Location: Georgia

32.165622, -82.900075

LaGender Inc.

LaGender, Inc., is a black and transgender women of color led organization dedicated to empowering the transgender community on the unique issues of HIV/AIDS, homelessness, wrongful incarceration, mental health and the fight against discrimination of any sort.

LaGender, Inc., is a black and transgender women of color led organization dedicated to empowering the transgender community on the unique issues of HIV/AIDS, homelessness, wrongful incarceration, mental health and the fight against discrimination of any sort. In 2001, Dee Dee Chamblee, a Black woman, transgender activist and organizer living with HIV for over thirty years founded LaGender Inc. to amplify the voices of Black transgender women who were experiencing high rates of HIV/AIDS in Atlanta. At that time, they were reluctant to access HIV prevention and treatment services due the discrimination they experienced from health care providers and the erasure of their transgender identities by local LGB organizations and other HIV/AIDS service organizations. In an effort to combat stereotypes, misconceptions, and misinformation, LaGender developed a training program specifically geared to educate and inform AIDS service organizations, academic institutions, and public health providers on transgender issue areas locally, nationally, and internationally. From there, LaGender has expanded to include an ongoing support group for transgender people, which centers transgender women of color; establishing a leadership development pipeline and coaching training programs; in the tenure of LaGender, they have built a coalition of transgender-led and progressive organizations, working on a shared advocacy platform that addresses criminalization, HIV, immigration and sex work in the transgender communities.

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

Astraea and Charis Books Present a Conversation on Feminism and Philanthropy

This event is now over. To learn about more ways to get involved with Astraea in your city, visit the Events and Action section of our website.

Join us in Atlanta at Charis Books on Wednesday, June 22, 2016!
We know that all organizations and activists need resources–be they time, talent, or treasure–to be effective, but we also know that as feminists we are sometimes unsure about how to navigate a just path through the world of philanthropy, grants, and asking for resources. Charis is excited to welcome Zakiya J. Lord, who is the Regional Development and Engagement Officer for the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice to help lead community members in a discussion about our experiences organizing and fundraising for feminist, LGBTQ, and Racial Justice, and other causes in Atlanta. We invite all people who are interested in talking about philanthropy, people who think of themselves as “scared to fundraise,” people who consider themselves donors, and everyone in-between to join us in this discussion and also learn more about how Astraea is doing its work in the South and around the world.
If you are a member of a group or organization, please feel free to bring materials about your organization. We will spend time after the event sharing resources about what’s happening in Atlanta.
Charis is excited to welcome Astraea’s Zakiya Lord to help lead community members in a discussion about our experiences organizing and fundraising for feminist, LGBTQ, and Racial Justice, and other causes in Atlanta.

SisterSong

SisterSong is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-gender collective dedicated to eradicating reproductive oppression and securing human rights.

SisterSong is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-gender collective dedicated to eradicating reproductive oppression and securing human rights. Formed in 1997 by 16 women of color led organizations, SisterSong’s founders recognized that the women’s rights movement largely represented wealthy white middle-class women singularly focused on abortion rights, rather than access or other reproductive oppressions experienced by women and trans people of color. Thus, they articulated the reproductive justice framework that uniquely affirms the rights to bodily autonomy, abortion and contraception, and parenting in safe and sustainable environments with adequate resources. Focusing their work on severely marginalized communities, such as sex workers, youth, young parents, people with disabilities or HIV/AIDS, and people with incarceration or addiction experience, SisterSong is attuned to the interlocking oppressions that inflict multiple forms of violence, e.g. criminalization, violent attacks and intimidation, police brutality, poor healthcare access, exploitative migrant and religious laws, and in-accessibility to quality education. SisterSong maintains a strategic focus on the U.S. South where they see the region as ground zero for the War on Women. Their goals are to expand reproductive justice in other social justice movements, train the next generation of reproductive justice activists and leaders on the evolution of reproductive justice, and provide a platform for groups to collaborate on shared policy and advocacy goals.