2024 Grantees
We are excited to share this year’s Queer Mobilization Fund (QMF) grantee cohort! This is our sixth 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 Powerbuilding (PB). Powerbuilding support allows organizations to strengthen their internal and external capacity to do their work more effectively.
Since QMF’s last cycle, anti-trans legislation has exploded across the country. To date, 559 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 47 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 2024 cohort!
360Healthx
Falls Church, VA
360Healthx is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit community-based organization providing holistic gender-affirming care. Our goal is to increase the positive mental health of our community members by access to health, wellness and fitness. 360Healthx encompasses the belief that Trans + Gender-Expansive individuals deserve to live happier, healthier lives from mental, physical and emotionally health.
Advocates of the South
Atlanta, GA
Advocates of the South (AOTS) is a social change organization that addresses stigma, trauma, and the mass incarceration of masculine TGNCI (transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex) individuals. Through education, advocacy, and awareness campaigns that actively engage the public, AOTS challenges misconceptions and stigmas surrounding marginalized communities and promotes empathy, understanding and the celebration of diversity. We collaborate with legal advocates, grassroots organizers, and policy experts to challenge and dismantle the systemic biases contributing to the disproportionately high rates of mass incarceration faced by masculine TGNCI and BIPOC populations in the South. We aim to reform the criminal justice system, advocate for fairer laws, and amplify the voices of those affected by incarceration.
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
Ponca, AK
Arco Iris Earth Care Project is a rural grassroots sanctuary in Arkansas led by Two-Spirit Women of Color dedicated to conserving the 400 acre Wild Magnolia Land Trust and the teaching of Indigenous cultural, spiritual, and sustainability practices. Grounded in ancestral and decolonial principles, our work focuses on nourishing relationships with People of Color, LGBTQ2S+ folks, and people of all walks of life to learn about climate, healing, and environmental justice.
Asheboro Latinxs Services
Asheboro, NC
Asheboro Latinx Services es una organización sin fines de lucro que ofrece asesoramientos, referencias de servicios legales y sociales a la comunidad Latinx y LGBTQI+ del Condado de Randolph y sus alrededores. También abogamos por la igualdad de derechos para la comunidad LGBTQI+ Latinx en Carolina del Norte.
Asheboro Latinx Services is a non-profit organization that provides counseling, legal and social services referrals to the Latinx and LGBTQI+ community in and around Randolph County. We also advocate for equal rights for the LGBTQI+ Latinx community in North Carolina.
Being & (Un)Becoming: Archiving QT Aliveness in the Apocalypse
New Orleans, LA + Jackson, MS
“The Being|(Un)Becoming Series” is a docuseries rooted in Black Southern Cultural Organizing that journeys through Black Southern cities, uncovering the rich and often overlooked histories of Black Queer and Trans communities. Through intimate interviews rooted in cultural history & exploration through story circles and personal archiving, each episode captures the unique vibe of these cities while celebrating the resilience, creativity, and vibrancy of those who have carved out spaces of belonging & (un)becoming in the face of systemic oppression. The series paints a vivid picture of what it means to be Black, Queer, and Trans in the South.
Beyouuu Organization
Little Rock, AR
Our mission is to empower and uplift Bipoc transmasculine and TGNC individuals by offering holistic support through peer leadership, education, advocacy and direct services. We aim to create a more inclusive and equitable society by addressing key issues such as gender affirmation, harm reduction, reproductive justice and health equity.
Big Feelings Queer Collective (aka Birmingham Mutual Aid)
Birmingham, AL
Big Feelings Queer Collective is an intentional community built on principles of shared resources, shared labor, shared rest, shared joy, praxis, chosen family, queer resilience, and revolutionary existence. As founders and hosts of Birmingham Mutual Aid, we operate a free pantry, tool library, free fridge, and continue to build space and place for our extended community.
Bigwitch Indian Wisdom Initiative
Cherokee, NC
Big Feelings Queer Collective is an intentional community built on principles of shared resources, shared labor, shared rest, shared joy, praxis, chosen family, queer resilience, and revolutionary existence. As founders and hosts of Birmingham Mutual Aid, we operate a free pantry, tool library, free fridge, and continue to build space and place for our extended community.
Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective
Birmingham, AL
The award-winning Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective is a Black-queer youth-led grassroots non-profit organization building power and capacity for marginalized artists while catalyzing a culture of Black theatre in the South. At BBRTC, we envision a future where artists living within the margins of the margins can thrive, are celebrated, and have access to creative capital* in order to work toward a world of communal liberation. Through our “for us by us’ leadership model we prioritize the people most impacted by systemic violence centering Black QTGNC people, Black women, Black disabled people, Black youth, and Black senior citizens in our process, practices and organizational leadership. Currently led by Jada Cato and David H. Parker.
Black Butterfly Collective
New Orleans, LA
The Black Butterfly Collective-BBCo is a non-profit organization in Mobile, Alabama, led by Black transgender individuals. We provide resources for Black transgender people statewide. Our organization is dedicated to offering support and empowerment for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals who are Trans women, masculine, and non-binary..
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.
Bright Embody Wellness
Chester, VA
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.
Camp Pride FL
Orlando, FL
At Camp Pride FL, our mission is to empower LGBTQ+ youth and allies through the transformative power of the arts, theatre, and interfaith community. We believe that creative expression and spiritual exploration are essential tools for self-discovery, healing, and building a strong, inclusive community. Our camp provides a safe space where campers can explore their identities, connect with their inner selves, and express their stories through the performing arts, visual arts, and spiritual practices.
Capital Tea
Tallahassee, FL
Capital Tea is the beating heart of trans support and advocacy in Florida’s capital, boldly advancing justice for Black trans individuals. As a lifeline for the community, we offer safe houses, peer-led support groups, and a weekly drop-in center space where resources, connection, and empowerment come to life. Rooted in violence prevention, we’re not just building infrastructure—we’re creating a legacy of resilience, joy, and love. At Capital Tea, we’re shaping a future where trans individuals thrive, celebrated and affirmed every step of the way.
Central Florida Ballroom Collective
Tampa, FL
The Central Florida Ballroom Collective (CFBC) is a grassroots organization dedicated to uplifting and empowering Black, Queer, Latinx, and Trans communities through the vibrant culture of ballroom. Founded with the intention of creating safe, affirming spaces, CFBC provides a platform for individuals from marginalized identities to express themselves, build community, and reclaim their narratives. Our work is deeply connected to the ballroom culture, which has historically served as a refuge and celebration for LGBTQ+ communities of color. Through events, workshops, and advocacy, we aim to preserve this cultural legacy while addressing contemporary issues such as discrimination, health disparities, and economic inequality. discrimination, health disparities, and economic inequality.
Country Queers
Sandstone, WV
Country Queers is a multimedia oral history project documenting the diverse experiences of rural, small town, and country LGBTQIA2S+ folks. We work to preserve rural LGBTQIA2S+ histories, complicate ideas about who and what make up rural spaces and resist the narrative that rural communities are monolithic, push back against the narrative that queer people can only thrive in major metropolitan spaces, and connect rural and small-town LGBTQIA2S+ people to one another to fight isolation. We do this through a traveling gallery exhibit, a podcast, and a book.
Del Ambiente
Orlando, FL
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.
FOR OUR SIBS
Atlanta, GA
FOR OUR SIBS is a Black transgender and gender-expansive mutual aid collective based in Atlanta, GA. We are dedicated to offering material support through the practice of community care and Black trans* feminism(s) and liberation. We use siblings* to connect and cultivate kinship amongst our communities.
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.
Grimalkin Records
Dendron, VA
Grimalkin mentors and supports 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. We’re 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 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.
Hazey Acres
Fort White, FL
Hazey Acres is a queer healing sanctuary in rural Florida, where ancient oaks and cyrstal springs call us back to nature and our bodies. Rooted in justice, Hazey is a safe, freaky haven for queer and trans babes—especially people of color and those with disabilities. Connecting art with rest, we offer short-term stays where creativity wins, urgency melts, and we rewild ourselves, preparing to fully embrace liberation.
Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network
Jackson, MS
The Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network (JPSN) was founded in 2018 by Palestinian and Arab organizers. Our mission is to build anti-zionist and anti-imperialist solidarity amongst working-class movements in Jacksonville and beyond until a liberated Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is realized. We use various tactics, including campaigns and coalition building to achieve this goal. The JPSN understands that the fight for Palestinian liberation from zionist setter-colonialism is a national struggle. Meaning, we uphold Palestinian and Arab leadership in this work and uphold the Palestinian national principles, known as the Thawabet..
JXNOLOGY
Jackson, MS
We’re a youth-led and trans-led, artivism and wellness collective that brings together diverse artists to empower and inspire through learning, wellness, and creativity. We believe that young people deserve safe and supportive spaces to explore their creativity and passions, and that by investing in the next generation of young artist and youth program providers, we can create a more just and equitable world.
LOUD Queer Youth Theatre
New Orleans, LA
LOUD: The New Orleans Queer Youth Theater (LOUD) was founded in 2013 as a youth (16-25) theater ensemble for Queer and Trans artists in New Orleans. Our vision was to create space for Queer and Trans youth to deepen their political analysis and cultural organizing skills through experience based theater. LOUD serves as a community network and training ground for Black youth artists, organizers and cultural workers. Our curriculum is designed to shepherd youth through a creative generative process that culminates in a public sharing – this Fall we were excited to expand to include 5 staff and 11 apprentices, all of whom are Black Trans and Queer creatives and cultural organizers in New Orleans.
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!
QCHEx
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.
QT Pie Puppet Clique
New Orleans, LA
The QTPie Puppet Clique is a growing collective of all Black, all Trans and gender non conforming (TGNC) puppeteers based in New Orleans, LA. We make unapologetically Black original work that centers narratives of the South and a radical queer Black feminist praxis.
Rainbow Collective for Change
Durham, NC
Rainbow Collective for Change NC is creating safe and affirming communities in which all LGBTQIA+ families – particularly those most marginalized – thrive. We provide impactful, human-centered programming for LGBTQIA+ families and youth to build community, develop positive self and family identities, and engage in advocacy as a collective. RCC is also raising a generation of LGBTQIA+ and gender inclusive, anti-racist, and anti-ableist humans.
Reflect Collective
Miami, FL
Reflect Collective is a non-profit organization led by queer, trans, survivors of color whose mission is support QTPOC survivors of sexual and domestic violence. We do this by providing the community unrestricted QTPOC Survivor Grants bi-yearly and healing community events such as our Survivor Book Club and Full Moon Survivor Wellness series. We believe in order to heal trauma, we need to advocate for the most marginalized and dismantle the systems that perpetuate these cycles of harm.
Soda City Abortion Access Collective
Columbia, SC
Soda City Abortion Doula collective is an emerging volunteer group in Columbia, SC. Our goal is to provide gender/queer affirming abortion care, reproductive care, and practical support to the people of Columbia and SC in general. As two Black, queer, and trans/non-binary people in this work, we recognize the importance of being able to support people like us that are seeking abortions and other forms of reproductive care. We aim to uplift and center the most marginalized people in our work.
Sol Underground
Atlanta, GA
Sol Underground is an QTPOC-led ecosystem of abolitionists working to dismantle systems of oppression and build community-led infrastructure that resists and disrupts state oppression. We are tired of band-aid solutions that continue to harm marginalized communities which is why our work is dedicated to enhancing the power and capacity of our communities, growing the connections between them, and ultimately facilitating broader structural changes in our social, political, and economic systems.
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.
Southern Fried Queer Pride
Atlanta, GA
Southern Fried Queer Pride (SFQP) was born out of a lack of space for Black and brown queer folks to build community, a lack of queer art, and in opposition of the established narrative of Southern queers. The South is home to the country’s largest population of LGBTQIQAP2+ individuals, yet we’re confined to a narrative of stigma, statistics, and struggle. SFQP fights that notion, and is aiding in uplifting a honest narrative of resilience, rich history, and vibrance.
Southern Organizer Academy
New Orleans, LA
Southern Organizer Academy (southernorganizer.org) is a leadership development and capacity building pipeline that serves Southern based organizers and healers. Founded in 2017, SOA is Trans led and centers Black and Brown organizers and healers. Our work is rooted in building the number of campaigns in the South, while adding capacity to existing ones. We run an organizing cohort, healing justice initiatives, and provide leadership development to individuals, coalitions, and formations.
