Dear John,

I am writing to you from my home in Brooklyn. Like many of you, I am anxious about the state of our world as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds and finding perspective in the little things, like the arrival of Spring and connecting with loved ones. One thing that gives me hope is the concept of mutual aid. LGBTIQ communities have always known that if we don’t support each other in times of crisis, no one else will. And so, I am motivated to launch a new initiative that I believe will make a transformative difference and save lives: the OutRight COVID-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund. I hope you will make a donation today.

The sober truth is that this global emergency already presents tremendous challenges to LGBTIQ people, especially in places with deep poverty and weak health systems or government infrastructure. When a crisis hits “everyone” – the most marginalized become even more vulnerable. What if your family violently tries to make you conform to their ideas of gender or sexuality and now you can’t leave their home? What if the only place that would hire you as a trans woman has closed and you have no way to pay for food or rent? What if, in the middle of a pandemic, the healthcare provider won’t treat “your kind”? LGBTIQ people in many parts of the world cannot count on governments or relief organizations for help. In too many places, LGBTIQ people will have less access to healthcare in the COVID crisis, will be hit hard by unemployment and food scarcity, will see their already thin margins disappear, and without life-saving interventions, will fall sick and die.

The bottom line is that if we don’t step up to help our global LGBTIQ community right now, no one else will. That’s why OutRight is launching the COVID-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund to support LGBTIQ organizations on the frontlines.

With what we hope is your support, we will offer grants of $2,500-$10,000 to LGBTIQ grassroots organizations that are helping LGBTIQ people impacted by COVID-19 around the world. Applications will be available starting April 15. The first grants will be distributed in June. We will also pivot our own work at OutRight to COVID-19 crisis response. I am absolutely certain that even relatively small infusions of grant support to grassroots LGBTIQ organizations responding to COVID will make a huge impact.

Many LGBTIQ organizations will be destabilized by the financial impact of COVID-19.  They will lose funding that came from donors who are now unemployed. Their own staff will get sick trying to serve the community.  We have to anticipate the COVID-19 damage to grassroots LGBTIQ organizations will be enormous and potentially devastating. We must anticipate that if we don’t help them, grassroots LGBTIQ organizations could close and members of the communities they serve will die.  And so, we must act now to prevent catastrophe and save movements and lives.

OutRight cannot respond to this crisis alone. We are taking a bold risk in launching this fund now.  And so, we need people like you to join us in standing with our community around the world. COVID-19 presents a tragic yet vital reminder of the values which drive OutRight every day - that we are all connected and that global solidarity is imperative. Please, join us and make a donation today.

With gratitude and in solidarity,

Jessica Stern
Executive Director

P.S. We are especially grateful for the generosity and leadership of Calvin Klein and Microsoft, Founding Partners of the Emergency Fund. If you work for a company or foundation that may be interested in joining us, please contact Elise Colomer-Cheadle at [email protected] for more details about how you can participate.