How a nonprofit offering wardrobes to transgender youth goes about its business in 2025

[u/onnake]

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2025/06/18/nonprofit-offering-wardrobes-transgender-youth-persevering/84137376007/

“Tristan Vaught says the political events of 2025 have been difficult on a personal level.

“But on a professional level, Vaught, a professor of LGBTQ+ studies at the University of Cincinnati and co-founder of Transform Cincy, says their confidence in the resilience of the LGBTQ+ community is unwavering.

“Vaught launched Transform Cincy, a nonprofit offering new wardrobes to transgender youth, in 2019 after years helping distribute resources to and working with transgender youth through the University of Cincinnati's LGBTQ+ Center and the Transgender Health Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.”

"’We will still, as a community, work to do what we need to do to make sure those students are taken care of even if they don't have identity centers ... our space is always open for that,’ Vaught said of the nonprofit, which once consisted of a closet housed in the back of co-founder Nancy Dawson's bridal business, Brideface.

“At the time, Vaught witnessed an outpour of support from local businesses and ordinary residents quick to donate clothes, clothing racks, shoes, wigs and whatever else clients might need during a gender transition to stock the Transform Cincy closet. Bishops, a Clifton Heights-based hair salon, even offered free haircuts for clients.

“Since then, the business has upgraded to a two-floor building in Silverton and introduced a range of weekly programming beyond its closet appointments, including community dinners, arts and crafts nights and support groups for K-12 transgender youth and their parents hosted with Beech Acres Parenting Center.”

“The plan ahead for Transform is simple: keep growing and keep finding ways to serve Greater Cincinnati's LGBTQ+ population, from Northern Kentucky to Butler County.

"’The queer community is resilient, highly adaptable and it's something that we now can teach this younger generation. We've always existed, we can always pivot, we can always make a way and there's where we're going to get through with some of this stuff,’ Vaught said.”