Stellar Roots Education
Amherst, VA
Stellar Roots Education is a pioneering organization dedicated to empowering queer individuals and women of color through comprehensive land management education. The collective offers a unique curriculum that covers all aspects of land stewardship, from administrative tasks to hands-on maintenance, fostering a deep connection with the earth and sustainable living practices. By providing safe space to grow these skills sets, Stellar Roots aims to create pathways for personal growth, self-sufficiency, and community building among historically marginalized groups. Crucially, the organization emphasizes Integrating rest and wellness infrastructure alongside land stewardship practices as integral to sustainable management, recognizing that true sustainability must include care for both the land and its stewards creating a holistic approach to sustainable management and personal well-being.
The Care Collective of Southwest Virginia
Big Stone Gap, VA
The Care Collective is redefining care and relationships in far Southwest Virginia. We envision a world in which people have agency, bodily autonomy, and are seen as the foremost experts on their own needs. We are developing holistic ecosystems of care that include and uplift professionals and community members equitably. Our members create access to safe, affirming, and equitable care by connecting people to practitioners offering free or sliding-scale services, creating our community apothecary, and facilitating community mutual aid.
The Great Awakening, UCC
Portsmouth, VA
The Great Awakening, UCC is committed to serving The Least, The Last, and The Lost. We are a safe place for LGBTQIA+ to worship and to fellowship. We love God and we love people through acts of kindness, community service and outreach. Since 2001 we have been a place of refuge and support for the community. We offer LGBTQIA+ centered faith and spirituality formation and safe spaces for joy and care.
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.
Trans Queer Youth New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Trans Queer Youth New Orleans is an open hang out space for youth ages 12-24. We provide social activities, community support, and education classes for all of our members. We are a youth run organizer that works to empower young people. We have spent the last seven years building community throughout the city of New Orleans and have impacted hundreds of queer and trans youth!
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. We are community health workers to address the social determinates of health. Our goal is to close the gap of health disparities for the communities we serve. These gaps go beyond direct medical care, they also include safe housing, affirming clothing, access to food, and social gatherings to build community.
Transgender People in Florida Prisons Project
Tampa, FL
Transgender People in Florida Prisons Project (TPIFPP) is a grassroots, volunteer-driven project made up of transgender formerly incarcerated folks organizing around the rights of transgender incarcerated folks in Florida. TPIFPP expands the successful organizing model of Miss Major Alexander L. Lee TGIJP Black Trans Cultural Center, through a correspondence program with transgender, gender-variant, and intersex (TGI) incarcerated community members, legal support, and direct re-entry support to assist those leaving incarceration in Florida.
Tranzmission
Asheville, NC
Tranzmission has been dedicated to transgender/nonbinary support and empowerment since 2001. We grew from the local trans community organizing mutual aid and support for one another in the 90s to a thriving nonprofit with a food pantry, name change assistance, numerous support groups, community organizing, and many other programs. Our mission is to make the lives of transgender and nonbinary people happier, healthier, and safer through education, advocacy, education, and support.
U360 IDEAS / The Black TGNCI Embodiment Coalition: Healing Embodiment Activation Retreats Group
El Portal, FL
We work to inject vital elements of care by hosting recurrent Healing Embodiment Activation Retreats (H.E.A.R.) in the South exclusively for BTGNCI transitional characters by BTGNCI transitional characters. Though TBTEC operates independently of The Embodiment Institute, we rely on Prentis Hemphill’s definition of transitional characters as folks “who are committed to taking on healing in their lifetimes and lineages that activate shifts and transform their surrounding networks”. H.E.A.R. allows a cohort of BTGNCI transitional characters to: spend much-needed respite from struggle; be celebrated by peers, and gradually acquire embodiment tools and practices to sustain their lifeforce and that of their communities. By embodying practices that honor the process of tending to our body…. healing our scorched earth, we bring back practices to share with our communities. Success is defined by H.E.A.R participants feeling healthy enough in their bodies to continue liberatory work in their respective communities.
