2023 Grantees

We are excited to share this year’s Queer Mobilization Fund (QMF) grantee cohort! This is our fifth cohort of grantees since QMF’s inception in 2016 as a rapid response fund to support community mobilizations and projects. Even though these groups engage in various frontline struggles for freedom and liberation, they are all unified by their dedication to uplift and build power for and within QTBIPOC communities in the U.S. Southeast.

The Queer Mobilization Fund supports these organizations through two types of grants: our Biscuits grant ($5,000) and our Gravy grant ($10,000 available only to previous grantees), along with access to a cohort of peer organizations and Technical Assistance (TA). TA support allows organizations to strengthen their internal and external capacity to do their work more effectively.

Since QMF’s last cycle in Spring 2022, anti-trans legislation has exploded across the country. To date, 562 bills have been proposed across 49 states, with 79 of those bills having passed and another 354 still active in legislative sessions. 8 of the 12 states that QMF funds have already been impacted by passed 2023 anti-trans legislation, totaling 30 separate passed bills across our funding region. It was not a shock to us that our applicant pool grew this year, but we were stunned to have received 165 applications, nearly four times as many as we received in 2022.

We are deeply grateful to our donors for helping us meet the clear escalation of need seen across QTBIPOC organizing in the U.S. Southeast, and are thrilled to announce our largest cohort ever! This year, we have awarded grants to 49 organizations across the U.S. Southeast that are working with and alongside their communities to uplift QTBIPOC freedom and liberation. We are ecstatic to announce our 2023 cohort!

4evercareingEvonne

Jackson, MS

Our mission is to instill hope, resilience and self-esteem in the LGBTQ+ community while becoming an activist for gender justice and equality.

Aflorar Herb Collective

Asheville, NC & Lexington, KY

The Aflorar Herb Collective is a collective of folk herbalists, herbal enthusiasts, artists, gardeners, and community organizers and healers working to relearn and remember our traditional ways through herbs, connection to the land, and healing through Chicanx, Latinx, Black and Indigenous traditional practices and values. We are working together using nature’s tools to guide us on a journey to restore, remember, and reconnect to our shared healing, knowledge, and freedom to liberate our communities.

Afro Erotic Body

Richmond, VA

The Afro Erotic Body is a community where queer BIPOC can positively express sexual pleasure and freedom safely, without falling into the falsehood of stigma. We create intentional and informed frameworks by providing practices and rituals for pleasure, embodiment, and sexual wellness. We are where education meets eroticism.

Arco Iris Earth Care Project

Boxley, AK

Arco Iris Earth Care Project is a rural grassroots nonprofit organization led by Two-Spirit Women of Color dedicated to preserving and teaching Indigenous cultural, spiritual, and sustainability practices. We steward the 400-acre Wild Magnolia Land Trust according to Indigenous earth care principles, and strive to empower our community with natural and healthy skills for sustainable living. At Arco Iris, which translates to rainbow in Spanish, we spearhead conservation efforts, host events and environmental education programs, and nurture community among BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+, and working class folks in Northwest Arkansas.

Asheboro Latinxs Services

Asheboro, NC

Asheboro Latinxs Services is a nonprofit organization that provide service to our LGBTQI+ community in Randolph County NC.

Basically Wonderful

Oviedo, FL

Basically Wonderful is a grassroots organization run by Queer Trans + Disabled folks in Orlando, Florida, USA. Our hope is to create peer-led spaces for marginalized communities where folks are free to express themselves and build friendships with peers who have similar lived experiences. We are creating intentional spaces for both Disabled & LGBTQIA+ folks to commune and thrive in identity-driven spaces.

Basically Wonderful currently hosts a peer-led support group and a book club for Disabled folks, along with a book club for Trans folks, & a Queer Media Club for all LGBTQIA+ folks is coming soon. We also host community events that are open to anyone, anywhere 18+, including allies. Learn more about us: Www.BasicallyWonderful.Online

Bigwitch Indian Wisdom Initiative

Cherokee, NC

We are Eastern Band Cherokee tribal members (aniyvwiyv ~ Principal People), who inhabit our ancestral lands and possess knowledge about the Great Smoky Mountains. Our Indigenous Ecological Knowledge gives insight into an intimate ecology and cosmology. Indigenous Ecological Knowledge does not come from one authority or source, but comes from a shared source of indigenous stories. Funding will be used to build out a framework and support system for holding talking circles, listening sessions and events within the community centered around Tran-cestral Knowledge and Two-Spirited roles and responsibilities in the community. This platform will allow us to pass the oral teachings, provide support for other Two-Spirit identified relatives and educate the community at large, simultaneously.

