Let Intersex Bodies Be!

What is intersex bodily autonomy?

Today is Intersex Awareness Day, and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is proud to uplift and honor our intersex grantee partners around the globe. After years of disruption due to COVID-19, the intersex community is ready to regroup, synchronize strategies, and strengthen locally and globally. 

What’s Intersex Bodily Autonomy? 

Intersex is an umbrella term most often describing when someone’s reproductive or sexual anatomy that at birth does not fit into binary definitions of male or female. In most hospitals, bodies are evaluated at birth and assigned male or female. When people with intersex bodies do not conform to this male-female sex binary, they are subjected to nonconsensual, permanent surgeries due to medical and social pressure. This often means multiple surgeries throughout childhood and lasting effects on socialization and self-image. The Astraea Foundation believes that intersex people deserve bodily autonomy and should have the right to decide what is best for their bodies. 

The State of Intersex Funding 

Unfortunately, funding for intersex activism is still not a priority in most LGBTQI+ philanthropy spaces. According to Funders for LGBTQ Issues and Global Philanthropy Project, LGBTQI+ organizing receives only 0.5% of global funding, and out of that less than 1% goes to intersex causes. Currently most intersex organizations run entirely on a volunteer basis, and about one in five lack any operating budget. 

Supporting Global Intersex Activism 

Through the Intersex Human Rights Fund (IHRF), the Astraea Foundation supports activists and groups in navigating new threats, obtaining resources, and working for legislative and social progress for intersex people. As a unique, intersex-led initiative, the IHRF is focused on supporting unregistered and underfunded groups with flexible funding and multi-year core support. We are proud to be the first and sometimes only funder for intersex-led organizing around the world, providing grants which typically range from $5,000 to $20,000 USD. By giving activists the financial flexibility they need, we sustain their work in the long term, creating lasting change. 

Uplifting Intersex Communities 

The IHRF currently supports over 60 organizations at the front lines of the intersex movement. We know how vital it is to uplift intersex communities tackling vital issues like bodily autonomy and respect for bodily diversity. People with intersex variations face invisibility, stigma, discrimination, and violence. As anti-rights opposition groups gain momentum around the world, intersex activists are focusing on building narrative power around bodily autonomy to shift the discourse and advocate for a world where intersex people can live authentically and with dignity.  

Let’s drive intersex organizing forward and let intersex bodies be! 


This Intersex Awareness Day, we are thrilled to collaborate with intersex, nonbinary, Latinx artist, designer, and muralist Otto Etraud / Toto Duarte to create the stunning illustration featured above. To explore more of Toto’s inspiring work, be sure to visit their website and follow them on social media at @ottoetraud.

Illuminating Liberation Strategies

Have you ever wondered how the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice selects grantee partners and sets funding priorities?

Lighting the way to LGBTQI+ liberation  

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice crafts interconnected, contextual, and resilient strategies for LGBTQI+ resistance. We do this by centering the people closest to the problem and the solution, collaborating with our grantee partners in every step of the process.  

The Astraea Foundation employs regional strategies that strengthen our global impact. As outlined in our 10-year strategic vision, Towards Liberation, our approach “co-creates resourcing strategies by prioritizing long-term, trust-based, and flexible funding models that ensure those who are most impacted decide how resources are allocated.” When we ground our work in activist-led priorities, we sustain diverse and globally interconnected LGBTQI+ movements.    

Regions shaping our strategy  

The Astraea Foundation’s philanthropic portfolio spans the globe across three funds: 

– the International Fund includes six regions 

  • Latin America 
  • Caribbean 
  • Asia and the Pacific 
  • Africa 
  • Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus 
  • Southwest Asia 

– the U.S. Fund covers the United States and its claimed territories 

– the Intersex Human Rights Fund operates globally 

Our regional strategies are informed by close relationships with local activists and ongoing social science research. In-depth, activist-led research, like our recent report “Mapping LGBTQI+ Activism in Central Asia & the South Caucasus,” helps us and the philanthropic community respond to the unique regional contexts of global LGBTQI+ movements. By researching and giving voice to underserved and underfunded LGBTQI+ communities, we illuminate how philanthropy can best support liberation movements.  

Strategic highlights across the world 

Astraea Foundation communities are facing organized and well-funded anti-rights actors and coordinated challenges to progressive LGBTQI+ initiatives. The current anti-rights opposition is also joining forces across borders and increasing its harmful impact. Anti-rights groups seek to deny LGBTQI+ people their fundamental rights by rolling back or stalling progress through draconian laws, anti-LGBTQI+ violence, and escalating rhetoric. By co-opting social justice language and depicting LGBTQI+ communities as threats to the status quo, these groups continue to mobilize public support to derail the advancements of progressive movements.  

To meet these challenges, the Astraea Foundation encourages cross-regional and cross-movement solidarity alongside our core, sustainable, flexible funding. Among our key regional strategic priorities are healing justice and language justice.  

 Healing Justice provides mental health support, rest, joy, and collective care to address collective harm and trauma. This sustains activists in their fight against anti-rights movements.  

