The Gender U was founded in 2018 by transgender advocates who, after years of watching people outside of our communities get paid to speak for us and about us, recognized the need to center, elevate, and pay transgender, non-binary, intersex and gender-expansive people in providing education about our lives and how to best care for our people. We also recognized how many of us have given so much of our time and expertise and have experienced is expected to continue providing this education without compensation - participating on panel after panel, paying for gas, parking, and/or bus fair - doing it again and again because we know that when others meet us and hear our stories, they are changed. We believe that this set up of providing education without payment is unacceptable as it sends the message to our communities that our work does not have value. One of the reasons The Gender U has been created is in response to this all to common devaluing experience. The Gender U values the expertise inherent the lived experiences of our community and seeks to create an online network of presentations by transgender, non-binary, intersex and gender-expansive people community members where presenters are paid for their work and a portion of the proceeds from each presentation goes to support a community-led organization selected by the presenter.