I hope you and your loved ones are well and in good spirits!
While COVID-19 containment related restrictions are starting to ease in some places, the need among LGBTIQ communities around the world continues to be dire. At the beginning of April we launched the OutRight COVID-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund. With the help of generous partners and contributors, we have raised over $600,000 so far. But that sum meets only a fraction of the need - within a month of opening the fund for applications, we received over 1500 appeals for help, most for funding to cover food and shelter.
In some ways, this is unsurprising. Last week we issued our pioneering report, “Vulnerability Amplified: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on LGBTIQ people”. It shows overwhelmingly how during times of crisis, LGBTIQ communities, which are among the most vulnerable in societies around the world even in the absence of a pandemic, become more vulnerable. Moreover, with the onset of COVID-19, not only do we experience higher barriers of access to healthcare, rising levels of domestic and family violence, and disproportionate food and shelter insecurity, we are also unable to access emergency relief which too often excludes us, thus pushing us even further towards the margins of society.
Between the findings of our report, and the overwhelming number of calls for help expressed in the applications to our Emergency Fund, it is painfully clear – for LGBTIQ people this is a crisis within a crisis. A crisis of hunger, domestic violence, homelessness and even death.
OutRight’s COVID-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund aims to step in and support LGBTIQ people and organizations where other services fail to do so. We have issued the first round of 27 grants to LGBTIQ groups in 22 countries, and are in the process of assessing applications for a second round. You can see a list of grantees on our website – not all of them are listed for safety reasons.
I wanted to take this opportunity to share feedback from two of our grantees with you.
Kyrgyz Indigo and Labrys
Kyrgyzstan
"On behalf of the biggest LGBT+ organizations in Central Asia, we want to sincerely thank the OutRight team.
Kyrgyzstan is the heart of Central Asia, a country in which the epidemic of coronavirus is growing rapidly. According to the Kyrgyz Indigo study on violence, 85% of LGBTIQ people in our country experienced violence or discrimination from government agencies. Accordingly, LGBTIQ communities in our country do not receive humanitarian assistance from the state due to high homophobia and transphobia. Thanks to OutRight’s support for LGBTIQ organizations, Kyrgyz Indigo and Labrys opened help lines for delivering a package of products, hormones for transgender people and shelter for LGBTIQ people in a crisis situation."
Youth Champs for Mental Health
Fiji
"There is an overwhelming sense of emotions surrounding the struggle during the pandemic, especially for marginalized communities. Recently discrimination towards the LGBTIQ community peaked, as the first case of infection with COVID-19 was an LGBTIQ person, and the LGBTIQ community were excluded from emergency assistance. The government has come down strong in reinforcing protective measures such as curfew and self isolation to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, however this has left the community feeling increasingly vulnerable, unable to work and sustain themselves, placing them in a very unprotected state.
Through the support from OutRight Action International, we were able to feed our community, pay for housing, food, utilities and cover medical expenses. This is the silver lining that has reaffirmed our hope for our survival, that together we can make it through this crisis and we don't need to struggle in silence.
Vinaka vakalevu [thank you very much] Outright International for your generosity."
Please join us for upcoming webinars about our research, and insights from applications to the Global Emergency Fund:
Deep Dive into OutRight's Research:
The Impact of COVID-19 on LGBTIQ People
Join Amie Bishop, author of the report, and interviewees Jelena Vasiljevic from Serbia, Davis Mac-Iyalla from Ghana, Lua Stabile from Brazil, and OutRight’s Caribbean Program Officer Neish McLean for a deep dive into the findings of our pioneering research report.
Time: Friday, May 15, at 11:00AM EST Location: Zoom Call
