Black Trans Media

Black Trans Media is a community-driven black trans-led organization based out of Brooklyn, NY, existing to shift and reframe the value and worth of all black trans peoples by addressing the intersections of racism and transphobia.

Black Trans Media is a community-driven black trans-led organization based out of Brooklyn, NY, existing to shift and reframe the value and worth of all black trans peoples by addressing the intersections of racism and transphobia. Black Trans Media is centered in the power of media, arts and storytelling to support leadership, organizing and reflect narratives of resistance that are culturally black and trans. This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.

Peacock Rebellion

Peacock Rebellion uses comedy and storytelling to examine structural violence and to heal QTPOC communities from the trauma of experiencing multiple forms of oppression throughout their lives.

Photo: Lexi Adsit at Peacock Rebellion’s Brouhaha: Transgender People of Color Comedy Festival, June 2017

Peacock Rebellion uses comedy and storytelling to examine structural violence and to heal QTPOC communities from the trauma of experiencing multiple forms of oppression throughout their lives. They connect queer and trans communities of color across racial lines to build collective power for QTPOC liberation. This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.

Kohl: a journal for Body and Gender Research

Kohl is a progressive, feminist journal on gender and sexuality based in Lebanon and covering the whole MENA region (Middle East, South West Asia, and North Africa).

Kohl is a progressive, feminist journal on gender and sexuality based in Lebanon and covering the whole MENA region (Middle East, South West Asia, and North Africa). It was formed in December 2014 as a queer feminist initiative and since then operates as an alternative feminist platform that sheds light on queer and feminist histories in the region aiming to challenge the hegemony of knowledge production and counter Orientalist and neocolonial narratives by ensuring that young feminist scholars and activists in the region play a central role in shaping knowledge about themselves. Kohl is a multilingual online journal published twice a year in English, French, and Arabic with different types of articles, including research, testimonies, opinion pieces, commentaries, reviews, literary pieces, conversations, interviews, and soon visual and audiovisual materials. The editorial team works closely with the contributors in the scopes of a mentorship system or a back and forth collaborative editing process with different contributors. In these two years of existence, Kohl has attracted a lot of international attention and has become a point of reference for many activists and scholars alike, from the region or globally, who are looking for knowledge on feminism, gender, and sexuality from MENA.

Associação Lésbica Feminista de Brasília – Coturno de Vênus

Founded in 2003, shortly after the election of former president Lula da Silva, when social movements leveraged political momentum, Coturno de Vênus was founded to ensure that ending lesbophobia and transphobia remained a priority for wider social justice movements.

Coturno de Vênus is a lesbian feminist organization based in Brasília, Brasil. Founded in 2003, shortly after the election of former president Lula da Silva, when social movements leveraged political momentum, Coturno de Vênus was founded to ensure that ending lesbophobia and transphobia remained a priority for wider social justice movements. They used to own a space called “Casa Roxa” where they provided shelter and counseling to lesbian women who needed support facing precariousness and violence. They held many activities and events at the space, which became the only space for lesbian women to gather. They’re committed to promoting lesbian visibility and the right to a dignified life, liberty, equality and security for all lesbians, while building an autonomous, democratic, pluralist, nonpartisan, anti-oppression, anti-racist, anti-ableist, anti-LGBTTIphobia and lesbofeminist movement.

Intersex Archive Project

The Intersex Human Rights Fund supports organizations, projects and timely campaigns led by intersex activists working to ensure the human rights, bodily autonomy, physical integrity and self-determination of intersex people. Given the dearth of funding to intersex issues globally, intersex groups/projects based anywhere in the world are eligible to apply.

Garden of Peace Project

Garden of Peace Project (GPP) is a black. native. trans. queer-led art + collective healing project based in Pittsburgh, PA.

Garden of Peace Project (GPP) is a black. native. trans. queer-led art + collective healing project based in Pittsburgh, PA. They exist to celebrate the narratives and lived experiences of queer and trans people of color. They actively reclaim spaces as sanctuaries for queer and trans folks of color and work to undo systems of oppression. They offer community programs, tools, and resources to radically shift the disproportionate impact of state-sanctioned violence. This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.

Invisible to Invincible (“i2i”): API Pride of Chicago

Invisible to Invincible: Asian Pacific Islander Pride of Chicago (“i2i”) is a group that celebrates, affirms, and engages Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Queer (LGBTQQ) persons in and around the Chicago area. i2i organizes monthly educational programs, social events, and activism.

Invisible to Invincible: Asian Pacific Islander Pride of Chicago (“i2i”) is a group that celebrates, affirms, and engages Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Queer (LGBTQQ) persons in and around the Chicago area. i2i organizes monthly educational programs, social events, and activism. i2i was founded in 2005 as a multi-gender, multi-ethnic group where people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, immigration & adoptee identities, and multiracial & multiethnic backgrounds would be welcome. i2i increases awareness and visibility in both the Asian Pacific Islander communities and the LGBTQ communities. Anti-oppression (the work of actively challenging and removing oppression caused by power inequalities in society, both systemic and on an individual level) is a key value that motivates the purpose of i2i and informs where energy and resources are directed. While responding to and even preventing homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, heterosexism, and racism is i2i’s primary purpose for being, i2i can also be active and/or stand in solidarity with many other social issues that affect our community (i.e., immigration, education, poverty, and fair housing). This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.

Somos Familia

Somos Familia’s mission is to build intergenerational leadership to create environments where Latina/o/x lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth and their families are supported, nurtured, and celebrated.