Language Justice encourages global engagement by making our work accessible in multiple languages. To support this effort, the Astraea Foundation is engaging more French-speaking activists in Africa and Portuguese-speaking activists in Latin America. Where anti-rights efforts seek to divide us, language justice connects us and builds solidarity.   

Movement building within and across regions are also key tactics for sustaining liberation efforts. For example, the Astraea Foundation’s activist convenings bring our grantee partners together to strengthen movements, build community, and decrease burnout. When LGBTQI+ organizers and activists have time to reflect, collaborate, and share strategies, movements can build power and effect lasting change. 

Core, sustainable, flexible funding is a fundamental strategy at the Astraea Foundation. Unlike project-specific grants, core funding supports general operations, enabling grantees to pay their staff and keep their lights on. Social change does not often happen in a 12-month grant period, so we commit to grantees for the long haul, often for five to 10 years. We believe that donors and funders invested in making meaningful change must commit for the long haul. Flexible funding, based on trust, allows activists to make decisions based on their immediate needs and priorities to sustain their work toward liberation. Stability for LGBTQI+ activists at the frontlines is a foundational part of the Astraea Foundation’s approach.⁠  

The Astraea Foundation works alongside grantees to build power and create sustainable change. Our regional strategies consider the unique contexts of activists and identify opportunities for sustainable impact. As we continuously refine our strategies for each region, we are grateful for our grantee partners’ feedback, expertise, and unwavering commitment to LGBTQI+ liberation. 


Land and Housing for U.S. LGBTQI+ Communities

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice develops its philanthropic strategies through close relationships with local activists and ongoing research into the state of LGBTQI+ movements. Our U.S. Fund centers the liberation of Two-Spirit, intersex, queer, and trans people of color (QTPOC) in the United States and its claimed territories. Since its start, the U.S. Fund has challenged the criminalization of LGBTQI+ Black and Indigenous people, migrants, women of color, mothers, sex workers, and youth, all of whom experience high levels of violence and oppression.   

The Astraea Foundation maintains that housing is a fundamental right, and our communities are better able to care for themselves when they have access to this basic need. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing weather disasters, environmental racism, and an oppressive system that creates and perpetuates cycles of houselessness, Two-Spirit and LBTQI+ people—particularly QTPOC—are experiencing high rates of housing insecurity. 

The U.S. Fund focuses on organizations that are prioritizing purchasing land that supports queer and trans people for the foreseeable future. This includes housing, farmland, and community land trusts that are directly developing and restoring housing for our communities. 

To sustainably take on this work, activist leaders also need respite and rest to continue the struggle for collective liberation in a way that models the world they are seeking to build. To help sustain our communities at the forefront of the work, the U.S. Fund continues to fund healing justice and joy. 

The Astraea Foundation strives to build the power of frontline communities who are interrupting systems of oppression and confronting all forms of violence and criminalization, lighting the way for queer liberation. 

Language Justice in Latin America

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice shapes our regional strategies around the unique contexts in which our grantees live, work, and organize. Our strategies identify opportunities for sustainable impact, as in the International Fund’s strategy for Latin America.

Despite numerous legislative victories and advancements led by LGBTQI+ movements, the Latin American region has also experienced a resurgence in anti-rights and anti-gender ideologies. There have been coordinated attacks by anti-rights groups, as with portrayals of LGTBQI+ people as “enemies of peace” in Colombia and “enemies of family values” in Guatemala.

As a way to address these threats, the Astraea Foundation is prioritizing language justice to encourage dialogue and action across movements and regions in Latin America. By making our work accessible to more people, we further global participation in our mission towards collective liberation. ⁠To support this effort, the Astraea Foundation is actively engaging activists and groups in Brazil, as in our recent call for proposals. 

In our ongoing LGBTQI+ movement research, we also intend to spark critical conversations between activists and funders by publishing upcoming reports in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Where anti-LGBTQI+ groups seek to divide us, language justice builds solidarity and furthers our mission across regions. 

Collaboration in the Caribbean

Within the International Fund, the Caribbean region has recently witnessed gains in LGBTQI+ rights. The High Courts in Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados decriminalized consensual same-sex sex between 2021 and 2022. Activists are concerned that the rise of anti-gender opposition could threaten civil society spaces and the political landscape. We continue to explore methods for responding to these challenges while addressing pressing issues in the region such as climate change and food insecurity.

The Astraea Foundation’s Caribbean grantee partners take action on a range of issues including anti-discrimination, gender-based violence prevention and response, trans inclusive and gender affirming health care, and sustainable farming. 

The Caribbean portfolio aims to inspire dynamic collaboration rooted in honest and transparent conversations between funders and activists, across movements and regions.  

Cross-Regional Connection in Africa

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice designs regional strategies around the goals of local community activists, rapidly evolving social contexts, and emergent needs. Underlying each strategy is the goal that the Astraea Foundation’s grantees and partners—who have been historically under-resourced—have the power, the capacity, and the funding to create the conditions for their communities to live authentic and free lives.  