Birmingham Mutual Aid

Birmingham, AL

We are dreaming up and co-creating better worlds from our home in Birmingham, AL. We’re grounded in the belief that mutual aid is a protest, a political practice, and a path for us to create the world we want to live in while we tear down the oppressive practices and concepts of the world we currently live in. Since March 2020, we have facilitated the giving and receiving of funds, food, clothes, advice, reproductive items, camaraderie and more. After operating out of our home for the last three years, we have started the process of renovating and rebuilding a permanent space for Birmingham Mutual Aid (its myriad projects and its parent project: Big Feelings Queer Collective) to operate from long term.

Black LGBTQ+ Liberation Inc

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Black LGBTQ+ Liberation, Inc. (BLINC ) is an organization based in South Florida focused on achieving positive outcomes for BIPOC LGBTQ+ people. Their mission is to provide programming and services to eradicate homophobia, transphobia and achieve positive outcomes in the lives of marginalized LGBTQ+ people. Their main project, “Thou Art Woman,” uses the arts to celebrate and uplift LGBTQ+ women and allies. Their upcoming initiative, “BLINC 360,” is a health and wellness program centering BIPOC LGBTQ+ community members and leaders.

Black Life Response

New Orleans, LA

Black Life Response (BLR) is a collective of Black TGNC2IA+ cultural organizers who gather cohorts of Black TGNC2IA+ creatives for rest-based creative residencies.

BLR prioritizes providing intimate space for creatives and cultural organizers to rest, recuperate, practice presence, (re)vision, strategize, heal and repair/build our relationship to the land. We host residencies for Black artists whose creative and community work is rooted in a Black liberation lens and who are otherwise unable to provide this sort of space for themselves due to the ongoing demands of surviving under racialized capitalism.

BLR envisions a world where cohorts of black queer tgnc2ia+ artists are brought together to build community, re-establish connectedness to the land, be accountable to one another and the Earth, and be energized about the new work they’ve created through resting alongside each other.

In the long term, BLR dreams of stewarding a physical space to hold our cohorts as they recuperate and build towards a regional, national and international wellness infrastructure for Black creatives. We aim to be a self-sustaining space that incubates the work of Black artists and provides space for artists to integrate a self and community care ethic into their work.

CAKE Society Co.

Falls Church, VA

Cake Society Co is dedicated to holistically empowering all bodies through a healthier and happier way of not only living, but thriving. Our service is both inspired by and centered around the BIPOC, Immigrant, Trans and Gender-Expansive Community. Our goal is to increase the positive mental health impact of our community, through access to health, wellness and fitness.

Capital Tea

Tallahassee, FL

Capital tea is an organization that is by and for the Trans community. To provide resource, support, and advocacy.

Country Queers

Southeastern WV

Country Queers is a multimedia oral history project documenting the diverse experiences of rural, small town, and country LGBTQIA2S+ folks – across intersecting layers of identity such as race, class, age, ability, gender, and religion. The project aims to preserve rural LGBTQIA2S+ histories through documenting our contemporary presence and historical existence, to resist the narrative that rural communities are monolithic, to push back against the narrative that queer people can only thrive in major metropolitan spaces, and to connect rural and small-town queer and trans folks to one another across geographical distance in an attempt to help fight the isolation we often experience. Since 2013 the project has grown to include a collection of over 90 oral histories, a podcast, and a traveling gallery exhibition.

FOR OUR SIBS

Atlanta, GA

We are FOR OUR SIBS, a Black trans-led collective based here in Atlanta, GA, that provides mutual aid to Black Trans* and gender-expansive siblings through the work of community care, creative ecosystems, and Black trans* liberatory practices. We intend to build and cultivate ecosystems where Black trans* southern folks have their material needs met and autonomous livelihoods.

