Community Leaders and Coalitions Work to Advance Social Justice

From southern Africa to the southern United States, grassroots organizations are building a world in which all LGBTQ people can live with dignity, safety, and opportunity. Amid the many challenges of the past year, we have also witnessed sea changes in the direction of social justice as coalitions and movements shift culture and impact policy.

The latest grants in Arcus’ Social Justice Program focus on supporting the leadership of the people most impacted by injustice, and the interconnected movements, networks, and coalitions that are creating safer, more inclusive societies.

Movements making change in the southern U.S.
Long-term organizing is building the power of LGBTQ communities pushed to the margins in states like Georgia and Arizona. Arcus continues to support organizations working in cross-movement coalitions to create sustainable change in the U.S. South and Southwest.

Southern Vision Alliance will use funds for organizing and to provide microgrants to smaller groups to strengthen the regional infrastructure to advance racial justice, gender equity, and LGBTQ rights in the South. Campaign for Southern Equality is advancing LGBTQ equality in the region through power building and policy.

The faith-based Freedom Center for Social Justice is shifting Southern culture toward justice and inclusion of queer and trans people in faith communities.

Equality Florida, Equality Foundation of Georgia, and Equality North Carolina received grants for their statewide work to increase LGBTQ safety, protection, inclusion, and justice.

In rural Tulare County, California, The Source LGBT+ Center is increasing protections and acceptance for queer and trans people through education, support, and advocacy. Trans Queer Pueblo is building power and mutual support among LGBTQ migrants of color in Phoenix, Arizona.

Regional, national networks in Africa and the Caribbean
On the international Social Justice Program docket, the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE) received support to advocate for legal protections and human rights for LGBTQ people across seven eastern Caribbean countries.

In Africa, the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) will train their member organizations in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Namibia, and other countries in how to include LGBTQ issues and communities in their work, with a focus on combating violence and discrimination.

GALCK, an umbrella organization of groups across Kenya, will deploy funding to promote security and legal protections for LGBTQ people through litigation, community mobilization, counseling, and media monitoring of LGBTQ issues.

Taboom Media will work to increase ethical and accurate media coverage of LGBTQ and faith issues in East and southern Africa through training and support of journalists and activists.

The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa received support to build the capacity of local networks and social movements to participate in cases that can advance sexual rights in Uganda, Botswana, and Malawi. 

Supporting new leadership for the movements
The power of networks and coalitions to move societies toward justice stems from the leadership of the people most impacted by injustice.

A grant to the Groundswell Fund will support the Black Trans Fund, the first U.S. fund dedicated to resourcing Black trans social justice leaders. 

Renewed support to Borealis Philanthropy’s Transforming Movements Fund provides resources to the next generation of LGBTQ leaders across U.S. social justice movements, with a focus on young trans women of color.

SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW will continue to build movement leadership by and for queer and trans people of color in Georgia and the U.S. South.

JASMYN (the Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network) will continue its work supporting the leadership, health, and wholeness of LGBTQ youth in Jacksonville, Florida, while stepping up efforts to raise awareness about and respond to violence against LGBTQ people of color in northeast Florida. 

A two-year grant to interfaith organization ZANERELA+ will support trainings for faith leaders, human rights defenders, health care providers, and others to advance safety, protection, inclusion, and acceptance of LGBTQ people in Zambia.

Putting the LGBTQ in human rights
Through a grant to the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, Arcus will support the historic work of the UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity to define human rights in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, which could have a lasting impact on international protections against violence and discrimination.

Also receiving support are:

• Colombia Diversa for a litigation network focused on the human rights of LGBT people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Fundación Arcoíris por el Respeto a la Diversidad Sexual to strengthen a national network protecting the rights of LGBT migrants and refugees in Mexico.
• Género, Ética y Salud Sexual to support a national coalition working for the human rights of LGBTTTI+ people in Mexico, with a focus on employment access and inclusion for trans people.
• Human Rights Watch for reports documenting discrimination against trans people in El Salvador and against refugees and asylum seekers already living in or en route to South Africa.
• Malawi Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV and AIDS (MANERELA+) to support a network of religious leaders strengthening LGBTQ-inclusive faith communities in Malawi.

To learn about all Arcus grants awarded since 2007, please explore this page.

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