Within the International Fund, the Africa portfolio seeks to strengthen LGBTQI+ movement building, center grantee partners working at the intersections, and create opportunities for cross-regional connection. 

Tactics like teach-ins foster connection between activists, enabling the identification of common strengths and the dissemination of resistance strategies. Positioned as participatory dialogues between LBTQI+ movement leaders and actors across the Africa region, they provide an opportunity to strengthen relationships between grantee partners in different regions of the continent. 

Additionally, the Astraea Foundation remains committed to language justice efforts and is seeking to increase the number of Francophone grantee partners. As we continue to challenge norms and attitudes that limit marginalized communities, we work towards the affirmation of their human rights and active participation in society. 

Refugee & Migrant Rights in Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia 

The Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia (ECCA) region poses a diversity of regional movement contexts, ranging from well-resourced and easily accessible to scarcely resourced and nearly inaccessible. As highlighted in the Astraea Foundation’s recent report, “Mapping LGBTQI+ Activism in Central Asia & the South Caucasus,” closing civic spaces pose an increased threat to LGBTQI+ organizing in parts of the region. Due to this and related challenges, some funders have withdrawn or reduced their presence, leaving gaps which the Astraea Foundation is seeking to fill. 

In response to broader issues of climate change, displacement, and xenophobic violence, we will focus on groups that support refugee and migrant rights. Through continued long-term support and multi-year grants, the Astraea Foundation will help activists meet their immediate needs while sustaining them in the face of long-term challenges. 

Healing Justice in Asia & the Pacific

Together we can push philanthropy forward to sustain diverse global LGBTQI+ movements. Grounded in activist-led priorities, the Astraea Foundation’s regional strategies focus our global impact and shine light on the unique regional contexts of activists around the globe. 

In regions like Asia and the Pacific, we commit to supporting activists for the long-term. Currently, we support 60% of our Asia and Pacific grantees for five to 10 years – making their critical work more sustainable and impactful.  

We are committed to centering the people closest to the problem and the solution. The Astraea Foundation prioritizes programs and initiatives led by and for diverse communities, particularly groups led by Indigenous gender diverse communities, anti-caste LBTQI+ groups in India, and ethnic and religious communities experiencing persecution.  

Due to authoritarian governments and religious conservatism, it is challenging for groups that do intersectional work. Through a healing justice framework, we support our grantee partners in prioritizing mental health support, rest, joy, and collective care to address collective harm and trauma. As demonstrated through our 2023 Global Activist Convening in Thailand, healing and joy are essential for LGBTQI+ liberation. 

Refugee & Migrant Rights in Southwest Asia & North Africa

Within the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, the Astraea Foundation’s strategy is tailored to meet the needs of LBTQI+ groups, most of which operate underground due to societal and legal challenges. Activists need long-term, sustained support to meet their specific contexts and needs. To provide greater context into the social and legal landscape, the Astraea Foundation will be publishing research sharing insights into SWANA activist priorities and needs. 

Going forward, we will also explore supporting SWANA diaspora collectives and groups led by displaced people. By building connections across regions, we can provide support for refugee and migrant rights work, including advocacy, digital awareness-raising, and grassroots activism. 

Bodily Autonomy & the Intersex Human Rights Fund

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice believes those closest to a problem often have the best solution. That is why we work alongside our grantee partners to create interconnected, contextual, and resilient strategies for LGBTQI+ resistance. 

According to Funders for LGBTQ Issues and Global Philanthropy Project, LGBTQI+ organizing receives 0.5% of global funding, and out of that less than 1% goes to intersex causes. Through the Intersex Human Rights Fund (IHRF), we support activists and groups in navigating new threats, obtaining resources, and working for legislative and social progress for intersex people. 

People with intersex variations face invisibility, stigma, discrimination, and violence. As anti-rights opposition groups gain momentum around the world, intersex activists are focusing on building narrative power around bodily autonomy to shift the discourse and advocate for a world where intersex people can live authentically and with dignity. The IHRF supports groups and organizations across the world who work in a variety of political contexts and languages, including Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili, and Hindi.  

Another barrier for intersex-led organizations is limited access to funding. Most organizations receive little to no external funding and run entirely on a volunteer basis. About one in five intersex organizations do not have an operating budget. The IHRF’s strategy remains focused on supporting unregistered and underfunded groups with flexible funding and multi-year core support. By giving activists the financial flexibility they need, we sustain their work in the long term, creating sustainable change. 

We are thrilled to share our regional strategies that illuminate the Astraea Foundation’s current work. To explore all our transformative liberation strategies, please visit our blog. Your generous support today gives activists the tools they need to thrive. 


The philanthropic and LGBTQI+ rights landscapes continue to rapidly evolve. The Astraea Foundation is rising to meet the moment by collaborating with our grantee partners to craft regional strategies for long-term resilience and growth. Our layered, regional approach supports safety, stability, and healing for LGBTQI+ communities worldwide. As we continuously refine our approach, we are grateful for our communities’ unwavering commitment to LGBTQI+ liberation.  