Game Changing Men

Atlanta, GA

In 2021, Game Changing Men became a reality through the vision of our founding Executive Director Quinton Reynolds who noticed a gap in programming and service delivery for black masculine identities practically black trans men. GCM provides healing spaces for masculine identities, cis or trans to come together for healing,growth, and support.

We believe once healing has begun, we can then address how previous trauma and harm show up and add to violence. By building healing spaces and communities, we can together break cycles of harm and encourage collective care. Game Changing Men vision is bridging gaps between the cis and trans community to enhance communities of color and overall well-being.

Gender Education Network Inc

Indian Trail, NC

We are a nonprofit working with Trans and Gender Diverse kids 12 and younger. We provide a safe space for kids to create community with each other. We also help educate the greater community on what it means to be a transgender kid in today’s society.

Grimalkin Records

Dendron, VA

Our mission at Grimalkin is to mentor and support trans and queer musicians, particularly BIPOC and disabled artists, using an artist-centered holistic approach to break down barriers, create new systems and structures of support, and expand the reach of marginalized voices. Grimalkin is transforming the music industry, our world, and documented history with artist-centered structures of support through education, mentoring and production services provided through our ever-growing international network of trans, queer, BIPOC, disabled, and neurodiverse creatives. We provide trans, queer, BIPOC, disabled, and neurodiverse artists support and access towards living authentic, healthy and fulfilling lives through partnerships and connections with other individuals, collectives, organizations, and nonprofits. We envision a world where dedicated artists, especially marginalized artists, can make a living wage and have access to resources that allow them to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. We are creating new systems of support in an effort to set an example for new standards in music and art.

H2Afr0

Greensboro, NC

H2afrO is a Black, queer, and trans led healing justice project tapping into the emotional, embodied power of water through swim instruction, safety education, and outdoor adventures. The project centers trauma-informed approaches to dissolve fear and anxiety so folks feel at ease and confident in and around water. H2afrO seeks to be a sacred vessel for the sake of healing, joy, and liberation at the intersections of Blackness. World building in service of a future we deserve, are dreaming up, and manifesting right now.

Hazey Acres

Fort White, FL

Hazey Acres, is an artist respite that celebrates and affirms queer, BIPOC, disabled, and fat bodies and prioritizes mental health through rest and alternative healing modalities. We recharge queer community members and empower people to see that nature is where we can be free from the constraints of a society that often refuses to include us. When floating in the cold spring waters of Florida, our guests transcend to a world that holds them effortlessly and provides abundant comfort. There is no greater joy than to see someone feel the radical rest and comfort that takes place with peers under a 100-year-old oak tree. Our Hazey Acres community is located in Florida swamplands, just over an hour from the Capital of Florida.

IAJE’s LGBTQ Immigrant Organizing and Mutual Aid Project

Jackson, MS

The Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity is a Mississippi based organization that supports and actively advocates for a better south for LGBTQ immigrants. LGBTQ+ immigrants in MS face a number of issues that are similar to the broader LGBTQ+ population, including fear, isolation, lack of access to healthcare, lack of mental health resources, lack of access to HIV services, criminalization based on survival methods, safety, and job insecurity. However, for LGBTQ+ immigrants in MS, these challenges are compounded by racism, language barriers, cultural unresponsiveness, and xenophobia. The IAJE is dedicated to assisting queer and trans immigrants in detention, coming out of detention, and immigrant LGBTQ+ community members by helping them secure housing, educational, legal, health, wellness, and emotional support and services.

Idyll Dandy Arts (IDA)

Dowelltown, TN

Idyll Dandy Arts (IDA) is a Southern, rural community land project and educational space tucked into the hills of Middle Tennessee. The mostly wooded hollow provides residential and communal space for queer, trans and gender non-conforming people of color (QTPOC).

The residents and the larger IDA community work to provide a safer space for queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people with varying experiences, identities, and abilities.

ItsoktoBe YoUUU Organization

Little Rock, AR

Mission: To Recognize and Uplift BIPOC Transgender, Non-Binary, Gender Non-Conforming,and AFAB youth & adults in a positive, non-judgmental environment.

