Supporting LGBTQ Movements and Leaders Around the World

December 21, 2021

In the final quarter of 2021, Arcus’ Social Justice Program awarded grants to organizations working to advance rights, promote social justice, and create more inclusive societies for LGBTQ people around the world. Our grantees’ work spans community organizing, movement building, policy advocacy, public education, and other approaches to creating safe, inclusive communities and societies.

Advancing rights in Botswana and Kenya
Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO) will continue advancing LGBTIQ rights in Botswana through advocacy to improve the process for changing gender markers; education of the media, policy makers, and religious and traditional leaders about anti-discrimination policies; research and campaigns to increase health services and comprehensive sexuality education; and continued strengthening and growth of the movement.

Jinsiangu will engage in trainings and dialogue with public officials and service providers in Kenya to increase intersex, trans, and gender-nonconforming people’s access to legal, health, and other services without violence and discrimination. Funding will also support Jinsiangu’s advocacy for a national intersex rights policy and a national transgender health strategy.

Supporting LGBTQ leaders in intersecting U.S. movements
Borealis Philanthropy’s Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color Fund will continue to support LGBTQ activists of color leading U.S.-based grassroots organizations in interconnected movements for racial justice, immigrant rights, reproductive and gender justice, and social justice broadly.

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement will continue engaging in organizing and advocacy to end the detention, deportation, and criminalization of trans and queer Latinx migrants seeking safety and protection in the United States. Familia will also continue to support LGBTQ asylum seekers at the San Diego/Tijuana border.

Trans Queer Pueblo will continue organizing to build the power of LGBTQ+ migrant communities in and around Phoenix, Arizona. The latest Arcus grant will support a community health clinic, the #EndTransDetention campaign (on which Trans Queer Pueblo is working alongside Familia and other Arcus partners), legal support for LGBTQ+ migrants, and a campaign to decriminalize sex work.

Also in Arizona, The Outlaw Project will continue to defend the rights of trans women of color, including sex workers. The trans-women-of-color-led organization will address violence against and criminalization of their community by working to increase housing security, change the state’s gender-marker process, and build community advocacy skills, among other initiatives.

Southerners on New Ground (SONG), an anchor organization of social justice movements in the U.S. South, received support for ongoing work to organize Southern, feminist, Black, immigrant, poor, and working-class LGBTQ leaders to wage grassroots campaigns on issues that matter to their communities, such as developing non-police solutions for community safety, reforming money bail policies, improving treatment and care for LGBTQ immigrants in detention, and decriminalizing sex work.

Safer, more inclusive societies around the world
Letra S, Sida, Cultura y Vida Cotidiana, a member of the Sin Violencia (Without Violence) network, received funding to continue documenting and reporting on hate crimes against LGBTQ people in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. Arcus’ grant will also support advocacy with public authorities to prevent hate crimes and reduce impunity.

Initiative for Equality and Non Discrimination (INEND) will continue working to increase the safety and inclusion of LBQT people in Kenya by training and engaging judges, magistrates, police, policy makers, and others to become allies and help to prevent discrimination and violence.

The Campaign for Southern Equality will promote LGBTQ equality in North Carolina and across the U.S. South through analysis and mutual aid efforts to increase access to LGBTQ-friendly healthcare amid the pandemic, public education and media initiatives, and advocacy for inclusion and against discrimination.

In the face of rising violence and hate directed against LGBTQ and Asian communities in the United States, the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) continues to organize and advocate to challenge homophobia, racism, and anti-immigrant bias. This grant from Arcus will support training and convening local LGBTQ API groups and incubating new community organizing initiatives in the U.S. South. Funding will also be used to update and digitize the Queer Asian Compass report, the only comprehensive directory of LGBTQ API groups.

The Source LGBT+ Center, a community center in California’s Central Valley, will continue its work to increase LGBTQ protections and acceptance in this rural region through public education, advocacy, and long-term shifting of the local culture to be more inclusive and affirming.

Also receiving grants this funding cycle were:

Learn about all Arcus grants awarded since 2007.