Interview with Right Side NGO

Right Side serves as a vital advocate for transgender individuals and sex workers, striving to initiate socio-cultural and legal reforms to address systemic inequalities and discrimination in Armenia.

Throughout the year, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice highlights profiles of grantee partners throughout the world and their successes. The Multi-Donor LGBTI Global Human Rights Initiative (GHRI) is a unique partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support local efforts to protect LGBTQI+ people from violence, discrimination, stigma, and criminalization through grantmaking to LGBTQI+-led organizations; research on the lived realities of LGBTQI+ people; social and behavior change communications (SBCC) and other strategic communications capacity strengthening; and emergency response. The Astraea Foundation was fortunate to travel to Armenia with USAID’s Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator, Jay Gilliam, to visit grantees and witness the ways community-led organizations are advancing LGBTQI+ inclusive development programs, policies, research, and training.

We interviewed Lilit, a member and representative of Right Side NGO in Armenia, to get insights into trans and queer liberation work in the region.

Can you tell me a little about yourself and your organization? 

I am a trans woman, trans rights activist, and human rights defender from Armenia. My specific areas of expertise include trans people’s rights and protection, their health and wellbeing, anti-discrimination, as well as hate crime and speech protection. Right Side was founded on January 25, 2016, by a group of trans activists in Armenia. We serve sexual and gender minorities, refugees, asylum seekers, people living with HIV and other disadvantaged sex workers. The organization emerged in response to the urgent need to protect the rights of transgender people and sex workers in the region. Its primary focus is on creating lasting solutions to promote the quality of dignified lives for these communities, aiming to prevent violations of human rights and overcome social difficulties. Right Side serves as a vital advocate for transgender individuals and sex workers, striving to initiate socio-cultural and legal reforms to address systemic inequalities and discrimination.

Could you share some of the top issues for LGBTQI+ communities in Armenia? 

The LGBTQI+ community in Armenia faces multifaceted challenges – hate speech, violence, hate crimes, discrimination, lack of job opportunities and education, lack of healthcare services, and houselessness. Among the top issues we are addressing are advocacy for legal gender recognition and protections, establishing safe spaces, ensuring access to gender-affirming care, and supporting individuals fleeing dangerous situations. Right Side actively addresses these concerns by advocating for legal reforms to protect the rights of transgender people and sex workers, providing essential support services (health, social, humanitarian, legal), and fostering community building initiatives. By working to change societal perceptions and break norms, Right Side endeavors to create a more inclusive and accepting environment for LGBTQI+ individuals in Armenia.

What kinds of financial support do you receive and how does it meet your needs?

Right Side has received core funding and social and behavior change communication grants, which have enabled us to respond effectively to the needs of the LGBTQI+ community. These grants support Right Side efforts in protecting the community, promoting their wellbeing and safety, advancing human rights protections and legal reforms, and challenging societal norms and attitudes. Through strategic programming and advocacy actions funded by these grants, Right Side can implement vital initiatives that directly benefit transgender people, sex workers, and the broader LGBTQI+ community in Armenia.

Where do you hope the LGBTQI+ community and movement will be in five or ten years? 

In the coming five to ten years, I envision significant progress for the LGBTQI+ community and movement in Armenia. With continued advocacy, legal reforms, and societal awareness campaigns led by organizations like ours, I hope to see greater acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQI+ individuals in Armenian society. I anticipate improved legal protections, expanded access to healthcare, and the establishment of more safe spaces for LGBTQI+ individuals. Ultimately, I aspire to witness a society where LGBTQI+ rights are fully recognized and respected, and where all individuals can live authentically without fear of discrimination or prejudice.

The Astraea Foundation believes that community-driven, well-funded, and empowered queer movements will propel liberation work forward and create brighter futures for us all. To learn more about Right Side and their trans rights work in Armenia, visit them on Facebook and Instagram


Support to Right Side is made possible through the Multi-Donor LGBTI Global Human Rights Initiative (GHRI), an eight-year, $55 million public-private partnership that leverages financial and technical contributions from multiple parties including USAID, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Global Affairs Canada, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Equality Without Borders, the Williams Institute, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and Franklin & Marshall College. Over 40 LGBTQI+ civil society organizations have been supported through the GHRI.

Climate Justice & Grassroots LGBTQI+ Liberation

This Earth Day and every day, climate justice is collective liberation. While the impacts of the climate crisis will eventually be felt everywhere, affecting every ecosystem across the Earth, its effects are not experienced equally by everyone and certainly not on an equal timeline. In the United States and its claimed territories, the climate crisis is here, and it is impacting LGBTQI+ communities in uniquely devastating ways.

This Earth Day and every day, climate justice is collective liberation. While the impacts of the climate crisis will eventually be felt everywhere, affecting every ecosystem across the Earth, its effects are not experienced equally by everyone and certainly not on an equal timeline. In the United States and its claimed territories, the climate crisis is here, and it is impacting LGBTQI+ communities in uniquely devastating ways. The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice’s communities—queer, trans, and intersex people, predominately Black, Indigenous, and People of Color—are experiencing the full force of the climate crisis already, and the crisis will worsen exponentially in the years to come. For many of us, the climate crisis is not looming or theoretical. It is real and it is here right now.  

