Dear John,

This weekend, as we gather for our 20th Anniversary Jazz & Champagne Brunch ([link removed]) , I am reminded of Maya Angelou, at the beginning of another administration, standing before the same Capitol Building that was so horribly desecrated last week, calling out ([link removed]) on a clear crisp morning.
What lies between the birth of a dream and history lived over again is hope, faith, honesty, and hard work.

The dream that Maya Angelou spoke of in 1993 is the same one whose deferral Langston Hughes warned against in 1951, that Marin Luther King Jr. had for America in 1963, that President Obama rooted in “Selma, Stonewall, and Seneca Falls” in 2013, and that “did not dry up like a raisin in the sun,” but exploded this past summer.

Black Americans, including Black LGBTQ Americans, have lived through history’s wrenching pain again and again. This summer, like many organizations, the Williams Institute had to take our own inventory. Whose challenges did our research address? Whose dreams did it illuminate? LGBTQ people, yes. But all LGBTQ people? In full measure? Not yet.

Don’t get me wrong. Our focus on race and ethnicity is not new. Our very first report in 2001 analyzed hate crime data on race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity; by the mid-2000s we were publishing reports focused on LGBT

people of color; and most of our scholars’ work has applied an intersectional lens, including a dream-expanding analysis over a decade ago entitled,"‘We’d Be Free’: Narratives of Life Without Homophobia, Racism, or Sexism.”

From poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity, to foster care, incarceration, and HIV criminalization, to parenting and resilience, the groundbreaking, and at times much-resisted, research of our scholars has helped, with many others, to expand the mainstream “gay agenda” to be more inclusive of the issues impacting the lived experiences of LGBTQ Black people and people of color.

But as we gathered last Juneteenth, we realized we needed to take a harder look at how our organization worked, who we partnered with, and the research that we are doing. Over the past six months, we have developed the ideas that started on that day. At this Sunday’s brunch we will be announcing our progress on several of these new initiatives:

Race & SOGI Small Grants Program. Today, the Williams Institute is launching a new small grants program to support emerging scholars and new research focused on the intersections of race, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Awards will range from $1,000 to $7,500 and scholars from a variety of disciplines are encouraged to apply. Please feel free to circulate this announcement to anyone who might be interested.

Race & SOGI Reports. This week, we launched a new series of reports examining the well-being of LGBT people of color in the United States. Key findings from the first report on Black LGBT adults ([link removed]) include:
* An estimated 1,210,000 adults in the US identify as Black and LGBT – over 60% are women and over half live in the South.
* Over one-third are raising children. Black LGBT women are raising children at the same rate as Black non-LGBT women (44 % v. 45%).
* Over half of Black LGBT adults (56%) live in low-income households compared to 49% of Black non-LGBT adults.
* While over 60% of Black LGB adults report feeling connected to the LGBTQ community, less than 30% of Black trans adults do.

In the coming months, reports on Latinx, API, and Native American LGBTQ people will follow.

Race & Sexuality Law Teaching Fellow. In order to help support new leadership, next summer we will be joined by two new fellows. First, the Williams Institute and UCLA Law’s Critical Race Studies Program are investing in a two-year joint law teaching fellowship focused on the intersection of race and sexuality. The fellow will produce original scholarship and teach courses on race, sexual orientation, and gender identity at UCLA Law. The fellow will be announced this spring and start in July 2021.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Law Teaching Fellow. Thanks to generous contributions by Planned Parenthood and others, the Williams Institute and UCLA Law’s Experiential Learning Program are investing in a three-year joint clinical law teaching fellow focused on sexual and reproductive health, LGBTQ rights, and racial and economic justice. We are currently accepting applications for this position ([link removed]) which will also start in July 2021.

We are not sharing these initiatives with you for accolades but for accountability. And these initiatives are not the end of our work, but a long-overdue down payment. As we enter the next six months, our work on race will focus internally on who we are, who our partners are, and how we work together. You will hear an update from us again on Juneteenth 2021.

So, come celebrate with us this Sunday, to honor Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, as we look forward to a new year, a new administration, and a renewed commitment to making sure no one’s dream continues to be deferred.

Thank you,
Brad

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