QEJ June 2009 Newsletter

June 26th, 2009

Act Queer! Healthcare Agenda for the LGBTQ Community Now Up

New Report Proves Need for Queer Focus on Economic Justice

Shelter Project Update

Welfare Project

Queers Race Across Brooklyn and Manhattan for Economic Justice

QEJ Seeks Executive Director

Waiting to Land: Celebrating the Work of Martin Duberman in Building a Radical Queer Movement 40 Years After Stonewall
A Book Launch and Panel Discussion

Moderated by Laura Flanders, GRITtv with Martin Duberman, Richard Kim of The Nation, Joesph DeFilippis of Queers for Economic Justice, and Marcia Gallo, author of Different Daughters. Book signing to follow.

QEJ STAFF (from left to right:)
Joseph Nicholas DeFilippis, Executive Director;
Reina Gossett, Welfare Project Director, Mary Guyton, Administrative Director;
Jay Toole, Shelter Project Director; Kenyon Farrow, National Public Education Director

View more pictures from the Amazingly Queer Race 2009!

Queers for Economic Justice is a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation. Our goal is to challenge and change the systems that create poverty and economic injustice in our communities, and to promote an economic system that embraces sexual and gender diversity. We are committed to the principle that access to social and economic resources is a fundamental right, and we work to create social and economic equity through grassroots organizing, public education, advocacy and research. We do this work because although poor queers have always been a part of both the gay rights and economic justice movements, they have been, and continue to be, largely invisible in both movements. This work will always be informed by the lived experiences and expressed needs of queer people in poverty.

QEJ Statement: Stonewall 40th and Pride Unveils NYC’s Shameful Priorities
by Yasmine Farhang & Kenyon Farrow

Just months before the 40th anniversary of one of the most significant rebellions of poor and working class queer and transgender people (mostly of color), out-lesbian New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced the city’s proposal for rich gay tourists to commemorate this anniversary-shop till you drop. But for us at Queers for Economic Justice and our allies, our movement for sexual liberation is not for sale. Read more…

Act Queer! Monthly Teleconference Series Launches! Healthcare & LGBT Community is First Topic!

As part of our new Building a Queer Left initiative, QEJ has launched the monthly Act Queer! teleconference series. This connects grassroots LGBTQ, racial, and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and strategies on racial and economic justice issues. May’s topic was LGBTQ Healthcare. Listen to audio! (June’s call on Queer organizing against Policing & Prisons wil be posted week of June 28)

New Report Proves Need for Queer Focus on Economic Justice
by Joseph DeFilippis, Executive Director of QEJ

Hey, have you heard about that economic crisis?  You know – the historic one that seems to have been noticed by everyone else in the world except the LGBT movement?  I only ask because with the country facing an economic recession of massive proportions, it is sort of surreal to see our LGBT organizations and media continuing to behave as if the most important issue facing queer people is whether or not we can get married.  But a new study documents what some of us have been arguing for a long time now: that poverty is a far more pressing life-and-death issue for many in our community. Read more…

Shelter Project Update

You can tell that directing the Shelter Project at Queers for Economic Justice is more than just a job for Jay Toole. “Even though [sometimes] I’m tired,” she says, “I see twenty women painting [banners for Pride] and laughing and smiling, which is why I do this work. These are queer people in a safe setting that are proud of who they are.” Read more…

Welfare Project Update

After two years of work, the Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative ended in May. The research collaborative successfully interviewed 200 low income queer, trans and gender non-conforming people, documenting how folks survive violence, fight injustice, and build strong communities. This summer, with the support of Kagendo Murungi, one of the Welfare Warrior Research Collaborative members, they will complete their documentary film project. This summer the Welfare Warriors will also launch a three week pilot community organizing school, hosted by the Brecht Forum and coordinated by Kai Lumumba Barrow, a new QEJ consultant, which will train QEJ members in community organizing skills.

This summer the Welfare Project will host a series of discussion events on LGBT reproductive rights: focusing on welfare reform’s impact on queer parents, the eugenic implications for transgender people seeking to change Social Security cards, and reproductive injustices within the prison-industrial complex. This is a critical time nationally for low-income queer families and queer parents, both in terms of fighting for representation within national health care reform and because the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA or Welfare Reform act) is up for reauthorization by Obama in 2010. This political education series will attempt to broaden the current conversation around LGBT reproductive rights and highlight why welfare reform, reproductive justice for incarcerated queer folks, and the Social Security Administration’s policies about transgender people are important reproductive rights issues for the LGBT community. Guest speakers, Miss Major and Vanessa Huang from the Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project in Oakland, California will be joining us for the prison-industrial complex discussion. QEJ is very excited to be hosting this series as it is very rare to have these critical conversations about class, eugenics, reproductive rights, race, and gender from a queer perspective.

Queers Race Across Brooklyn and Manhattan for Economic Justice

On May 30, 2009, over a hundred queers took over Central Park, Bryant Park, Grand Central Station, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the New York Public Library, and the diner used in Seinfeld. 35 teams of two competed against each other in a fundraiser to benefit QEJ – our third annual AMAZINGLY QUEER RACE FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE. As the teams found clues, played frisbee, sold lemonade, did fashion shows, sang Beyonce songs with strangers, solved riddles and got hit in the face with whipped cream, they also managed to raise $25,000 for QEJ. Over thirty volunteers worked with QEJ staff to make this day happen, and the whole thing was coordinated by consultant Andre Banks. The day-long event culminated at the Metropolitan Bar in Brooklyn, where our after party went on into the night. We thank all who raced, all who donated, and all who volunteered, for making this event one of the social highlights of the year.

QEJ Seeks New Executive Director

Queers for Economic Justice seeks an experienced, creative, collaborative, mature, visionary, progressive leader to fill the position of Executive Director. Read more…

A lot of changes are happening at QEJ this summer:

Founding Executive Director Joseph DeFilippis has his last day this Tuesday, June 30th, after starting the QEJ Network in 2000, which became QEJ in 2003.  Joseph’s transition has been planned over the past year, when he announced his desire to move on, and consultant Achebe Powell has been working with QEJ since September to guide us through this transition.  Our National Public Education Director (and former Board co-chair) Kenyon Farrow will step in as Interim Executive Director, during the search for the new Executive Director.  After that hire is made, Kenyon will return to his role as National Public Education Director.   In addition, Mary Guyton, QEJ’s Administrative Director will be leaving QEJ in August to move to Canada.  Mary has been with QEJ (first as a volunteer, and then as staff) for almost four years.  We will miss having Joseph and Mary in the office, but look forward to their continued involvement in the QEJ family in new ways.


We would also like to welcome Ash Hammond, Mel King, Aiden Kiriese, Kayden Moore and Jessica Valdez.  They are working in the QEJ office this summer as interns and volunteers, and we are delighted to have them join our wonderful crew of existing QEJ volunteers