Queer Voices
For the past month, QEJ and Brooklyn-based writer, Sassafras Lowery, have teamed up in leading Queer Writing Workshops. Intended for anyone interested in our work–volunteers, shelter residents, stakeholders and more–to come together and write their stories. These classes have been informative, powerful and loads of fun for everyone involved.
Our writers have written some amazing work ranging from stories to poetry to non-fiction. Join us this Friday, August 12th at the QEJ office at 6pm for QUEER VOICES: A Performance by QEJ’s Writers’ Group. We will be listening and supporting each others’ spoken word and talent and we hope you can be there to join!
Food will be provided, metro cards are available to those who need them.
Sit back and relax as we turn the QEJ office into a hip writers’ cafe! We’ll see you there!
Sunday! QEJ Joins Forces with Labor Orgs To Show Solidarity at NYC Pride March
June 24, 2011
QEJ Joins Forces with Labor Orgs To Show Economic Justice Solidarity at NYC Pride March
Queers for Economic Justice, United Auto Workers (UAW), Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) & Walmart Free NYC Coalition join forces to make the economy’s impact on LGBTQ people visible at NYC Pride March
Contact: Amber Hollibaugh, Interim Executive Director, QEJ. 646.696.1266
Who:Queers for Economic Justice, United Auto Workers (UAW), Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) & Walmart Free NYC Coalition
What: NYC Heritage of Pride March
When: Sunday June 26, 2011, 1130am.
Where: Groups to convene at 39th Street between 5th Ave and Madison
New York, NY—For the first time in many years, New York’s Heritage of Pride Parade this coming Sunday will have an economic justice contingent in the parade, comprised of labor unions, Queers for Economic Justice, and the coalition to keep Walmart out of New York City.
“Whether or not marriage equality passes in New York, LGBT New Yorkers are in desperate need of affordable housing, healthcare, jobs that pay livable wages and access to services,” said Amber Hollibaugh, co-founder and Interim Executive Director of QEJ. “The time is right for QEJ to stand strong with labor, and vice-versa, to speak out against the targeting of public employees and their unions and the criminalization of immigrant workers, including LGBTQ immigrants. QEJ is proud to celebrate the power of the labor activism happening in Wisconsin and the Midwest. We hope our joint presence at the parade will remind people of the bread-and-butter issues many of us continue to face.”
National data all point to the fact that LGBTQ people, especially people of color, are more likely to be homeless, lack adequate healthcare, and be discriminated against in the job market. In 2010, QEJ released the results of a survey of 171 low-income LGBTQ New Yorkers and found that 70% of them were currently, or had been homeless at some point in their lives.
“Today’s part-time employed might be tomorrow’s homeless,” noted Jay Toole, QEJ Co-founder and Director of the Shelter Project at QEJ. “Every day I meet queer people in the shelter system who’s main problem is that they are unable to get a decent paying job, or any job at all. And you can’t get housing without work. It becomes a viscous cycle. I am glad QEJ is beginning to work with labor so that we can get more of our people into jobs, and more into affordable housing.”
While QEJ has largely made organizing and advocacy for queer and trans people who are homeless and on public assistance it’s focus, it is laying the groundwork to be organizing more LGBT people who work in economies where there are a disproportionate number of marginalized workers.
Anyone who wants to march with this contingent of the Pride Parade should arrive at 11:30am on East 39th Street bet. 5th Ave & Madison Street.
For more information visit:
Queers for Economic Justice: www.q4ej.org | United Auto Workers: www.uaw.org | Walmart-Free NYC Coalition: walmartfreenyc.org | Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union: www.rwdsu.org
A quick glance at our Summer events!
Summer is still poppin’ at QEJ with out awesome August events. Check it out!
- Jay’s Walking Tour on Saturday, July 30th. The famous Jay Toole, QEJ’s shelter organizer, will be leading a tour of her life through the 60′s as a homeless butch lesbian. The tour will begin at 12:00pm in Washington Square Park and last about 2 1/2 hours.
