Grantees Work for LGBTQ Equality with Faith-Based Community and Youth Groups

The grantees for the latest funding cycle are focusing their LGBTQ advocacy work in a number of areas, such as with the faith-based community and with youth. Other grantees, meanwhile, will be focusing on policy change and justice for the LGBTQ community.

The Yvette A. Flunder Foundation is focusing on faith-based, intersectional social justice alliance-building in East Africa. The organization is working in Uganda to increase safety for the LGBTQ community, and building an LGBTQ-inclusive alliance in Kenya. Global Interfaith Network (GIN SSOGIE) is working in Southern Africa, as well as regionally in the Caribbean and Central America, to help develop concrete advocacy strategies and programmatic priorities using faith-based arguments and voices.

The Center for American Progress is using its grant to challenge discriminatory religious exemptions policies, by advancing moral and ethical arguments for faith-centered resistance against conservative policies within the United States, and challenging the rhetoric used to justify discrimination. Faith in Public Life is also working in the United States to build the effectiveness of faith movements that share a call to pursue justice, as well as to make gains towards equal treatment of the LGBTQ community. Meanwhile, the Public Religion Research Institute will work to disseminate polling data on LGBTQ issues in the United States, data that measure progress on acceptance of LGBTQ by people of faith, among other groups.

Dignity USA is advocating for LGBTQ acceptance and for an end to harmful religious exemption policies within Catholic communities, while Reconciling Ministries is working with United Methodists of all sexual orientations and gender identities for an inclusive church. The Inner Circle is working toward an LGBTQ-inclusive practice of Islam, as well as building the capacity of the queer Muslim community to engage in activism, and seeks to raise awareness among Muslim religious leaders to create inclusive environments.

The National LGBTQ Task Force is using its funding to support the Free Indeed Project, which aims to mobilize black people of faith to resist the proliferation of Religious Freedom Restoration Act bills. In addition, the Ruth Ellis Center is working to address the challenges and systemic barriers LGBTQ youth and young adults of color experience, while Communities for Just Schools Fund (housed at New Venture Fund) is working to build a grassroots movement for positive school climate and discipline reform by, and for, youth of color.

Also working with youth, the True Colors Fund is using its funding for its training and education program to help LGBTQ youth at risk of experiencing homelessness, while the United We Dream Network is continuing to expand the rights of immigrant youth in the United States through organizing at the local, regional, and national levels. The Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network is using its funding to train queer, trans, and allied youth leaders to advocate, organize, and mobilize a movement for safer schools. Similarly, the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project is working on safety issues for the LGBTQ community, in order to build an effective movement in the face of a rollback of civil rights protections.

The Council for Global Equality is advocating for United States government inclusion of LGBTQ issues in foreign affairs and development policies. The European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association is the recipient of three grants this funding cycle, and also works on policy development. It will be working on policy change and social inclusion in Armenia, Macedonia, and Turkey, as well as building rapid mobilization capacity to respond to opportunities and threats regarding the human rights of LGBTQ people in Eastern and Southern European countries.

Also receiving grants this funding cycle are Eastern Caribbean Alliance For Diversity and Equality, Inc., ZANERELA+, Point Source Youth, Rewire News, Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa, and Religious Institute.