Uplift Outreach Center
Spartanburg, NC
Uplift Outreach Center is dedicated to creating a safe and inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ youth ages 12-25 in Upstate South Carolina. Our mission is to empower these young individuals by fostering personal growth, educational success, and mental well-being, contributing to a more equitable and affirming community. We offer free mental health services, educational workshops, and support groups designed to build resilience and nurture self-acceptance. Through our programs, we equip youth with the tools to advocate for themselves and their peers, fostering confidence and a strong sense of identity.
Aflorar Herb Collective
Asheville, NC & Lexington, KY
Founded in 2020
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
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.
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.
Bigwitch Indian Wisdom Initiative
Cherokee, NC
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
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.
Black Life Response
New Orleans, LA
Founded in 2020
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
Black Life Response is a creative and cultural organizing collective that aims to honor Black Life through the creation of programming that centers healing, investment initiatives, and calls to transformation. We do this through carving out spaces designed to center building the power of and encouraging the healing of Black folks, particularly, Black Trans and Gender Non-conforming folks.
CAKE Society Co.
Arlington, VA
Founded in 2020
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
CAKE Society Co. is a by trans-for-trans 501c3 nonprofit focusing on improving the mental health of our community members through health, wellness and fitness! Our holistic approach to Trans+ health inclusivity is for all Trans and Queer folx, athletes, and families. We offer community classes, events, and more! Our services encompass a variety of different Trans and Queer Centered events focusing on uplifting the community together.
Center for Participatory Change
Asheville, NC
Founded in 2001
Spring 2020 Grantee; 2022 GRAVY Grantee
The Center for Participatory Change (CPC) is a women-of-color-led organization comprised of immigrants, queer people, Black people, Latinx people, and indigenous people based in Asheville, NC. Our mission is to ignite collective power, transform systems of oppression, and heal in community. Our vision is for collective liberation, la liberación del pueblo. CPC has a 21-year legacy of supporting the capacity of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to build, grow, and sustain movements for social justice and collective liberation. We bring significant expertise on community organizing models that engage those who are most impacted by inequities and build inclusive movements for immigrant, economic, and racial justice in Western North Carolina.
Country Queers
Sandstone, WV
Founded in 2013
2021 Grantee; 2022 BISCUITS Grantee
Country Queers is an ongoing multimedia oral history project documenting the diverse experiences of rural, small town, and country LGBTQIA2S+ folks – across intersecting layers of identity including race, class, age, ability, gender identity, and religion. Founded in 2013, the project has grown to include a collection of oral history interviews from all over, a gallery exhibit, instagram takeovers by rural queer and trans folks all over, and a podcast.
Durham Community Apothecary
Durham, NC
Founded in 2020
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
Durham Community Apothecary is a mutual aid resource of locally sourced and crafted herbal remedies, bulk dry herbs, and community circles for BIPOC folx rooted in Durham, NC. As a mutual aid network, we engage with our community from a place of solidarity not charity. Since our inception, we’ve been able to distribute hundreds of dollars worth of herbal medicine that supports immunity building and long-term nervous system support for low to no cost, through our partnerships with farmers, local herbalists, and leftist political organizations who are turning towards the healing power of plant medicine.
Erase Trans Hate Carolinas
Charlotte, NC
Founded in 2020
2022 Technical Assistance Grantee
Erase Trans Hate Carolinas (ETHC) is a nonprofit organization that was started in January of 2020 by Ms. Moriah Ferguson. After her own personal attack she didn’t let it get her down. Instead she “walked on her storm and made it into a blessing for all.” Erase Trans Hate Carolinas has been started to team up with other healthcare services, school organizations and job career programs to help trans girls start a better life. Our mission is to erase the hate in daily life, violence, and the low standards of living of our trans girls of the Carolinas! We hope to build a connection with other community organizations to support and love our girls in any way possible! Soon we hope to be able to have personal trans housing and classes to teach our girls basic independent life skills! No matter how long it may take we will stand and fight to ERASE the hate!