To better meet the needs of a rapidly changing environmental landscape, the increase of natural disasters, alarming reports of environmental racism, and government failure to adequately address these crises, the Astraea Foundation’s U.S. Fund launched our Climate Justice portfolio in 2023. It is one of the first and only LGBTQI+ climate portfolios in philanthropy in the U.S., disbursing $800,000 to climate justice initiatives in its first year. 

In the U.S., we have already seen the decades-long impacts of these changes, particularly in the U.S. South and Puerto Rico. Inadequate response and mitigation to disasters impacts BIPOC communities disproportionately, and that harm is further compounded for queer, trans, and intersex communities living on the margins.  

LGBTQI+ people are significantly more likely to be unhoused or experience poverty and face discrimination in nearly every system of care and response. Our communities grapple with well-known struggles in accessing health care, emergency services that fail to consider the needs of queer, trans, and intersex populations (or exclude these communities entirely), and discrimination at most housing shelters., This combination means that climate justice is inextricably linked to LGBTQI+ liberation.  

At the Astraea Foundation, it’s no longer “What are we going to do about the climate crisis?” 

Instead, it is now “How do we support people already being harmed by the climate crisis?” 

When our systems and governments fail us, our communities go above and beyond to care for themselves and one another. Many of the Astraea Foundation’s grantee partners are already responding to the climate crisis, even if it does not technically fall within their scope. Responses to the climate crisis are as diverse as its far-reaching impacts. 

For the Astraea Foundation’s U.S. Fund grantee partners, climate justice means… 

Emergency preparedness 

The McKenzie Project Inc. (Florida) caters exclusively to the needs of Black transgender and nonbinary people, especially those who engage in sex work and are disproportionately affected by HIV. Their climate preparedness programs include access to transgender specific reproductive services, emergency preparedness courses and kits, and safe spaces to use as shelter during emergencies. 

Regenerative agriculture 

The Black Mycelium Project (North Carolina) organized themselves in 2020 after sharing an analysis for a need for a Southern mutual aid network that centered Queer agrarian organizers and stewards. Their practices are Southern rooted and currently based in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Washington DC. 

Decolonization 

Eagle Bear Cultural Center (California) nurtures and supports Two-Spirit and LGBTQI+ culture keepers working on the frontlines of climate and culture sustainability. From a generations-long relationship with the land and lessons learned from the frontlines of environmental racism, they serve the community of Two-Spirit and LGBTQI+ Indigenous peoples committed to land rematriation, decolonizing culture and identity, and culturally responsive holistic wellness.  

Culturally competent disaster response 

The Center for Embodied Pedagogy and Action (Puerto Rico) is a healing justice project whose mission is to decolonize Puerto Rico through a diverse array of intersectional practices grounded in community care, creative expression and reclamation of afro-indigenous traditions. Their climate programs include refuge during natural disasters, working with queer and trans people to weatherize and prepare for disasters, and providing access to mutual aid in the aftermath of disasters and their mismanagement. 

The existing structures of capitalism and white supremacy cannot fix what they have caused. Queer, trans, and intersex movements have been working for generations to envision and implement community-centered solutions. While the climate crisis and its impacts on housing, migration, food security, healthcare, and more may be a greater challenge than we have ever faced, the Astraea Foundation believes that our communities, when well resourced, will rise to this challenge, just as they always have. 

Will you support the Astraea Foundation’s communities in the fight for climate justice? 

 

Double Your Gift for Climate Justice 

The Astraea Foundation’s U.S. Fund has received a generous matching grant for $100,000 from Groundswell. This year, every gift to the Astraea Foundation will be doubled up to a total of $100,000. 

 

We are excited to have collaborated with intersex, nonbinary, Latinx artist, designer, and muralist Otto Etraud / Toto Duarte to create the beautiful illustration featured above, “Climate Justice is Collective Liberation.” To learn more about Toto and their work, please visit their website and follow them on social media, @ottoetraud.

Mother’s Day 2023: Honoring Our Legacy

We invited our co-chair, Susana Fried, to share some reflections on our founding mothers for this year’s Mother’s Day. Motherhood takes all shapes, from chosen family, to raising children, to starting impactful movements, motherhood is grounded in care, love, and freedom. 

This Mother’s Day, I would like to honor, respect, and celebrate The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice’s 45-year history, our founding mothers, and all those who created, continue to nurture, and grow the Astraea Foundation of today.

Because of the foresight of a small group of spirited and determined women, we can support queer movements around the world with flexible, unrestricted funds. These women made clear their dedication to ensuring that women’s movements prioritize the needs of lesbians and women of color by declaring that “if it is going to exist, we will need to fund it ourselves.” This groundwork now enables us to support queer, feminist, anti-racist movements worldwide. Indeed, we are proud to be one of the first women’s funds in the world and the only one wholly devoted to advancing the rights of LGBTQI+ people globally. When we, as a community, consider the steps that come after this one, it is vital to be anchored in our history in order to plan for our future. Today, when we think about the next steps, we are thinking about the Astraea Foundation’s founding mothers.

