WERQ TOGETHER Community Guidelines

Effective June 17, 2026 · Last updated June 17, 2026

Who these guidelines are for

Everyone who uses our public websites follows these Community Guidelines. That includes people who visit our sites, people who use our resource directory to find or offer support, people who sign up, donate, or buy from us, and organizations that submit a listing. These guidelines say how this community treats each other. Using our sites means you agree to uphold them.

We serve a community that gets targeted, so a few of these rules have teeth. We would rather be clear up front than surprise anyone later.

Where these guidelines apply

These guidelines cover our public websites, including werqt.org and its sections such as Trans Oregon (oregon.werqt.org), the Try Guide (tryguide.werqt.org), the Markets (markets.werqt.org), and Safe Haven (safehaven.werqt.org), along with our community resource directory and the forms and submissions on those sites.

They do not cover other organizations’ websites that we link to or list. Those organizations set their own rules.

Our values in practice

Lead with care

Everyone here deserves respect, dignity, and compassion. We keep our interactions trauma-aware, identity-affirming, and inclusive. We use people’s chosen names and pronouns, and we learn how to say them. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, and classism have no place in this community.

Do no harm, do some good

What you share and do in this community should add to people’s wellbeing, not take from it. Exploiting clients, collaborators, or the people we serve is not welcome here. Mistakes happen. Growth matters more than perfection. We give feedback with care and receive it with openness.

Collaboration over competition

We rise together, not at each other’s expense. Knowledge, tools, and opportunities are meant to circulate for the collective good. We encourage generosity and mentorship to the extent each person’s means, resources, and capacity allow.

Show up honestly

Honesty is not optional. Be clear about your skills, your capacity, your pricing, and the limits of your expertise. Do not oversell, misrepresent, or commit to work you cannot deliver. When you are not the right fit, refer out instead of taking on work that does not serve the person in front of you.

Politics is personal

Neutrality is not an option in the face of injustice. We affirm the rights, dignity, and leadership of historically underrepresented people, and we name the systemic inequities that shape housing, care, and community. Harmful ideologies and practices, including racism, anti-LGBTQ+ behavior, xenophobia, and body policing, have no place here.

Live the values, not just the words

Our commitments show up in how we work. We encourage equity-based pricing such as flat-fee projects, sliding scales, pay-what-you-can, and community rates. We urge providers to pursue training, certification, and practices that match their values, and to prioritize accessibility in their services, materials, and events.

Stay accountable

Accountability builds trust. We do not treat removal as a first resort or assume that cancellation fixes every situation. We prefer responsibility, repair, and change. When harm happens, we expect people to address it directly, seek understanding, and work toward repair. Repeated or unaddressed harm can lead to removal.

Practice anti-racism and equity

Equity is a practice, not a slogan. We expect people to actively work against racist and oppressive systems in their own work and communities. We center the voices and leadership of BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled, immigrant, and other historically underrepresented people, and we stay open to learning, unlearning, and doing better.

Build belonging

This community is more than a list of resources. We approach each other with generosity and curiosity, not judgment. We celebrate each other’s wins and show up through the hard parts. Belonging means a space where both the people offering support and the people receiving it feel safe, seen, and supported.

How things get removed from our sites

This is the part people ask about most: when and how content comes down from our public sites. We try to make removal easy to request, fast to act on, and honest about what we keep and why.

How to ask us to remove something

Email legal@werqt.org, or use the option on the site where one exists, such as “Suggest an edit” in the directory or the unsubscribe link in any email. Tell us what you want removed and, if you can, a link or enough detail to find it. We act on removal and deletion requests within 30 days, and we confirm when it is done. When there is a safety concern, we move immediately.

The resource directory (Trans Oregon)

How listings get there: anyone can submit a resource with “Add a resource,” and anyone can flag a change with “Suggest an edit.” We review submissions before they publish.

How they come down: we remove or unpublish a listing when the organization asks us to, when it has closed or stopped operating, when the information is wrong or out of date and we cannot fix it, when a link is broken, when it duplicates another listing, or when it breaks these guidelines, for example an organization that targets or harms our community.

Who decides: WERQ TOGETHER staff review removal requests. We aim to act within 30 days, and faster when safety is involved.

Routine cleanup: we run a regular content audit that catches duplicates, broken links, and corrupted or empty entries and fixes or removes them.

A listing is not an endorsement, and removing one is not an accusation.

Information you submit through our sites

When you sign up for our newsletter, donate, buy something, contact us, or submit a resource or host application, you share information with us. You can ask us to remove it.

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time using the link in any email. For anything else, email legal@werqt.org and we will remove your information within 30 days. The one exception is records the law requires us to keep for a set time, such as donation and tax records. We will tell you when that applies.

For full detail on what we collect and how long we keep it, see our Privacy Policy.

Removal for harm or violations

We may remove content, a listing, or a person’s access when these guidelines are broken, especially harassment, threats, or targeting of our community.

We prefer repair over punishment. When harm happens, we expect people to address it directly, listen, and work toward making it right. Repeated or unaddressed harm can lead to removal from the directory or our sites. When there is a threat to someone’s safety, we act immediately and without warning, and we may report unlawful conduct to the authorities.

If you think we got it wrong

If we removed something and you believe it was a mistake, email legal@werqt.org. A staff member who was not part of the original decision will review it.

Changes to these guidelines

We may update these guidelines from time to time. We post the current version here and update the date at the top.

Contact

WERQ TOGETHER
legal@werqt.org
5441 S Macadam Ave Ste R, Portland, OR 97239

In short: care deeply, act honestly, share generously, stay accountable, and protect this community.