EsTr(El-La)
Atlanta, GA
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
Somos una organización de base comunitaria liderada por personas Trans para la comunidad TGNC migrante latinx monolingüe que nos dedicamos a defender , organizar y empoderar tanto en los ámbitos , sociales , fisiológico , espiritual y legal en GA …
H2Afr0
Durham, NC
2021 Grantee; 2022 GRAVY Grantee
H2afrO is a Black, queer and trans led environmental justice project. The project channels the embodied, emotional power of water for the sake of joy, healing, safety and liberation at the intersections of Blackness. H2afrO’s water-centered programming and education are in service of a future we deserve, are dreaming up, and manifesting right now.
Hypha Healing Garden and Apothecary
Durham, NC
Founded in 2022
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
HYPHA Healing Garden & Apothecary is a Queer and Trans, Black, Indigenous and People Of Color (BIPOC) led space where we practice healing from interpersonal and state violence by cultivating and strengthening our connections to nature (specifically by growing medicinal herbs and native plants) while providing skillshare and educational opportunities and exchanging oral histories. Hypha is located on half an acre of land in the Lakewood area of Durham, NC on the campus of The Radical Healing Center (RHC), an intentional, radically inclusive, LGBTQ+ and Black, Indigenous, People of Color centered, multiracial and multicultural campus for healing and wellness. While operating within a healing and environmental justice framework, participants work together to reclaim agricultural and herbalism skills and uplift legacies of Southern resistance in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of Durham, NC. HYPHA participants work together to propagate, grow, and maintain plants; make products with plants, herbs, and flowers; and lead workshops on an array of topics including but not limited to gardening, herbalism, transformative justice, trauma and psychoeducation, and local black and brown geographies.
Kaleidoscopic Dreams Projexns
Durham, NC
Founded in 2019
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
Kaleidoscopic Dream Projexns breaks apart images of “reality” with play–refracting colors, patterns, and light–to spark collective imaginings and conversations of abolitionist futures. We are based in Durham NC, although voices that feed our visions come and go across borders and between horizons. We embrace uncertainty, complexity, and creativity to report what we know in connection with other decolonizing archive projects through networks of dreamscape, strategy, and intuition.
Marsha’s Tea Room
Hattiesburg, MS
Founded in 2019
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
Marsha’s Tea Room is a nonprofit organization centered on promoting the overall health and well-being of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People. We are located in Spectrum: The Other Clinic that specializes in hormone therapy for the TGNC community. We are meant to be a safe space for members of the LGBTQ community and allies to socialize and provide education to the community. Our main objective is to promote the health and welfare of the transgender community.
Reflect Collective
Miami, FL
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
The Reflect Collective is a South Florida based organization composed entirely of QTPOC survivors of sexual violence. Reflect’s goal is to serve QTPOC survivors of sexual violence through healing art events and financial assistance. They provide annual unrestricted QTPOC survivor grants and host an annual event called Queer Fest which raises awareness about the epidemic of sexual violence in the QTPOC community.
Richmond Doula Project
Richmond, VA
Founded in 2016
2021 Grantee; 2022 GRAVY Grantee
The Richmond Doula Project is a collective of full-spectrum doulas in Richmond, VA. With a mission to offer support and education to people through all pregnancy outcomes, RDP centers POC, LGBTQI+, and other underserved communities while focusing on providing safe, inclusive, & accessible reproductive health support for every member of our community through our true sliding scale services. RDP provides an array of services from abortion, birth, postpartum, lactation, and loss support.
SoulThrive Collective
Asheville, NC
2022 BISCUITS Grantee
Community care and Healing Justice are an integral part of our journey towards collective liberation and Soulthrive Collective is dedicated to helping communities, and especially, BIPOC Queer folks, create sustainable structures and healing practices within their communities that make space for radical healing and rest. Our focus is on identifying and creating the kinship systems and value systems (community agreements) that allow us to expand beyond the concept of the individual into an interdependent mind frame of healing trauma. We acknowledge that not only is our physical liberation tied to each other, so is the liberation of our mind and soul and therefore our ability to heal and access care and we are choosing to learn ways to care for each other not just collectively but radically. We do so by working towards healing our traumas, confronting our biases, tending to our wounds, acknowledging our shadows, accessing joy, demanding ease and rest, and doing the work to truly care for ourselves and each other.
Techmoja Dance and Theatre Company
Wilmington, NC
Founded in 2008
2021 Grantee; 2022 BISCUITS Grantee
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 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.