYCTA focuses on ephemera that are too often left out of traditional archives, such as materials by trans women of color (particularly Black and Brown femmes), migrants, disabled people, youth, poor and working-class people, and community organizers. We offer professional archival storage in New Jersey.
Many of our founding volunteers were friends, collaborators, and accomplices of New York City-based activist Cecilia Gentili. When she unexpectedly passed in 2024, questions arose over access to her materials. Despite being among the most well-known trans activists in the city, traditional archives did not step up to collect her belongings. After much discussion, dozens of trans people throughout the city came together to form the NYC Trans Archives to ensure that the legacies of past and future trans community members – especially trans women of color – were preserved and accessible for future generations. This is especially important for elders’ legacies during this critical moment of state-sanctioned erasure.
NYCTA represents a range of communities, including those who are trans, trans women, trans men, nonbinary, genderqueer, genderfluid, two-spirit, gender non-conforming, intersex, hijras, gender variant, agender, and many other gender expansive people across the spectrum of difference. NYCTA approaches these communities intersectionally: understanding race, class, gender, ethnicity, age, religion, and ability, etc. as interlocking and connected.
The archives were never solely about our collections. Along with archival material, NYCTA offers dedicated public programming, ranging from trans youth arts workshops to trans studies courses.