LOUD Queer Youth Theatre

New Orleans, LA

LOUD: The New Orleans Queer Youth Theater (LOUD) is a Black LGBTQIA+ Youth Theater company based in New Orleans, LA. LOUD utilizes culturally rooted methods to cultivate a community of unapologetic Black queer and trans performers in New Orleans. We are guided by four core values: Active Solidarity, Undoing Oppression, Youth Leadership and Artistic Rigor. LOUD’s commitment to producing original theater provides its members with the tools for self-expression, an intersectional analysis of oppression, and ways to navigate the world.

Louisiana Trans Advocates

Lafayette, LA

Louisiana Trans Advocates is the only statewide organization focused on the well-being of trans and gender-nonconforming folks across Louisiana. Our work generally falls into three areas: Advocacy, Social Support, and Education. We’re most known for our support groups around the state that have continued for over a decade and our over a decade of being involved in statewide policy advocacy work to protect trans* Louisianans from harmful legislation.

Marsha’s Tea Room

Hattiesburg, MS

Marsha’s Tea Room is a trans led nonprofit organization centered on promoting the overall health and well-being of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People in the Mississippi LGBTQIA+ community. Marsha’s is meant to be a safe space for members of the TGNC community and allies. Our main objective is to promote the health and welfare of the transgender community through our outreach programs.

Paragon Cooperative Co

Atlanta and Plains, GA

Our organization is a BIPOC, LGBTQ+ led Cooperative & Club with a two-fold mission. We are creating a LIVE-WORK space in rural South Georgia that includes sustainability, farming and collective land ownership. We host PLAY-SLAY consent based educational lifestyle experiences to fundraise in Metro Atlanta. We bring Queer BIPOC representation to all spaces. We believe in collaboration, and not competition. We break barriers and build bridges between mainstream and counterculture society. Join us!

Performer Advocacy Coalition

Durham, NC

The Performer Advocacy Coalition, aka the PAC, is a group of North Carolina-based drag performers and allies working to connect our queer community to first aid and self-defense resources. We are united in our goal of saving queer lives as drag shows and queer events are increasingly targeted by hate groups.

Power Safe Place Resource Center of Virginia

Front Royal, VA

The mission of PSPRCVA is to provide a safe space for the Virginia People of Color – LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized individuals. We achieve this by providing client resources, programs and social services including but not limited to, emergency hotel vouchers/respite service, comprehensive harm reduction programs, disease prevention education, free HIV testing, support group discussions, counseling for victims of crimes, food and clothing, client emergency funds, educational workshops, job readiness mentoring, and transportation.

Pride Liberation Project

Fairfax County, VA

Pride Liberation is an entirely-student led organization that works to build inclusive schools and communities for Queer students in Virginia. In the past, we’ve launched walkouts of tens of thousands of students, testified at multiple local school board meetings, and introduced multiple pieces of legislation in the General Assembly.

Queer Collective Healing Experience

Durham, NC

QCHEx is a spirited collective committed to facilitating dialogue, healing, joy and representation for BIPOC Queer and Trans people. This is a platform inviting our unique beauty to be seen, heard and celebrated. The vision is to invite and engage the Queer & Trans BIPOC community in Durham and the Triangle at large to participate in various gatherings and talks that support their healing journey, but ultimately to have fun, make intentional community and get support.

Rad El Dub Community Land Trust

Lake Worth Beach, FL

The Rad El Dub Community Land Trust (REDCLT) supports social justice in south Florida by guaranteeing affordable housing to activists, promoting sustainable agriculture, providing infrastructure to support community organizing, and offering sanctuary space to LGBTQ+ migrant detainees. Since 2010, REDCLT has secured affordable housing for the Lake Worth community at our two cooperatively owned houses: The Bambooty and The Passionvine. The Bambooty is a collective residence for community organizers that has housed over fifty residents since its founding, primarily LGBTQ+ and working class people. We believe in low-income housing, which means a commitment to matching resident contributions to their incomes, not to the value of the property in the rapidly gentrifying private real estate market.

Rainbow Collective for Change

Durham, NC

Rainbow Collective for Change is a collective of LGBTQIA+ families and community members working together to build LGBTQIA+ and gender inclusive spaces for children and families. RCC provides LGBTQIA+ families with children ages 0-12 with meaningful opportunities to connect with each other and engage in advocacy as a collective. RCC also provides tools and training for schools, families, and organizations to be LGBTQIA+ and Gender Inclusive, anti-racist, and anti-ableist.

