DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Later this month, “seven faith congregations in Tarrant County will be raising their voices in song in an interfaith concert benefitting NTTN, the North Texas TRANSportation Network, which grants funds to families who need to travel out of state or relocate to access needed gender-affirming medical care,” Cantor Sherri Allen said in a recent press release.
Allen is among the organizers of the Feb. 20 concert.
NTTN has already made more than 50 grants and expanded its mission since it was founded just a few years ago, according to its executive director, Cynthia Daniels.
The organization was created as a direct response to SB 14, which passed in the 2023 session of the Texas Legislature. The law prohibits physicians and other licensed medical professionals from providing gender-affirming medical care to minors.
The project was the idea of the Rev. Katie Hays of Galileo Church in Kennedale, a small enclave between Fort Worth and Mansfield.
“We were on defense testifying in Austin,” Daniels said. “We needed to find a way to go on offense.”
She said Hays asked if she’d like to be the new group’s executive director and find a way to help parents who were suddenly being investigated for child abuse for simply getting medical
“Nothing about the bill said we couldn’t be good neighbors and get them the healthcare they needed out of state,” said Daniels, who has an adult daughter who is transgender.
“We’ve been in this with her for the past five years,” Daniels said. “We didn’t have any trouble getting her the healthcare she needed that was recommended by doctors and psychologists.”
She said she’s seen the difference getting that care made for her own child and has become passionate about helping others get that same kind of lifesaving healthcare for their kids.
Daniels said both she and her husband were raised in religious families, and their daughter knew the anti-LGBTQ stance of the church they were attending at the time. “So, she was scared, but she came to us and our response was, ‘We love you and how can we support you?’” Daniels said.
And support her they did. Daniels said she started doing research and found a psychologist to see her virtually, because this was at the beginning of the pandemic. And they started attending Galileo Church.
“We met Katie and talked to her about our family,” Daniels said. “She introduced us to another family and helped us navigate.”
Daniels credits Hays with helping them become the best parents they could be, and she also credits Hays with creating some of the services that saved their daughter’s life.
Galileo Church founded Finn’s Place, which bills itself as “a community center in Fort Worth for trans and gender-diverse people to gather, grow, and flourish.” And the church started a gender-affirming parent’s group to share stories and resources and “commiserate about what was going on.”
Anti-transgender legislation had been proposed before, but by the time the Legislature met in 2023, Daniels said, the atmosphere was really scary. That was the year NTTN issued its first travel grant.
Daniels said seeking medical care out of state is expense, so NTTN helps by distributing $1,000 grants that can be used toward any expenses related to travel, including gas, airfare, lodging, food, the medical care itself or even child care for other siblings.
The closest state to get such medical care is New Mexico, but, she said, many are having to travel as far as New York or California.
Her own daughter is attending college locally, but is thinking of moving to Washington state after graduation.
To date, NTTN has awarded more than 50 grants of $1,000. A family may receive up to two grants per year and can live anywhere in 19 North Texas counties.
Daniels said a lot of individuals have donated to the fund, as well as affirming churches. Last year, the organization was a Black Tie Dinner beneficiary and HELP Center, the Trans Justice Funding Project and Texas Pride Impact Funds have granted funding.
Since December, NTTN has begun issuing $3,000 one-time grants to families who’ve needed to flee the state to safer parts of the country. She said she knows of a number of families who left Texas after receiving threats. One family moved to Uruguay, she said, and another moved to New Zealand to escape the threats of violence.
As for her own family, she can hardly believe just a few years ago, her daughter had to worry about whether she’d be accepted for who she was.
“Our oldest is cisgender and straight and dating a bisexual, and our youngest is pansexual,” Daniels said. But they’re a family filled with love. (For her family’s safety, she asked that we don’t include pictures.)
Interfaith coalition
Allen is the cantor and cofounder of Makom Shelanu, an inclusive and affirming Jewish congregation in Tarrant County whose name means “A Place for Us.”
She and her congregation are members of the Justice Network of Tarrant County, an interfaith coalition of congregations that works on a variety of issues including environmental justice, reducing gun violence, voting rights and more. Allen chairs the LGBTQ Action Team.
Her interest in LGBTQ issues is due, in part, to her three children who are all LGBTQ.
Allen was the one who approached Daniels about becoming the beneficiary of the Feb. 20 concert featuring a group of singers from seven churches of the interfaith coalition.
She said the theme is travel and described the selection of songs as “uplifting music celebrating freedom, hope and joy.” Among the selections are “True Colors,” “Take Me Home Country Roads” and “Imagine.”
Daniels said she hopes proceeds will help them fund a number of new grants for families who want to provide their child with necessary gender-affirming healthcare.
Tickets are $5 and are available online at Zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/interfaith-concert-and-fundraiser. Donations can be made at the online address as well. The concert will be held Feb. 20 in Fort Worth.