This work is urgent – now more than ever. With anti-rights/anti-gender movements increasingly well-financed and globally networked, we’re seeing a proliferation of discriminatory laws, policies, and practices that normalize and advance criminalization and violence against LGBTQI+ communities and restrict reproductive rights and health. The growth of authoritarian, conservative forces especially target structurally excluded women, girls, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, and reinforces the most restrictive and punitive structures of power and privilege. In this context, the Astraea Foundation’s work and the work of our grantee partners is critical.

Today, we especially remember Achebe (betty) Powell. Achebe was one of the spirited and determined women who, sitting around a kitchen table in 1977, brought the Astraea Foundation into being. We very recently lost Achebe to COVID-19, which serves as a harsh reminder that COVID-19 is still killing us – and that it is killing some communities more than others. Achebe was formidable: she was the first Black lesbian to serve on the board of directors of the National Gay Task Force and was co-chair of that board for several years. She attended the historic meeting of lesbian and gay leaders at the Carter White House in 1977. She was a highly sought-after trainer on diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism in the United States. And she was also “a pioneer in connecting United States work on intersectionality, inclusion, and diversity to transnational conversations on gender, race, class, and culture.” https://www.middlechurch.org/honoring-achebe-powell/

With her roots in the civil rights movement, Achebe was full of insight, love, critical awareness, and keen humor. She had a profound passion for nurturing vibrant, inclusive, queer, anti-racist feminist groups that operate with an intersectional perspective. For me, Achebe was not just a close friend but also an integral member of my chosen family. It is still difficult for me to imagine life without her, so whenever I think about her, I envision a bright new star emerging in the night sky. It is a privilege for me to serve as a co-chair, with Bookda Gheisar, on the Astraea Foundation’s board of directors, and I do it in her honor and loving memory.

Achebe was also fluent in French; I’ll pay tribute to her vision and commitment by closing with, “la lutte continue.”

In Solidarity,
Susana Fried, Board Co-Chair

Listen to Our Grantee Partner’s Podcast!

 Under the Sycamore Tree: Archiving Caribbean Feminist Movements is a new podcast from The Astraea Foundation’s grantee-partner, Rebel Women Lit. It is supported by the Equality Fund and Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, produced by Rebel Women Lit and Queerlystated, and made possible by funding from Global Affairs Canada.

Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice supports transformative leadership and capacity building in the Caribbean region to advance feminist LGTBQI movements. Under the Sycamore Tree: Archiving Caribbean Feminist Movements is a new podcast from The Astraea Foundation’s grantee-partner, Rebel Women Lit. It is supported by the Equality Fund and Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, produced by Rebel Women Lit and Queerlystated, and made possible by funding from Global Affairs Canada. The podcast documents the work of trailblazing Caribbean feminist organizations in ecological justice, trans and queer rights, leadership, and discusses combatting rape culture. Astraea interviewed Jacqui Brown of RWL, and Carla Moore of Moore Talk JA, about their experiences making the innovative podcast.

Why is it important for your podcast to center on the voices of LGBTQI leaders in the Caribbean?
For a long time, the Caribbean, and in particular Jamaica, has been labeled as anti-queer. While we do have issues in the region, queer people continue to survive, resist, and shape Caribbean history. But too often, their stories are overlooked. We need the podcast to celebrate the work that’s been happening for decades, and to recognize the people and communities that refuse to back down. Jamaica has had LGBT advocacy organizations as far back as the 1970s when Larry Chang started the Gay Freedom Movement. We also need to highlight trans leaders as Caribbean leaders, and homegrown revolutionaries.

What role does feminism play in the podcast’s storytelling?
Feminism is frequently depicted as white and North American, but Caribbean feminism has a long history dating back, and beyond, rebellious enslaved women on the plantation. Our feminism looks very different from common understandings of feminist activity. For instance, as citizens of primarily Small Island Developing States, our lives are very intertwined with the environment. We’re eco-feminists by default because our countries could disappear entirely due to climate change.

Every episode, you ask participants to contribute to a “virtual altar.” Why was this tradition important to include?
Under the Sycamore Tree is about connection and continuity. The podcast is like a time capsule of this moment in Queeribbean organizing. It archives just a bit of what we have done so far, offers organizers a space to meet and share with each other, and gives us a place to project our wildest hopes for the future. The virtual altar/safe space is the digital embodiment of this idea. We ask people to place an object, a thought, a quote, or an energy that they would like to share with their colleagues and those who will be coming to the work in the future. Guests have contributed everything from a teddy bear to the energy of love.

What has surprised you about making this podcast?
We ask all of our guests one question: “What would you do if you had access to unlimited funding?” Overwhelmingly they said they would purchase land. They felt that land would allow them to grow their own food, and provide enough space to safely house their community members. This would be a significant step forward – a step that would make them self-sufficient and eventually remove the need for external funding. They spoke about making pepper sauce to sell and having the ease and security of knowing they could feed their community and keep them off the streets. I never expected that answer. But I was reminded that, at the end of the day, social justice work is really about keeping people safe and alive.

