Shannon Price Minter has spent nearly three decades litigating cases that shape how LGBTQ+ Americans may live, work, parent, and serve their country.
As vice president of legal at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, the transgender civil rights lawyer oversees advocacy nationwide. His clients include families, transgender troops, and young people subjected to conversion therapy.
Minter helped win a preliminary injunction protecting plaintiffs from the Trump administration’s transgender military ban. After the Supreme Court’s decision in Chiles v. Salazar required stricter review of Colorado’s conversion therapy law, he helped state officials draft revised protections. Time magazine named him to its 2026 Time100.
The volume of federal policies targeting transgender people can be overwhelming, Minter says, but resistance supplies its own energy. “It feels very good to fight back!” he says.
Minter’s most urgent words are for transgender youth. “We are here and fighting to help make a better world for you,” he says. “You are loved and supported, and there is a place for you.”
Minter plans to remain in court for as long as he can. At home in rural East Texas, he also rescues feral cats through Minterland — another population receiving his determined attention. @nclrights
