We are delighted to launch our new report, Vibrant Yet Under-Resourced: The State of Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Movements, in partnership with peer feminist fund Mama Cash.

Lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ)* movements are doing essential work around the world, and this global moment reflects their leadership. As Black Lives Matter movements push to dismantle racism and white supremacy, the grassroots abolition-centered work of many Black LBQ organizers has been a galvanizing force. As communities grapple with the devastating impacts of COVID-19, LBQ groups are providing critical mutual aid, collective care support, and creative movement-building strategies to meet the moment.

With data from 378 activists in 97 countries and 67 donors across philanthropy, Vibrant Yet Under-Resourced documents LBQ activists’ priorities and the current lack of resourcing for their work, and makes a powerful case for why increased and more effective funding is crucially needed.

As Astraea, our lesbian feminist roots and ethos are core to our work and the funding principles that guide us. In 1977, our founding mothers—a cross-class, multi-racial group of women activists—came together to fund a burgeoning women’s movement centering the leadership of lesbians and women of color, who had long been at the forefront of so many social justice movements but whose work had gone under-resourced and under-recognized.

Vibrant Yet Under-Resourced is in many ways a continuation of that vision. It is a celebration of the growing, vibrant LBQ movements that are pushing for transformative change—across and at the intersections of gender, racial, environmental, and economic justice. It is simultaneously an urgent call to philanthropy to commit to investing in the LBQ movements advancing this radical politics of liberation for us all.

We are so grateful to have been able to collaborate on this report with Mama Cash, as well as with the LBQ activists, advisors, and donors whose contributions have been invaluable. As you work your way through its colorful pages, we hope that you are inspired and called to resource the powerful and vital work of the LBQ movements changing the world.

*Following a year-long consultation with activists, “LBQ” is the term used throughout the report. LBQ focuses on sexual identity and is inclusive of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women, both cisgender and trans, and all non-binary people on the gender spectrum who relate to a lesbian, bisexual, and/or queer identity