Hi! As we enter the second half of the month, I wanted to focus on another community organization. This one, for a lot of Black people, is a touchy subject because of the issue that it is within the community. Go to any Black website or gossip rag and read the comments underneath any article about a Black LGBT member. They're disgusting. Widening the scope a bit, I'd be understating things to say that the LGBT+ community as a whole is under attack. For every step we take forward as a society in becoming more inclusive and tolerant, we take several back and I can only imagine for minority members of the LGBT community, all of the discriminatory behavior on both racial and orientation fronts can make them feel as though their entire existence and identities are under attack. And in a way, they are. I'm a straight cis female, and even though I'm a WOC, I'm still in a position of privilege compared to WOC who are also LGBT+ and it's important to recognize that you can have privilege by comparison without being White. Because of said privilege, I thought it was important to highlight at least one organization in this year's series that is actively trying to empower, educate and fight for the Black LGBT community. Today's entrant is one of the leading organizations on helping bridge the gap between civil rights and LGBT issues as they affect the Black community. Let's get to it!
Name: National Black Justice Coalition
Date of establishment and founders: 2003 by a group of civil rights leaders--Keith Boykin, Mandy Carter, Jasmyne Cannick, Donna Payne, Frank Leon Roberts, Sonya Shields, Roddrick Colvin and Maurice Franklin
Purpose of organization: To end racism and homophobia and bring the civil rights and LGBT advocacy groups together in order to advocate for issues unique to the Black LGBT+ community
Why is the Spotlight on it today? For its acknowledgment of and work with the Black LGBT community and its work to empower and ensure justice, equality and education to those in the community
Notables and accolades:
--work to tell the stories of those in the Black LGBT/SGL (same gender loving) community as well as their issues and needs
--actively fight to end the stigma around LBGT/SGL individuals in society
--was the first Black LGBT advocacy group to address the NAACP on how to resolve issues involving the Black LGBT community
--collaborated with NAESM, Inc to create the PrEp our Future LGBT Tour in 2016, which was a tour by both organizations to visit DC and five southern states with the effort to educate community members/leaders, students and healthcare providers about how to best develop educational material for HIV and carry it out in the local communities
--created the OUT on the Hill program, which brings a group of activists, community members, allies and youth together in order to discuss issues affecting the Black LGBT community and how to best tackle them
--created the Emerging Leaders Initiative program in 2013, which targeted younger Black LGBT activists and gives them the support and tools necessary to educate/inform their local communities and network with others
--works to gather information on the discriminatory behaviors non-traditional families and Black LGBT/SGL individuals face when trying to buy housing and introduce legislation that would help end discriminatory, non-inclusive housing practices that create stability at an affordable price
--have created programs or expressed interest in creating programs that address finding worthy educational routes for community members, empowering the Black trans community, and supporting older members of the Black LGBT/SGL who may not have any support
--invests time into creating or helping to create resources based on HIV education/prevention and health issues that disproportionately affect the Black and Black LGBT/SGL communities
--created the Many Faces. One Dream program, which was a joint effort between the SBA and the NBJC in 2013 that covered 13 cities across the nation with a strong minority LGBT presence in order to teach them about creating and growing their own businesses
--works to create ways to gather more information on possible discrimination issues facing the Black LGBT/SGL community in the workplace
--created the Bayard Rustin 2013 Commemorative Project, which was done to honor the legacy and accomplishments of historic civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, who helped form the SCLC and was openly gay
--fights to ensure that Black LGBT/SGL individuals still have equal access to voting booths and other places where they can vocalize their issues to the nation's government
--is doing their work to ensure that laws are put in place to introduce laws that help rehab formerly imprisoned people and help the communities that are more affected by residents being jailed than others
--created a collaborative program with the CDC called Pact: Partnering and Communicating Together to Act Against AIDS, which helps to further the HIV/AIDS goals of proper education for the high-risk, prevention for others, and increase the CDC's reach/effectiveness goals of getting the word out about the disease
--works to ensure that the nation's legislation includes Black LBGT families in their laws concerning non-traditional parents and guardians and recognize chosen families
--received support from the Elton John AIDS Foundation in order to launch the Black LGBT Health and Awareness Initiative, which targets HBCUs across the nation in order to reach college students and administrators and educate them about health issues affecting the Black LGBT community
--is trying to ensure that the nation's laws are amended to give law enforcement less loopholes with reporting arrests, not arresting or detaining individuals based on race, and discriminating against Black LGBT/SGL individuals in particular
Further reading links:
1 | 2
Quotes of the Day:
"This is the unfinished business of Black people being free."
-Sharon Lettman-Hicks
"For me, personally and politically, there's no separating my womanness, my Blackness, my transness from my me-ness."
-Janet Mock
No comments:
Post a Comment