By Randy Ford

Libra season is upon us meaning balance and harmony are on the horizon. As Lavender Rights Project (LRP) steps into our fifth birthday with a new mission and vision, we’re planning on channeling our inner Libra to get all the harmony we can.

This fifth year will mark the start of a new journey. We’re dedicated to not returning to our origins, but learning from them. We’ve learned that change can be very hard, painful, surprising, but overall necessary in order to move forward. The pandemic has forced us to look more internally, have difficult conversations, workshop through retreats, and open up to more of the possibilities we’re capable of. With these new perspectives and feedback from several lovely donors, staff, and our board of directors, we’ve come up with our new mission below.

LRP seeks to:

Elevate the power, autonomy, and leadership of the Black intersex and gender diverse community through intersectional legal and social services. We utilize the law as an organizing principle to affirm our civil rights and self-determination. Our organization disrupts oppressive systems that target Black gender diverse and intersex communities of color and lead to disproportionate levels of poverty, housing disparities, and gender-based violence, especially among Black and Indigenous people. 

In order to see this vision to fruition we started with a “Housing First” approach and utilized our “Everyone Deserves a Home” campaign to ensure that we are abiding by our mission. Homelessness and houselessness play huge roles in the public health crisis. Outside of the COVID-19 spread, Black and Indigenous gender diverse communities have always had to navigate through the scarcity of housing, resources, and targeted violence against them - a pandemic within itself. We’re so grateful for those who have donated items to our housing project and who are continuing to support us as LRP celebrates its fifth birthday on September 24th. All money raised for our birthday helps us keep our doors open, supports our by-and-for staff, and, of course, supports our new mission. 

Thanks to Beneficial State Bank and evo, we also have $2,500 in matching funds! This means donations up to $20 will be matched at 50%. Your $20 gift is now worth $30! Matching funds allow our donors to amplify their impact and stretch their gifts a little bit farther. September 24th is approaching fast and we need your help to meet our goal of $8,000. Please consider donating and sharing our birthday celebration. 

Can we utilize our matching grant and raise $2,500 by Sunday the 19th? If we get enough of our community to give JUST $20 we’ll be almost halfway to our goal! All it takes is $20 or even a share to your networks. Please share and spread the word about our cause because everyone deserves a home!