It is the mission of the Gender Identity Foundation for Transmen (GIFT) to provide supportive resources to the FTM transgender community, promoting positive visibility; providing education, mentorship, and support group facilitation; and working with health care providers on making in-kind services available.
The vision of GIFT is to assure that transmen have access to appropriate health care and be free to live their lives as complete by each man’s personal definition without bias.
The Men of GIFT
Logan Grimes is one of the founding members of GIFT. He earned his degree in Social Work from Northeastern University. He has been active as a community organizer for over 20 years and is committed to working with under-served communities as well as marginalized populations, including providing services related to HIV prevention and education, and child welfare. Logan is the executor of his own training and consulting agency. His agency is dedicated to educating and training individual providers as well as larger institutions regarding transgender health and many other issues regarding gender expression or identity.
Logan also works on transgender issues both locally and nationally. He currently serves as a member on the advisory committee for Gender Odyssey conference and a member of the World Professional Associations for Transgender Health. Logan is the recipient of the 2007 Prideindex.com Esteem Awards for his outstanding service to the transgender community and Chicago’s 2007 Windy City Black Pride Transgender Pride Award for his dedication and service to the transgender community.
Lyle Blake is a founding member of GIFT. He is committed to the support of female-bodied men with a strong emphasis on support of transitioning men of color and under-served and marginalized transitioning men. He has been active in the LGBT community since 1980. He is a member of the Gender Odyssey conference advisory committee and the founding supporter of that conference’s People of Color sponsored BBQ, a well-loved event of the conference. He is a participant and supporter of Transfigurations, the award-winning photo-documentary and book by Jana Marcus. He has facilitated workshop discussions on maturity, body image, and leadership, at the Gender Odyssey Conference (2005-2011), California Transgender Leadership Summit (2007), Southern Comfort Conference (2007), Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference (2009, 2011) and at local FTM support group meetings in Northern California, as well as served as a guest speaker in college classrooms and to health professionals. He is a past board member of FTM International (2007) and has an essay published in Letters For My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect.
The work that Lyle does with the FTM community is the work of his heart and he is blessed to be able to be of service.