Who are you hoping the podcast reaches, and what will they learn?
I hope the podcast reaches everybody. But most of all, I hope it reaches that tired social justice worker in their office at 9 PM, still pushing for their community. I hope they find community and comfort in the fact that their work is recognized. I also hope it reaches those people who are stuck in the idea that our region has a homogeneous colonial story. I hope it reaches young people who are full of energy and passion and need to see change.

The podcast is significant because sometimes when we’re doing the work in our communities – when we’re really locked in – it can feel like we’re alone. Sometimes, it feels like we have to start everything from scratch; when in reality the solution we need has been innovated and perfected by another organization two islands across. Similarly, our younger activists and our older activists sometimes feel disconnected from each other – even though they’re doing the same work. The altar is a space for us to come back to, and to remember that we’re not alone and we have the same wishes and goals for each other and our communities.

New episodes of the podcast are released periodically. Episodes 0-1 are available for streaming now.

Honoring Black Communities, Grantees, and Thought Leaders

As February ends and we wrap up Black History Month, we want to take a moment to honor and uplift Black leadership and Black communities across the U.S. and around the world. We also want to acknowledge that one month is never enough and is not representative of the profound impact that Black organizing has on our collective liberation. 

Astraea was founded on the principles of intersectionality. Today, Black LGBTQI+ movements continue to organize under dangerous and violent conditions but continue to fight structural barriers. We are honored to be grounded in our imperative to identify and resource radical movement leaders pursuing freedom and equality.  

As an institution, we remain committed to our anti-racist journey. It is our commitment to center Black leadership not only in our grantmaking but in how we operate internally and how we advocate in philanthropic spaces. 

This month we celebrated the work of six incredible grantees and activists. Check out some highlights below and follow the links to learn more about our grantee partners leading this incredible work. 

This is, of course, only a small sample of leaders on whose shoulders we stand. 

  • Achebe PowellWe are deeply saddened to share that one of our founding mothers, Achebe Powell, passed away this month. Achebe was a Black, lesbian, feminist, social justice activist, educator, and friend. Achebe was among the small group of multi-racial, multi-class, feminist activists who came together in 1977 to create a new way of bringing resources to movements led by lesbians and women of color, to, in her words, “generate the justice that our communities need, right here, right now.”
  • ZAMI NOBLA (National Organization of Lesbians on Aging) is a Black-led and founded organization, deeply rooted in Atlanta, Georgia. Their programming and campaigns highlight the unique intersections of being Black, elder, and disabled. 
  • House of Tulip is one of our many incredible grantee partners doing vital community-building work. They provide zero-barrier housing, case management, linkage to care, and community programming to trans and gender non-conforming people in need of a safe place to stay while growing the supply of affordable housing in New Orleans. Beyond this, members of HoT staff also created the TGNC Peoples COVID Crisis Fund of Louisiana to help trans and gender non-conforming people in Louisiana pay for food, medication and housing during the pandemic.
  • Baltimore Save Haven (BSH) is a Black trans, former sex worker, and LGBTQ- led organization that focuses on supporting the trans community, specifically those who are low-income and poor, engage in sex work, substance use, and currently face housing insecurity. They believe that every trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (TLGBQ) person should be able to live healthy, self-determined, and self-sufficient lives free from stigma, violence, and oppression. They achieve this by providing compassionate harm reduction and upward mobility services, advocacy, and community engagement that is respectful, non-judgmental, and affirms and honors individual power and agency. 

Black history is very much a part of our present. Which is why we are honored to be partnered with these incredible Black-led organizations who are continuously leading in our shared pursuit of justice and equality. Each of these grantees continues to create a lasting impact on our movement spaces and communities. We hope that you will join us in recognizing and supporting their work.

We are celebrating and centering our community. Will you join us?

This year, we are centering our community through the theme of “45 Years of Joy in resistance.” There is much to celebrate! Astraea is one of the world’s first queer women’s funds, conceived and nurtured by founding mothers, all history-makers in their own right. 

Four and a half decades later, Astraea is still a courageous and democratic model for queering philanthropy and resourcing movements, of which our foremothers dreamed. Today, our reach is global. Our grantees and communities are organizing for more just societies and challenging the status quo. Our grantees are stepping into their power to advocate for more and better resources for our collective communities.    

Every day when I wake up, I look for inspiration in the places we support, like Poland, where LGBTQI people continue to organize in defiance of social and governmental hostility while building broad coalitions with feminists, farmers, union workers and others to reject rising authoritarianism. And earlier this year, abortion was decriminalized in Colombia, while LGBTQ representation in Colombia’s Congress has tripled. 

In a myriad of ways, my life and personal history is bound up with Astraea’s and each one of our grantees. I know that yours is too. Celebrations, challenges, and chance encounters all make up the fabric of our interwoven and intersectional lives. 

Please secure your gift today to ensure we can all co-create a more liberatory future together. 

Support Astraea today through a Tax-Deductible Gift

Thank you for your generosity.

