Editor’s Note: Sources’ last names are not included per their request.
Atlanta has a new trans-centered home repair organization. Nicky and Sam, two trans construction professionals, have left the organization Queer Hands to create their own nonprofit, called T4T Repairs.
Whereas Queer Hands provides handy services like construction, painting, automotive care, cleaning, and pet care, T4T Repairs (that’s Trans for the Trades, in case you’re not in the know) focuses entirely on construction.
The duo’s departure from Queer Hands was not contentious, Nicky said. The two simply wanted to focus their attention on construction and creating a legacy of safe and equitable work for trans and gender non-conforming laborers.
“I think that there’s a lot of room for a lot of queer people doing a lot of things,” Nicky told Georgia Voice. “We wanted to create T4T to center skill, accountability, community, and respect for both the works and the clients and have a safe and encouraging space for trans people and gender non-conforming people to work and feel more honored than tolerated, let alone hated.”
Related story: Queer Hands provides support and safety to handy workers
T4T offers carpentry, construction, repairs, maintenance, design, renovation, and painting. Born from Nicky and Sam’s collective two decades of construction experience, the organization is focused on centering safety in both clients’ homes and laborers’ work lives.
“Every single place that I have worked has been in general toxic, extremely misogynistic, transphobic,” Sam said. “…It’s just a very boxed-in environment in every way. You really can’t be yourself if you are in any way gender non-conforming, a person of color, a woman.”
T4T Repairs is currently only a two-person operation, but after launching in late April, the nonprofit is already booked out for the next month, and its leaders have big plans for the future.
Later this year, T4T Repairs will partner with Southerners on New Ground to provide workshops for trans people on home weatherization and accessible repairs.
Next year, T4T will launch an apprenticeship program in partnership with the Trans Housing Coalition to teach trade skills to trans and gender non-conforming people facing homelessness. As the organization grows, the board will always be made up of 50% workers so that their interests can’t be overridden.
Nicky and Sam think of the apprenticeship program and future structure of T4T as part of the legacy they hope to leave for trans people for years to come.
“As trans people, it’s unfortunately a privilege to survive,” Nicky said. “It really shouldn’t be that way, it shouldn’t be so crazy, but we really are trying to create groundwork for a future where gender non-conforming people can thrive, where they can be in community.”
More information and updates can be found on T4T Repairs’ Instagram. Donations to support the development of the apprenticeship program and sliding scale services offered to people of color can be made on its website.