- Queer Writing Workshops on August 3rd and August 10th–both from 6:30-8:30pm. Lead by Brooklyn-based writer, Sassafras Lowrey, these workshops are for shelter residents and friends to explore their creative side and share with a queer-friendly group. Food and metro cards will be provided. Our writers will have a Queer Performance on Friday August 12th at 6pm where they will read their work. This event is open to the public.
- Are you interested in being a shelter facilitator? QEJ works in several shelters around NYC organizing queer shelter residents; if you want to learn more join us for Shelter Facilitator Orientation on August 5th (6-7:30pm) and August 6th (1-2:30pm). You only have to come to one! At this orientation Jay and Carlos will lead the group in learning how to facilitate shelter sessions.
- Come to QEJ’s 2nd Leadership School on Saturday August 13th from 12-5pm. This 4-5 hour workshop is intended for activists and shelter residents and will discuss queer history, defining racial/economic justice, and learning about the systems of economy. Food and metro cards will be available.
- Sunday August 15th is QEJ’s August Game Night! From 6-8pm we will be relaxing with some snacks and fun games. Scrabble? Monopoly? Spades? What’s your favorite game? Come school us (or watch us school you) as we enjoy a relaxing Sunday night together.
- Saturday August 20th is the 2nd Monthly Resident’s Movie Night. Join QEJ and friends from 6-9pm as we watch The Aggressives, a hard-hitting documentary about masculine butch lesbians. A discussion will follow the movie showing. Food and metro cards available.
- Monday, August 29th, QEJ’s Board Chair Terry Boggis will lead a Know Your Rights Training at 6pm. This event is for anyone interested in understanding their legal rights family issues and family law.
All events unless otherwise noted are held at the QEJ office. Metro cards are available to those who need it. We are located at 147 W. 24th St., 4th Floor New York, NY 10011
Support us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Queers-For-Economic-Justice/18201778500
QEJ Pride March
Do you want to march in the Pride March on Sunday June 26th but don’t have anyone to march with?
Well look no further friend, come join QEJ as we proudly show New York that poor queers are just as important to the movement as anyone else. QEJ staff, volunteers, shelter residents and more will be struttin’ our stuff down 5th ave, and we would absolutely love it if you joined
Meet PROMPTLY 12pm on 39th St btwn. 5th and Madison Ave…look for the QEJ Van
RSVP with Jay at 917 939 2511 or jay@q4ej.org
A Military Job Is Not Economic Justice: QEJ Statement on DADT
In just a few moments President Obama is scheduled to sign the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy, which in theory, will allow for gay and lesbian members of the military to serve without being in the closet.
Queers for Economic Justice staff and constituents have all met people in the LGBT movement who have said to us that the DADT repeal is an economic justice victory, since many poor and working-class LGBT people join the military to have access to better jobs, and because the military is the nation’s largest employer, QEJ should be joining the in the victory dance.
But QEJ believes military service is not economic justice, and it is immoral that the military is the nation’s de facto jobs program for poor and working-class people. And since QEJ organizes LGBTQ homeless people in New York City, we wanted to remind the LGBT community and progressive anti-war allies that militarism and war profiteering do not serve the interests of LGBT people. Here’s how:
- The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans reports that about one-third of all homeless people in the US are veterans, but about 1.5 million more veterans are at risk of homelessness “due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.” They also report that 56% of homeless veterans are Black or Latino.
- Some studies also show that one in four veterans becomes disabled as a result of physical violence or emotional trauma of war. There are currently 30,000 disabled veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Rape and sexual violence are very common occurrences for women in the military, and the ACLU is currently suing the Pentagon to get the real numbers on reported incidences.