Reflect Collective

Miami, FL

Reflect Collective is an organization that serves QTPOC survivors of sexual and domestic violence through healing art events, financial assistance, and educational workshops. We distribute a QTPOC Survivor Grant bi-yearly to support QTPOC survivors through their traumatic experience. We also host a yearly annual event called Queer Fest to celebrate QTPOC survivor’s resilience and support local QTPOC artists.

Sexy Sex Ed

Richmond, KY

Sexy Sex Ed is a workshop series that compels teenagers and people of all ages to openly discuss personal and political consent, sexual safety, pleasure, and anatomy using visual & performance art, open dialogue, and popular education methods. Sexy Sex Ed fills a vital gap in reproductive education as a creative, cultural healing solution in rural Appalachia.

Soulthrive Collective

Asheville, NC

We as a collective are dedicated to our collective and individual liberation freedom and healing. We are holding space for all the ways in which WSC have told us our brilliance and worth are less than what we know to be true in our souls and through the care actions and prayers that our ancestors bestowed on us. We deeply yearn for a re-remembering of our souls knowing so we can return to kinship practices that allow for thrival, freedom, healing, equity, for all. Our collective is creating the foundations of the community we would like to live in as we recreate the world from the rubble of colonialism and racial injustice.

South Carolina Black Pride Inc

Columbia, SC

South Carolina Black Pride Inc has a mission to unify and celebrate the diversity, creativity, and beauty of South Carolina’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, and non-gender conforming (LGBTQ) communities of color and our supporters in order to empower and promote the human rights of all families and communities.

Southerner Organizer Academy

New Orleans, LA

Southern Organizer Academy, founded in 2017, is a capacity building and leadership development pipeline aimed at building the capacity of organizers, organizations, and healer to deepen new campaigns or grow the strength of currently existing ones. Through our abolitionist, feminist lens, we support organizers via kinship based organizing, weaving individual and ancestral knowledge into real time change, and maintaining the wholeness of ourselves and our kindred.

Stay Alive Appalachian Youth

Knoxville, TN

SAAY (Stay Alive Appalachian Youth) is a Knoxville TN-based organization dedicated to building communities of joy, healing, and creative expression to support LGBTQ+ youth mental health. SAAY’s work is centered on supporting the power of creative expression, narrative storytelling, and human connection to facilitate healing from individual and systemic trauma. Some of SAAY’s past activities include hosting community art workshops and open mic nights, and developing a zine called Crisis Actor dedicated to raising awareness about local community organizing efforts and providing a platform for queer artists, writers, and musicians to share their work.

Tallahassee Black Artist Collective

Tallahassee, FL

The Tallahassee Black Artists Collective is an organization that acts as a platform to uplift Black and underrepresented communities in Tallahassee through the intentional practice of creativity, innovation, and community empowerment. We aim to be a strong foundation in the community by providing a safe space, workshops, events, education, members and other forms community aid resources in Tallahassee. At the base, we are a Queer Black Run Collective that WILL advocate for the Black Voice and Artistry of Tallahassee. A space for the Black Artists to collectively gather, share ideas, and always have a creative safe space.

Techmoja Dance and Theatre Company

Wilmington, NC

Techmoja is a dance and theatre company based in Wilmington, NC that serves Black and Brown communities in coastal NC. We believe dance and theater have the power to express often submerged narratives and create deeper understandings while advancing social and racial justice. Our work tells the stories of Queer, working class Black life in coastal North Carolina examining issues of place and resilience. Our projects are connected to community issues and organizing as we reflect back the voices of our community.

The Care Collective of Southwest Virginia

Big Stone Gap, VA

The Care Collective of Southwest Virginia is a new project working to develop a hybrid worker-owned cooperative and nonprofit that accomplishes several goals at once:

Creating jobs in the care sector (childcare, in home health, mental health care, domestic work) that compensate workers in ways that enable them to thrive
Creating care services that are accessible to all in our community, particularly the most vulnerable, without exposing clients to prejudice, policing, or financial strain.
Creating a culture of care where everyone is encouraged to show up as their full authentic self and treated with dignity and respect by their community (this means offering gender-affirming care, reproductive healthcare, and allowing people working in care to embrace and celebrate their identities instead of concealing them in the workplace, as well as developing community education and events that celebrate the diversity of our community)
Divesting from carceral approaches to care and creating new structures that help people access needed resources without fear of legal retribution, psychiatric incarceration, or family separation.

