About the Project

Mapping Trans Joy is a direct response to the onslaught of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation many of us are facing around the country.

Mapping Trans Joy celebrates trans life, trans joy, and trans resistance to erasure and elimination.

Trans joy is beautiful. Trans joy is meaningful. Trans joy is necessary. Trans joy is resistance.

Louisiana Roots

The project arose directly from a documentation project around the anti-trans legislation in Louisiana during the 2021 and 2022 sessions. (See the podcast Mais Jamais: The Rise of Louisiana’s Anti-Trans Legislation and the Story of Our Resistance for more on that project.)

With original funding from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the project initially focused initially on Louisiana.

International Scope

As of Spring 2023, the project has expanded to include anyone in the world who wants to share stories of joy. We’re delighted by the number of people who are contributing and participating in different ways.


About the Team

Sophie Ziegler (they/them) is the founder of the Louisiana Trans Oral History Project, and the Director of the Solidarity History Initiative. They are a parent, partner, educator, activist, librarian, archivist and documentarian.

When not spreading trans joy, they can be found playing video games with their kids and walking around with their dog, Pancake.

Born in Lafayette, Louisiana and currently living in New Orleans, Nathalie Nia Faulk (she/her or they/them) is a self described Ebony Southern Belle! Her work blends  performance, history, healing justice, cultural organizing, and leadership development in service of all people, but particularly for trans and queer communities.


They join this team as the Director of Oral History Programs  of Last Call, a creative and oral history collective, whose work centers Black and Brown artists and organizers in the South. Drawn together by the closing of the last remaining dyke bar in New Orleans, Last Call creates innovative, multi-platform performances, events, and digital media that document and interpret neglected trans and queer history in New Orleans, Louisiana and the U.S. South. Last Call’s cultural organizing model creates connections between those who lived this history and those who have much at stake if it is forgotten. We conjure up intergenerational gathering places where the movement for queer liberation is carried forward.

SK Groll (any pronouns with respect) is an organizer, educator, maker, and researcher. They like snuggling their dogs, cross-stitching, and dreaming up more connected worlds. He works with Baton Roots Community Farm/The Walls Project, TIDAL (Trans and Gender Nonconforming Interdisciplinary Development Advocacy and Leadership), and Team Trans Joy, along with other collaborators and community members. She is invested in building spaces which give trans people the space to survive AND thrive.