Last Chance to Support QEJ in 2009!
Posted by Kenyon on December 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Dear QEJ Supporter,
We know that April 15th seems like a long way off. But your 2009 deductions end tomorrow night! It’s not too late to make a tax deductible gift to QEJ — one that will fuel our social justice work in 2010. We’ve made major advances this year in our campaign work locally and in raising the visibility of economic justice issues for queers nationally. There is much more work to do to ensure that working class, poor and low-income LGBT people receive justice in our society, but we’re hoping to continue to organize, and to make our communities visible in the LGBT movement, and in broader progressive movements across the country.
QEJ has always taken difficult and principled stances on issues that are sometimes unpopular with some elements of the LGBT community. Members of our board and staff have sometimes come under harsh criticism from bloggers or movement leaders for being divisive, reverse racists, complainers who aren’t realistic or practical in our idea of social change. We organize on the issues that are important to our base–that’s our queer agenda.
That is why we coordinate support groups for queer and trans people in the shelter system. That is why we organize queer and trans people on welfare to advocate for better welfare policies that expand access for trans and gender nonconforming people. That is why we organized a national mobilization of LGBT organizations to push for the inclusion of the public option in federal health care reform. Your donations help us continue to work on the issues that prioritize the lives of queer people at the margins of our movement.
Though we’re being told that we’re pulling out of the recession in 2010, we know that poor and working class queer people will still be unemployed and discriminated against at the welfare office, working in jobs with low wages, no health care for themselves or their families, and unable to take sick days without fear of being fired. After the economy recovers, our work will not be complete.
Won’t you make an end-of year donation to support true economic justice?
All of us at QEJ thank you for the support you’ve shown us over the years, and we wish you and yours a Happy New Year!
In struggle,
Kenyon Farrow