Joy L. Chia
Executive Director 

Pronouns: She / Her / Hers

To Be Bi And Femme: Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

In recognition of Bi Visibility Day, Rebecca Fox, Astraea’s Vice President of Programs, shares a personal reflection celebrating bi visibility, transcending binaries, upending expectations, and embracing fluidity.

For this year’s Bi Visibility Day, Joy Chia, Astraea’s Executive Director, asked me to write a piece on what bi visibility means to me. Unlike most of my writing projects, where I marinate for a few days and then I can easily write it, this assignment had me stuck. I’ve been bi since my first girl crush in 1999. Before queer was common parlance and reclaimed proudly, bi was what felt right to me. I liked boys, I liked girls, and I had yet to meet people who identify as gender non-conforming. I quickly realized that bisexuality isn’t simple and that being constantly asked, “Are you really bi?” or “Are you dating a man, or woman or GNC person now?” is draining.

Through my coming out process, I figured out not only my sexual orientation, but also my gender. I’m high femme. For me, that means wearing clothes, jewelry, make-up and reclaiming physical trappings of femininity. The overlap of these two identities quickly left me with not more visibility, but with a kind of double invisibility. I quickly realized that “who I was” to others was being defined by who I was dating. It has taken me many years and a lot of support from my femme community – trans and cis – to push aside the bullshit and stand as myself.

Our movements are working to transcend binaries and break down these rigid boxes. but we continue to live in a world where who we are, and what rights are accorded us, is defined by litmus tests set by other people. We are asked to contort ourselves, shrink parts of ourselves, bend uncomfortably, just to be seen as being part of ill-fitting spaces. At Astraea, we fund organizations and movements that are breaking those binaries, that are helping people be seen as they are versus how others define them. Our grantee partners do this by changing the narrative, building power, and challenging normative assumptions.

Both the joy and challenge of feeling free to live outside of the boxes that people put us in is that we get to define who we are. We get to upend expectations and embrace fluidity. We get to choose what is important to us, choose our kin, and choose how we live our lives. Yet, it’s also a lot easier for us as humans to fall into the habit of using boxes (for ourselves and others). It’s easier to define ourselves by what we are opposed to, rather than what we stand for and who we are.

Bi visibility means celebrating my queerness, my bi-ness, my femme-ness, regardless of who I am in love with or in bed with. Bi visibility matters to me, not only because it’s how I see myself, but also because it’s how I want to be seen. Not just parts of me, but all of me.

In solidarity,
Rebecca Fox
Vice President of Programs

Kerry-Jo’s August 2022 Reflection: Rest and Reimagination

Kerry-Jo reflects on her time at Astraea, rest, renewal, and reimagining, “a world where we can all thrive and the work we do to create that world is like planting trees under whose shade we may never sit.”

Dear Friends,

If I’m to be completely honest (and vulnerable), this reflection has not been an easy one to write. After seven years, I have decided it’s time to leave Astraea Foundation and my role as Deputy Executive Director.

At the very core of all that I am proud to have achieved at Astraea — and even the choice I have made to leave – is this: reimagination. The audacity to believe that we could build a partnership with governments without compromising our values and integrity, the seismic shifts in our operations and culture, and a deepened investment in our people. Looking back, I’m sure I couldn’t have even imagined what we would do together so many years ago.

In truth, reimagination has been at the very foundation of Astraea. Our Founding Mothers had to envision a world where feminists, lesbians, queer folks of color would dare to raise the resources we needed to support each other, to trust each other, and to believe that we could indeed make the world a more just place for us to thrive. 

45 years later, Astraea is still committed to that world. In all my roles — as a staff member, executive leader, space-holder, Black queer immigrant cis-woman — I have borne witness to an organization grappling with how to remain accountable to and aligned with its feminist values, staff, peers, grantee partners, and to the LGBTQI movements that we serve. 

The work we do is hard, uncomfortable and, at times, messy. How could it not be if what we aim to do is step outside of systems and ways of being that no longer serve us? You see, reimagination isn’t always about rainbows and unicorns — to do it well also involves having the most difficult conversations, holding curiosity, grief, sadness, and anger as we release what we have been in service of what we could be and emerge on the other side renewed. 

This is the cycle of reimagination and, as I move towards my own sabbatical of rest and renewal, I know that the Astraea I leave today is far sturdier than the one I joined in 2015. Over the last few months especially, I sense a new horizon of hope that — while tenuous and precious — comes with dreaming about what might now be possible for Astraea and each of us finding our own place in that possibility. We are finding courage in our vulnerability, balance in our boundaries, and learning how to meaningfully build community across distance and difference.

There is much more to be done to get to where we want to be, but the path Astraea is charting to do it is more sure-footed, strategic, and overall stronger. I’m truly excited about what’s yet to come.

And so, I’d like to thank all our staff (past and present), grantee partners and supporters for sharing in my last reflection, and I hope if you remember nothing else, it is this: we are imagining a world where we can all thrive and the work we do to create that world is like planting trees under whose shade we may never sit. 

Until we meet again,
Kerry-Jo Ford Lyn

Deputy Executive Director