The Conjure

Durham, NC

We are a dance party collective that aims to create safe spaces for partying and community connection. As a party our focus is to celebrate the magic of black queerness and to provide paid opportunities for for up-and-coming POC DJs and performers. And for the last year we’ve also provided a mutual aid effort to help Black & Brown Trans/NGC/NB folks in the Triangle with rent support.

The Ladies Room

Greenville, SC

The Ladies Room (TLR) is the only BIPOC Trans and Non-Binary centered community-based organization in Upstate South Carolina. TLR provides engagement, resources, services, and bravery for underserved minority persons in the trans and gender-expansive community. Our mission is to support, protect, and amplify the voice of the BIPOC Trans and Non Binary persons through advocacy, visibility, education, and empowerment.

The Oneiric Realm

Durham, NC

The Oneiric Realm is a black and queer earth-based healing project that seeks to reclaim our ancestral identity through land stewardship. Embracing the connected experiences of colonized peoples and colonized lands, we collaborate with land bodies to conspire in healing from personal and intergenerational trauma.

There’s Still Hope Charlotte

Charlotte, NC

Reverend Debra J. Hopkins is a native New Yorker and a proud Trans Woman

of Color. For over four decades Debra has been a licensed and ordained non-

denominational minister who continues to remain actively involved in ministry through

pastoral care, community activism and writing. Reverend Debra is a former Middle

School Social Studies Teacher, the Pastor of Essentials for Life Ministries and holds B.A.

degrees in Biblical Studies, and Business Management, along with her Master of

Divinity (M.Div) degree from New York Theological Seminary. Reverend Debra is also

the Founder & Executive Director of There’s Still Hope Charlotte, Inc., an organization

which now serves as a consultant and provides educational workshops around the

Country on “How to Create a Transitional Housing Program In Your City” to

individuals, non profit organizations, and Spiritual leaders. While the organization no

longer provides a transitional housing program; Reverend Hopkins continues to be a

motivational public speaker and fierce Activist & powerful voice for the LGBTQIA

Community; advocating for affordable-sustainable housing for Homeless Transgender

Adults.

Trans Women of Color Healing Project

Tyrone, GA

Our mission is providing trans-specific health education for Trans Women of Color participants, and providers to increase knowledge and skills in providing affirming care. We have been able to do so through immersive, educational programs designed to give TWOC Communities the knowledge and resources to navigate success daily.

Transformations Youth Group

Eureka Springs, AR

Transformations is a trans women of color led nonprofit organization focused on capacity building and leadership development among trans communities of color. Transformations seeks to address the complex web of intersectional systems of power and oppression facing trans women of color, including colorism, anti-Blackness, immigration status, sexism, and trans misogyny that we face both in mainstream society as well as specifically within majority white, queer community spaces.

Transgender Awareness Alliance

Lexington, SC

TAA exists to supply emergency assistance to the transgender community of SC and partners with other organizations to create an affirming network of legal, health and consumer resources. Our core is in helping trans folx with getting identification card changes. In the future we plan to build safe transitional housing for our community.

Tranzmission

Asheville, NC

Our mission is making the lives of transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people happier, healthier, and safer through advocacy, education, and support. Tranzmission maintains diverse programs that serve, support, and advocate for our community, including support groups, food pantry, name change assistance, specialized trainings, community clothing closet, free library, and a variety of social events to build community. By pairing individual support with community action, Tranzmission resources people in need and builds a community that can envision a stronger future.

Youth OUTright WNC

Asheville, NC

Our mission is to create a world in which all Queer and Trans youth are supported to realize their power and autonomy through self-determination. We help youth resist oppression by building community, healing, and growing together.

Youth OUTright engages in intersectional and intergenerational dialogue with a focus on gender and racial justice. Our work includes programming for youth ages 11-24, training for youth-serving organizations, and advocacy for policies that protect Queer and Trans youth.