Somos Familia’s mission is to build intergenerational leadership to create environments where Latina/o/x lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth and their families are supported, nurtured, and celebrated. Somos Familia conducts its work in a Latina/o/x cultural context. The majority of members are bilingual and bicultural. Somos Familia provides peer support and education programs led by families with LGBTQ children. They facilitate workshops on acceptance, gender and sexual orientation terminology, and being an ally for childcare providers, community-based organizations, school staff, and parents. Somos Familia has made it possible for families to discuss their sexual orientation or gender identity within their home and this has brought their families closer together. Parents say that hearing from Somos Familia members made them feel more comfortable about having a LGBTQ child. One mother of a transgender teen said: “At each Somos Familia event I attend, I learn something new about how to support my child.” This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.

Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits (BAAITS)

Bay Area American Indians Two-Spirits (BAAITS) exists to restore and recover the role of Two-Spirit people within the American Indian/First Nations community by creating a forum for the spiritual, cultural and artistic expression of Two-Spirit people.

Bay Area American Indians Two-Spirits (BAAITS) exists to restore and recover the role of Two-Spirit people within the American Indian/First Nations community by creating a forum for the spiritual, cultural and artistic expression of Two-Spirit people. They produce an annual powwow, a Native American cultural gathering that features traditional dancing and drumming. They are proud to produce the only public Two Spirit Powwow in the world; their powwow, unlike mainstream powwows, celebrates the gifts that Two-Spirit and LGBT people have to offer the community. Many powwows have rigid gender roles, and their event has been working to queer these roles by de-gendering the dance categories as well as the Head Dancer roles, incorporating partner dances, and encouraging participation of same-gender couples, all things which are rarely, if ever, seen at straight powwows. Through the annual powwow, Drum group, traditional arts classes, community potlucks, and other activities, BAAITS brings together Two-Spirit People and allies to revive these sacred traditions and strengthen awareness of and support for Native and Two-Spirit communities. These cultural events are critical to serving Two-Spirit People who must resist the overlapping oppressions of colonialism, racism, capitalism, homophobia, and transphobia.

This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.

Rebeca Lane/Somos Guerreras

Lane has participated in many notable festivals and seminars in Central and South America on human rights, feminism and culture of hip-hop.

Eunice Rebeca Vargas (Rebecca Lane) was born in Guatemala City in 1984 amid civil war. Early on, she began researching methods to recover the historical memory of those war years, subsequently becoming an activist for families whose loved ones had been kidnapped or killed by the military government. Through this organization work, she realized that women had less power in leadership and thus she birthed a feminist vision. The theater has always been part of her life; she is currently part of a theater and hip-hop group that created the Eskina (2014) to address violence against youth in marginalized areas of the city, with the use of graffiti, rap, breakdancing, DJing, and parkour. Since 2012, as part of the hip-hop group Last Dose, she began recording songs rap poetry as an exercise. In 2013, she released her EP “Canto” and she began a tour of Central America and Mexico. Lane has participated in many notable festivals and seminars in Central and South America on human rights, feminism and culture of hip-hop. In 2014, she won the Proyecto L contest, which recognizes music that reinforces the right of expression. In addition, she works as a sociologist with several publications and lectures on urban youth cultures and identities and, more recently, on education and its role in the social reproduction of inequality.

She is the founder of Somos Guerreras project that seeks to create opportunities for empowerment and visibility of women in hip-hop culture in Central America. With support from Astraea is, she performed We are Guerreras with Nakury, and Audry Native Funk in 8 cities, from Panamá to Ciudad Juárez to record a documentary about the work of female hip-hop in the region.

*** En Español***

Rebeca Eunice Vargas (Rebeca Lane) nació en la Ciudad de Guatemala en 1984, en medio de una guerra civil. Desde temprano comenzó a investigar métodos para recuperar la memoria histórica de esos años de guerra, subsecuentemente convirtiéndose en activista por las familias cuyos seres queridos habían sido secuestrados o asesinados por el gobierno militar. A través de este trabajo de organización ella se dio cuenta de que las mujeres tenían menos poder en el liderazgo y así nació su visión feminista. El teatro siempre ha sido parte de su vida; ella actualmente forma parte de un grupo de teatro y Hip Hop que creó La Eskina (2014) para abordar la violencia contra la juventud en regiones marginalizadas de la ciudad, con el uso del grafiti, el rap, el breakdance, pinchar discos (deejaying) y el parkour. Desde 2012, como parte del colectivo de Hip Hop, Última Dosis, comenzó a grabar canciones de rap como un ejercicio de poesía. En 2013, salió su EP “Canto” y ella comenzó una gira por Centroamérica y México. Lane ha participado en muchos festivales y seminarios notables en Centroamérica y Suramérica sobre derechos humanos, el feminismo y la cultura del Hip Hop. En 2014, ganó el concurso Proyecto L, el cual reconoce música que refuerza el derecho de expresión. Además, ella trabaja como socióloga con varias publicaciones y da conferencias sobre culturas urbanas e identidades juveniles y, más recientemente, sobre la educación y su rol en la reproducción social de la inequidad.

Es fundadora del proyecto Somos Guerreras que busca generar espacios de empoderamiento y visibilidad de las mujeres en la cultura Hip Hop en Centroamérica. En 2016 con apoyo de Astraea se realizó de Somos Guerreras junto a Nakury, Nativa y Audry Funk por 8 ciudades desde Panamá hasta Ciudad Juárez para grabar un documental sobre el trabajo de las mujeres Hip Hop en la región.