Today, on Valentine’s Day, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice announced a new initiative – The Uprising of Love Fund. This fund will prioritise timely support for LGBTQI activism across the U.S nation resisting the onslaught of attacks on our bodies, our communities and our collective rights.
“The subtle and overt shifts in policy and culture are meant to divide us and deny our right to exist free of persecution. We do not, and we will not, choose one neighbour over another. We do not, and we will not, choose to deny our queerness, our lesbian, gay, bi or trans selves. We do not, and we will not, deny the beauty and power and joy in our blackness and brownness nor will we hide behind our whiteness, as if it will make us safer in a country that consistently proves otherwise,” said J. Bob Alotta, Executive Director of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.
“We must collectively rally our resources because we choose to know better, to do better, to be better and love better than the barrage attempting to divide us and deny our collective humanity,” exclaimed Alotta. “As members of our community boldly stand against all manner of divisive violence and threat because of their radical belief that each one of us should live free from persecution, we name this fund in their honour, the Uprising of Love Fund.”
This fund will immediately fuel Astraea’s support of LGBTQI activism where it is most critically needed and most under resourced. This includes queer and trans people of colour and migrant organizers who are defending their communities from increased deportations, incarceration and criminalisation; resisting attempts to legalise discrimination against women and LGBTQI people under the guise of religious freedom; organising across our rural and urban communities; and producing the cultural work that shifts attitudes, inspires us through difficult times, and celebrates our rich cultural traditions. There is an urgent need for grassroots funding at this time so activists can sustain their energy, wellness and resilience for the long haul.
Building on our 40 years of supporting the most boundary-pushing activism in the U.S and around the world, the Uprising of Love Fund will fuel, sustain and amplify the resistance of LGBTQI activists fighting both local and global threats to equality. This work is both urgent and long-term – activists must be resourced to respond immediately and to seize opportunities, and they must also have access to long-term, dependable support as we know ending persecution will not be happen overnight. Astraea strategically shifts resources to where they make the most change and build the most power.