- Half of the US budget in 2009 was made up of military spending, including current expenditures, veterans benefits and the portion of the national debt caused by military costs, according to the War Resisters’ League. That is more than the US spent on Health & Human Services, Social Security Administration, Housing and Urban Development and the Department Education combined. Wouldn’t more social safety net spending help the millions of queers who can barely make ends meet?
In short, military service is not economic justice.
Furthermore, QEJ understands that there are LGBTQ people in other parts of the world, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan, who have been killed, traumatized, or made disabled directly as a result of the recent US-led wars, or who have become vulnerable targets by fundamentalist backlashes to US imperialism. We stand in solidarity with other LGBTQ people around the globe, and do not condone violence against them or their home countries so that “our gays” have the “right” to serve openly in the military.
QEJ supports real economic justice. You should support QEJ this season.
It’s hard to ask for a donation on such a tough issue, but showing your support for real economic justice is one way to reject the framing of militarism as economic opportunity. Make a donation to QEJ today.
From all of us,
Queers for Economic Justice
Kenyon Farrow: Why I Support QEJ
In 2005, I walked into one of QEJ’s Know Your Rights Trainings for 25 LGBT homeless people in our shelter project to lead a resume writing workshop. My life as an activist was changed. I found my political home. And since then, I’ve been with QEJ in many capacities, and most recently as Executive Director.
Next Wednesday will be my last day in the office as Executive Director. Though I will not be paid staff, I am staying with QEJ, and I hope you will too. Please consider making an end of year donation to support economic justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people?
I’m asking for your support because I know, not because it’s my “cause.” I am from Cleveland, OH, and knew many many of the gay, lesbian, bi and trans people in the poor black neighborhood I grew up in. Some of them are family members, some were close family friends. This community of poor and working class queers is where I started when there was no movement reaching out to us, when there weren’t any organizations.
When I came out as a gay man about 17 years ago, in the so-called “Gay 90′s,” I was shocked to find I could not find people like my mother’s best friend “Uncle” Roger, my sister’s friend James, the transgender woman I saw pass by window nearly every day, as part of the movement for LGBT rights.
But everyday at QEJ in our office, at our events, at our shelter groups, I work with people who are much like the kinds of queers people I grew up with, and continue to make up my chosen family. QEJ is more than just an idea, or a set of politics. It is my home. It’s our home, and we need your support to continue our work of building community in order to build a movement, to make real change.
That’s why I support QEJ. And I hope you’ll make a donation, and become a monthly sustainer. Make us your home too.
In struggle,
Kenyon Farrow
Economic Justice Matters Now More Than Ever
This was a year of hard times for many people in the United States.
And you well know, this was a year of hard times for QEJ also. We had to shrink our staff–eliminating our Welfare Organizing position, and cut our grantwriting consultant. Due to the shrinking endowments of foundations, we have fewer funding opportunities. We received a payment from NYS Department of Health very late due to the state’s own fiscal crisis.
But we came to you, and you heeded our call to action. With your great generosity, we raised $28,000 in just two weeks. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for supporting us in our emergency.
Most of us know what it’s like when money is tight?many of us are struggling right now. And because of that, we know that we will survive it. But it means we have to rely on each other more, and not less. It means we have to cut some corners, but not cut our spirit, our fight, nor our joy. And it is in this spirit of resistance that QEJ has still been able organize and agitate for a new vision for LGBTQ communities and continues to create and push a new progressive queer agenda:
Successes:
- On June 17th, 2010, QEJ?s Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative (WWRC) released a report entitled ?A Fabulous Attitude; Low Income LGBTGNC (Gender-Non-Conforming) People Surviving and Thriving on Love, Shelter and Knowledge.? The report was released with an accompanying 30-Minute documentary called Taking Freedom Home produced and directed by WWRC member Kagendo Murungi, and is now online.
