The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice says a “return to normal” should not be our goal.
Astraea’s blog, Collective Care Blog: Building the Power & Resilience of LBTQI Movements Now & for the Long Haul, is Astraea’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a feminist LBTQI funder, we believe it is our responsibility to shed light on the ways our communities are particularly impacted by the crisis, share insights around the criticality of healing justice and collective care, as well as the ways in which we’re digging deep to keep shifting power to the grassroots in meaningful and sustainable ways.
This week, we’re sharing a piece we wrote for the Advocate on Lesbian Visibility Day about the leadership of LBQ movements and the responsibility of the funding community to recognize and resource them.
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We know there are two ongoing realities for LBQ people: 1. LBQ-identified women and non-binary people’s lives are being threatened everyday around the world, and 2. LBQ-identified women and non-binary activists are not only creating change in their own lives, but also are building a new political reality that is inclusive, respectful, and safe for all oppressed and marginalized communities—and indeed, for us all.
As a result of heightened threats to LBQ communities’ safety and security during the current crisis, organizations around the world have been forced to rapidly shift and adapt their strategies.
Read more in our piece for the Advocate
Learn more about our partnerships with incredible LBQ organizations!
- Watch our Lesbian Day of Visibility video featuring a number of our LBQ grantees
- Look out for our upcoming report, “Vibrant Yet Under Resourced: The Vibrant Yet Under-Resourced: The State of Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Movements” with Mama Cash
- Check out our infographic on LBQ strategies for Liberation
- Read about Astraea’s lesbian roots and some of our first grants in this article for them.
Astraea’s blog, Resourcing Resilience: On healing, hard times, and staying hopeful, is Astraea’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. In our first post, we share resources on mutual aid, queer funding opportunities, work from home, and letting go of productivity.
Astraea’s blog, Collective Care Blog: Building the Power & Resilience of LBTQI Movements Now & for the Long Haul, is Astraea’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a feminist LBTQI funder, we believe it is our responsibility to shed light on the ways our communities are particularly impacted by the crisis, share insights around the criticality of healing justice and collective care, as well as the ways in which we’re digging deep to keep shifting power to the grassroots in meaningful and sustainable ways.
Mutual Aid and Queer Relief Resources
We have been so moved to see the ways that communities are coming together to support each other in this moment of need, so we thought we’d share a few mutual aid and queer relief/donation opportunities* from around the world that might be of interest to any of you looking to contribute!
*This is by no means an exhaustive list!
International
United States
On ‘Work’ and ‘Productivity’ During the COVID-19 Pandemic
For those of us who are lucky enough to be able to continue doing our jobs right now from the safety of our homes, we are all adapting to working remotely and having our homes become our offices. For some Astraea staff working remotely is their norm (we’re spread out all over the world!) and one of the first things many of our remote colleagues graciously did was to share some of their remote working tips with us, so we wanted to pass them on to all of you!
We also acknowledge that working during a crisis is HARD and frankly, not always possible – some of us are now full-time caregivers to loved ones of all ages, others may be managing anxiety, depression or other conditions, and most all of us are finding we have to spend more time just looking after ourselves, our homes, and our people. With that in mind, we also wanted to share a couple of resources about what it means to reject ‘productivity’ right now, and focus more on just being gentle with ourselves.
Remote Working
Putting Yourself First and Productivity Later
