About Danni

A Life in Service of Dignity

Danni Askini has spent more than two decades on the front lines of the civil rights movement — not as a bystander, but as a builder. A coalition architect. A policy strategist who has testified before legislative committees, organized communities under threat, and stood before the United Nations Human Rights Council to defend the most fundamental of principles: that every person deserves to be treated with dignity.

Today, as co-chair of No Hate in Washington State and a nationally recognized voice on LGBTQ rights, she continues to fight for the belief that civil rights are not a zero-sum game — that protecting the most vulnerable among us strengthens the fabric of democracy for everyone.

Roots: Foster Care and Finding Purpose

Danni grew up in the foster care system in Maine, an experience that shaped her understanding of how institutions can both fail and save the people they serve. Navigating the complexities of the child welfare system as a young person gave her an early, visceral education in power, vulnerability, and the human cost of bureaucratic indifference.

But Danni didn’t wait to grow up before fighting back. While still in high school in Portland, Maine, she began working as a child welfare policy analyst and trainer at the University of Maine’s Edmund S. Muskie Institute for Public Sector Innovation at the Muskie School for Public Policy, helping to lead the Youth Leadership Advisory Team. She was a key youth advocate in passing both the federal Chafee Foster Care Independence Act and Maine’s Youth in Foster Care Tuition Waiver for State Universities — legislation that made it possible for her to attend college.

During those years in Maine, Danni also fought to pass a youth in foster care bill of rights, a siblings reunification rights act, and to address childhood sexual abuse within the child welfare system. That work ignited a commitment she has carried for 25 years: fighting relentlessly to extend the statute of limitations for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and sexual assault to pursue justice.

Education and Early Career

Danni earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Southern Maine, where she began channeling her lived experience into professional advocacy. She would go on to earn an Executive MBA from the University of Washington — building a rare cross-disciplinary foundation in social work and organizational leadership.

As a founding member of Lambda Legal’s Youth in Care team (1999–2003), she helped develop the first national policy frameworks for LGBTQ+ youth in out-of-home care — work that connected her to the communities and causes that would define her life’s trajectory.

“I learned early that the people closest to the problem are closest to the solution. My job has always been to make sure those voices are heard in the rooms where decisions are made.”

— Danni Askini

Building Institutions That Last

As National Program Director at the Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) Network, Danni led policy campaigns securing safe school protections for LGBTQ+ students across 27 states, co-chairing an 80-organization national coalition. At Basic Rights Oregon, she managed the legislative strategy during Oregon’s historic marriage equality campaign while simultaneously securing gender-affirming care coverage in the Oregon Health Plan.

But her most defining institutional achievement was founding Gender Justice League (GJL) in 2012 — a Seattle-based organization dedicated to advancing the civil rights of transgender and gender-diverse communities. Under her leadership, GJL grew from a small grassroots collective to a professional policy and advocacy institution serving over 1,000 people annually across 27 states, with annual revenue exceeding $1.5 million and a staff of nine.

She also founded Trans Pride Seattle, which grew from a small community gathering to serve over 35,000 people annually, making it one of the largest transgender pride celebrations in the nation. Trans Pride Seattle has become a cornerstone of the Pacific Northwest’s LGBTQ+ community — a space for visibility, celebration, and political organizing that centers transgender voices and experiences in a way that few events in the country have achieved.

Policy Victories

Danni’s approach to advocacy has always been rooted in policy — the belief that lasting change requires not just protest, but the hard, unglamorous work of coalition-building, legislative testimony, and strategic compromise. Her track record speaks to this philosophy:

• Apple Health Inclusion: Led a 45-organization coalition to secure transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage in Washington’s Medicaid program
• Oregon Medicaid Victory: At Basic Rights Oregon, secured the removal of transgender exclusions from Oregon’s Medicaid program — covered by CBS News, The Oregonian, and The Advocate (watch the testimony)
• Gender Affirming Treatment Act (2021): Secured passage of landmark legislation creating a national model for transgender healthcare access
• Conversion Therapy Ban (2018): Helped pass legislation banning the harmful practice for minors in Washington State
• My Health, My Data Act (2023): Secured passage protecting health data privacy for all Washingtonians
• Reproductive Parity Act: Helped secure passage of Washington’s Reproductive Parity Act, requiring health plans that cover maternity care to also cover contraception
• Crime Victims Compensation Funding: Secured $23.1 million in funding for Washington’s Crime Victims Compensation program in 2024, 2025, and 2026
• Legislative Defense: Defeated over 23 anti-trans bills and ballot measures across multiple legislative sessions
• Federal Impact: Served as senior health policy consultant to the U.S. Senate HELP Committee on COVID-19 legislation (HERO Act, CARES Act)
• Impact Litigation: Supported Lambda Legal’s Karnoski v. Trump and Shilling v. Trump challenging the transgender military ban

Ballot Measures & Campaigns

Danni has been on the front lines of some of the most consequential ballot measure campaigns in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality — organizing, strategizing, and mobilizing voters across multiple states and decades:

Trial by Fire

Danni’s advocacy has not been without profound personal cost. After years of escalating threats, she was forced into exile in Sweden — a period marked by a passport crisis that left her stateless and vulnerable. The case was ultimately resolved through the intervention of the UN Human Rights Council, a rare and significant outcome that underscored both the severity of the threats she faced and the international recognition of her work.

“When your own government revokes your ability to exist as yourself, you learn very quickly what democracy means — and what it costs when it fails.”

— Danni Askini

Return and Renewal

After returning to the United States in January 2020 with her husband Max, Danni brought her international perspective to federal policy work in Washington, D.C. As a senior health policy consultant to the Senate HELP Committee, she advised on Medicaid policy, childhood nutrition programs, LGBTQ+ and HIV health equity, and the Violence Against Women’s Act — drafting policy briefs and negotiating with Republican staffers on landmark COVID-19 relief legislation including the HERO Act and CARES Act.

While in Boston receiving treatment for lymphoma at Mass General Hospital when COVID-19 struck, she faced her own healthcare crisis — a $35,000 hospital bill without insurance that gave her a deeply personal understanding of the systems she had spent years trying to reform. Her story was covered by TIME and People magazine.

In 2022, Danni returned to lead Gender Justice League through one of the most challenging periods in the organization’s history, rebuilding and refocusing its mission during a time of unprecedented legislative attacks on transgender rights nationwide.

“The rights of trans people are not separate from the rights of all people. When we protect the most vulnerable, we strengthen the foundation that protects everyone.”

— Danni Askini

The Current Chapter

Today, Danni continues to serve as Executive Director of both Gender Justice League and Trans Pride Seattle, and as co-chair of No Hate in Washington State, a broad coalition working to defend civil rights and democratic institutions in Washington State. She is writing a memoir that traces her journey from the foster care system to the United Nations, and she continues to be a sought-after voice on transgender rights, healthcare equity, gender-based violence, and the future of the civil rights movement.

Her work is guided by a simple conviction: that the measure of a democracy is how it treats its most vulnerable members, and that the fight for transgender rights is inseparable from the fight for everyone’s freedom.