- QEJ continues to run support groups in NYC Shelters for LGBT people. We?ve run groups in 5 shelters over the course of 2010, serving more than 300 people this year. We have a team of 7 shelter facilitators who we train to run those groups. We?re continuing to have more straight allies in the shelter groups attend, people who initially express homophobic and transphobic feelings, but note they are transformed by the experience.
- Our National Public Education Project hosted 7 Act Queer Monthly Teleconference Calls this year, and QEJ reached thousands of people by hosting panels, trainings or keynoting conferences such as the SAGE Conference, United States Social Forum, Creating Change, NAACP National Board Meeting, Campus Progress; at several universities including Oberlin College, NYU, Fordham University, UC Berkeley, Syracuse University, and American University. QEJ?s reach has even gone international, as we presented at Severely Queer (Edmonton, Canada) and the Trudeau Foundation Conference (Winnipeg, Canada).
As you may know, Kenyon Farrow is stepping down as Executive Director, but is not going far. In his dedication to QEJ, Kenyon will continue to play a critical role in QEJ’s work going forward. QEJ Co-founder and former board member Amber Hollibaugh is now serving as Interim Executive Director.
Like most people and organizations facing hard times, we’re committing ourselves to see through the struggle. So in 2011, we’re gearing up for another year or organizing, advocacy and activism on economic justice. Here’s what we’ve got planned:
- We continue to provide Know Your Rights trainings for LGBT people in the shelter system, where we bring in lawyers and advocates who do workshops to help homeless LGBTQ people navigate various social service and public benefits agencies. We have filmed several of those trainings, that we will have online in January 2011, and will do outreach to LGBT community and service providers to be able to use those online resources.
- We are embarking on a campaign to ensure the safety and decrease the harassment and violent targeting of LGBT people in NYC homeless shelters.
- QEJ is increasing the ways stakeholders can participate in the work and decisions of the organization by developing work groups and committees. We are looking at the prospects of becoming a membership organization.
- In Winter 2011, QEJ will be hosting its 2nd annual organizing school. We are developing a new popular education curriculum to help poor and low-income people understand the economy, and the current economic crisis.
- Look for our newly designed website, www.q4ej.org in early 2011!
- QEJ will be releasing the collection of essays A New Queer Agenda as an online issue of The Scholar and the Feminist Online, published by the Center for Research on Women at Barnard College.
Times are hard. But we’re committed to this work. And we hope you will join us in your commitment to our communities by making a special year-end one-time gift to QEJ for 2010, and consider becoming a monthly sustainer. Donations can be made online on our website at www.q4ej.org/donate.
On behalf of our members, our constituents, our staff and board, we want to thank you for your generous support. When you give to QEJ, you are making a commitment to justice for all queers, despite their income, race, ability, legal status, or gender identity. Through that commitment, you are helping all people struggling in these hard times to survive. Thank you!
Towards a brighter New Year,
Amber Hollibaugh & Kenyon Farrow
Interim Executive Director & Executive Director
Queer Left At US Social Forum Pledge A Movement for ‘Safe Self-Determination’
For Immediate Release: June 28, 2010
Press Release
Contacts:
Caitlin Breedlove, Southerners On New Ground: 404-549-8628
Kenyon Farrow, Queers for Economic Justice: 212-564-3608
Joaquin Sanchez, Communications Liaison for the Queer and Trans Peoples’ Movement Assembly: 917-575-3154
Queers to the Left, to the Left
Queer and Trans Peoples’ Movement Assembly at the United States Social Forum Broaden LGBTQ Movement Agenda to Include Immigration, Racial and Economic Justice
Detroit – A newly formed national coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, transgender and gender nonconforming groups working for economic justice announced a new agenda for the queer rights movement on Saturday at the United States Social Forum (USSF) in Detroit. This is the second United States Social Forum, which brought together over 15,000 activists, organizers and community members from across the United States and around the world to share strategies for advancing human rights and social justice. The ROOTS Coalition, grantee partners of the ASTRAEA Lesbian Foundation’s Movement Building Program, expands the current agenda beyond marriage equality and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to include the needs of the most vulnerable communities and the structural causes of queer oppression.
