Uniting Communities

The Uniting Communities project supports organizations working in the racial justice and immigrant rights movements to proactively engage and include their members and constituencies who are LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) people of color.

LGBTQ people of color have been leaders in movements for justice, from Bayard Rustin to Sylvia Rivera. Accepting, embracing and engaging LGBTQ people of color make racial justice groups stronger and represent their entire communities.

In the past 30 years of ballot measure fights for LGBTQ rights in our region, communities of color have been increasingly targeted by the Far Right.  Communities of color and the LGBTQ community have a great deal in common; such as, being targets of discrimination to leading positive changes in movement. Nevertheless the Right has tried to divide these two communities by portraying people of color as more homophobic than Whites. It is critical to mobilizing communities of color to support LGBTQ equality to counter these attacks.

We are currently working with seven organizations in Oregon. We start by shifting the organizational culture to support inclusivity and then help groups to take a public stand on LGBTQ equality.

The organizations in this 3rd Uniting Communities: Oregon cohort are:

• Indigenous Ways of Knowing
• Latinos Unidos Siempre
  
• Confederated Tribes of Siletz
• Latino Network
• Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays- Portland, Black Chapter
• CAUSA
  
• Student Alliance Project

In 2011 we expanded this work to Nevada in partnership with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. The goal of Uniting Communities in Nevada is to raise the visibility of LBGTQ people of color through communications and media strategies.

Check out our Uniting Communities column in Street Roots, a local Portland street paper:

• Two Spirit People Work to Keep Traditions Respect Alive
• A Chosen Family Deepens Connections to their Communities
• Creating a Space We All Can Share
• Gay Straight Alliances Raise Awareness, Courage in Youths
• The Road to Basic Rights for all Oregonians
• Uniting Communities Highlight: CAUSA

Find out more:
Uniting Communities: The Toolkit and Enlazando Comunidades: El Juego De Herramientas