Aflorar Herb Collective

Asheville, NC & Lexington, KY

Founded in 2020
2022 BISCUITS Grantee

Asheboro Latinxs Services

Asheboro, NC

Founded in 2022
2022 BISCUITS Grantee

Asheboro Latinxs Services is a non-profit organization, which provides counseling, legal and social services referrals to our community. We also advocate for equal rights for the LGBTQI+ Latinxs community in N.C.

Wilmington, NC

Founded in 2008
2021 Grantee; 2022 BISCUITS Grantee

The Ladies Room

Greenville, SC

2022 Technical Assistance Grantee

My organization was founded in my living room. I started it because ,as a volunteer at a one of the local agencies , I found out they were using the data collected from the trans woman of color, as data for the gay black man. The trans poc number of participants were greater than the gay black man, yet there target demographic was more specific to the gay black man. I then formed “The Ladies Room” where we could come together to empower each other and feel respected and non expendable. I had limited resources and no money, yet the shared experiences and having a space made it worth it. I started with 4 girls and maxxed out at times with 12-18 participants. I then searched for places that would help me get hotels for the girls with nowhere to live and food pantries, job connections etc. I was then faced with the realization that these situations didn’t just come from the original agency i was at, yet it was almost uniformed that if we weren’t in therapy there was no resources or if we were not affiliated in any way that grants and funding was provided to the agencies we were overlooked, yet most of the agencies made it impossible for us to become affiliated because the created certain rules that made us ineligible!!! I understood that diversity and inclusion was included in most mission statements and I felt that this would be my only way to begin the uncomfortable conversation. I pointed these facts out and eventually I was appointed to sit on the boards, not necessarily based on knowledge or education, yet diversity. This allowed me a little more access to resources and finally an opportunity to bring about a way of starting conversations about the forgotten community of Trans women of color and some of the basic needs. To this day we still meet at my house but my fight has still just begun. I won’t stop until a day comes that I can see us walking into a building or dwelling that we can consider a safe space like everyone else, and have our numbers counted as Trans POC, and more importantly be able to feel like equals and be able to have something positive behind our names.

There’s Still Hope

Charlotte, NC

Founded in 2017
Spring 2020 Grantee; 2022 BISCUITS Grantee

We are a trans-led, fiscally sponsored organization that sits under the umbrella of Essentials for Life Ministries. We provide a transitional housing program to qualified homeless Transgender adults – ages 24 and above. Our mission is to continue advocating for collaborative, locally driven solutions to homelessness in marginalized communities of Mecklenburg County. By inspiring and empowering each individual with the tools to reach their goal of becoming self-sufficient with dignity and respect. We do our work with a vision of ending the cycle of homelessness and creating a community where every person has a place to call home, and no one spends the night without adequate shelter.

Tranzmission

Asheville, NC

Spring 2020 and Fall 2020 Grantee; 2022 GRAVY Grantee

Tranzmission is a trans lead organization dedicated to making the lives of nonbinary and transgender individuals lives safer, happier, and healthier through education, advocacy, and support.

We Are Family

Charleston, SC

Founded in 1995
Spring 2020 and 2021 Grantee; 2022 GRAVY Grantee

We Are Family (WAF) is a Southern grassroots community-based organization founded in 1995, and is the oldest LGBTQI+ serving nonprofit in the state of South Carolina that supports queer, trans, and ally young people. WAF cultivates affirming spaces for LGBTQI+ and ally youth by providing direct services, leadership development and community engagement opportunities that have a lasting and measurable impact. We offer a wide variety of youth programming (ages 24 and under) and movement building initiatives focused on: leadership development and social support; health and wellness; and community engagement and advocacy. Simply put, We Are Family is where queer youth thrive!

West Tennessee LGBTQ+ Support

Jackson, TN

Founded in 2020
2022 BISCUITS Grantee

West Tennessee LGBTQ+ Support, founded in September 2020, offers community help in finding resources, and promotes a better understanding of LGBTQ+ people in our part of the state with a goal of connecting LGBTQ+ community members in rural West Tennessee with resources they need, as well as advocating for better legislation in TN.