Kenyon Farrow, Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice in New York City, explained, “The most vulnerable people in our communities face discrimination from schools, landlords, lenders and employers. This leaves them underemployed, underhoused and without access to formal education. This creates a pipeline into poverty, continuing the legacy of state-sponsored violence against poor people.”
“Queer people are immigrants, the working-poor; we are hard working single-mothers, domestic workers and bus drivers, journalists and educators. We live in rural communities, the big cities, the reservations and on the gulf coast. Immigrant rights, reproductive justice, environmental racism, indigenous sovereignty, the economic recession and ecological destruction are all issues that affect our communities,” added Paulina Hernandez, Co-Director of Southerners On New Ground, a southern regional organization based in Atlanta, GA.
The coalition released the “Queer and Trans Peoples’ Resolution for Safe Self-Determination,” statement generated through a collective process called the People’s Movement Assembly. Over 500 people over the course of the USSF worked together to produce a set of principles for Safe Self Determination. According to the statement, Safe Self-Determination is defined as a call to action to hold government systems accountable for ALL forms of state sponsored violence enacted upon queer, trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, gender non-conforming people; to fight for specific and concrete human rights and overall system transformation, deconstructing the US and global capitalist economy while building alternative economies, infrastructure and interdependence among groups rooted in the most vulnerable communities. (For the full text, follow the link: http://pma2010.org/node/210)
In the closing ceremonies, the more than 15,000 participants of USSF committed to upholding the resolutions produced by the 52 People’s Movement Assemblies that took place over the course of the week, including the Queer and Trans Peoples’ Movement Assembly.
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Last Chance to Support QEJ in 2009!
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
Support a New Queer Agenda in 2010
Dear Friend,
You and I both know that the economic crisis is not getting better for many low-income and working class people–including queer and transgender folks–any time soon. Queers for Economic Justice is the leading LGBTQ organization working to address the economy’s impact on our communities. We need your continued support to ensure QEJ’s critical work. So far, we’ve raised about $3,000 from people who believe in QEJ’s vision of economic justice. If you’ve given to QEJ already, THANK YOU! If not, please help us reach our $10,000 fundraising goal by December 31.
At this critical time, we ask that you consider making a tax-deductible gift of $100 to make QEJ’s vision a reality. Gifts of any size are appreciated and go a long way to ensure QEJ’s cutting-edge work. Or become a QEJ monthly sustainer by giving $10, $25, or $50 a month to be charged to your debit or credit card. Small gifts overtime add up to make a big difference for economic justice! Thank you for considering QEJ.
With your support, here’s what you can expect from QEJ in 2010:
• A new focus on the economic crisis and its impact on LGBT communities with a spring institute on LGBTQ people and the economic crisis, monthly political education teleconferences and a series of fact sheets on queers and the economy–all to put forth our communities’ needs.
• The national release of QEJ’s groundbreaking report and educational documentary about low-income queer and trans people in NYC detailing research findings on the lesser known experiences of these communities. These tools will be used to educate allied communities and policy makers.
• A campaign to end violence against LGBTQ People in NYC homeless shelters. We’ll be drawing on our six years of experience organizing shelter residents to tackle the increasing violence homeless queer and trans people face by creating a resource guide and offering trainings to shelter staff.
As the new Executive Director of QEJ, I am thrilled to be working alongside my colleagues, Jay Toole and Reina Gossett to make next year an even bigger year for QEJ’s work. But we cannot do so without your generosity. Please join us in our efforts by making your gift today.
Remember, when you give to QEJ, you are making a commitment to justice for all queers, despite their income, race, ability, legal status, or gender identity. On behalf of QEJ’s staff, board, and constituents, thank you for your consideration.
Towards a more just world in 2010,
Kenyon Farrow
Executive Director
