ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A financial support organization that rose from the Pulse tragedy is getting results by raising money for Black LGBTQ+ organizations.
The Contigo fundraised $100,000 for three black LGBTQ+ plus organizations: Divas in Dialogue, Bros in Convo, and Peer Support Space.
The city commemorated “All Black Lives” day which is a celebration of all black people no matter their sexual orientation, gender or beliefs.
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At the start of the rally, Quincy Wilson started the function with a spoken word piece: “Dear Queer Black men from and inspired by all queer black men, you can be fierce, you can be powerful.”
For Wilson, this is just one example of what it means to be Black and queer.
The Contigo Fund organized the event saying they want to help provide resources for the community.
They’re doing this by raising $100,000 to go to three Black-led LGBTIQ+ organizations.
The money will go toward things like housing, STD/STI testing, mentorship programs and more.
All Black Fund was a driving force behind the fundraising; it’s a part of the Contigo Fund which helped launch the organization after the death of George Floyd in 2020.
This is the second year now the funding organization gave money to those in need.
Officials with both the All Black Fund and the Contigo Fund say the motivation behind raising money is to specifically help the Black transgender community.
Marco Quiroga is the founding executing director of the Contigo Fund.
“That’s the folks who are feeling the double marginalization of racism, transphobia, homophobia and we wanted to make sure that they were elevated because we understand that until they’re free the Black community cannot be free until the black community all of us can’t be free,” Quiroga said.
One organization hoping to get results with this money is Divas in Dialogue.
“We’re not asking you all to do the work for us, but watch what we can do,” Divas in Dialogue executive director Mulan Williams said.
This is the second year the organization received funding from the Contigo Fund.
Back in 2020, 37 transgender women in the United States were killed making it the deadliest year for the community according to the Human Rights Campaign.
This is one of the reasons why organizations like Divas in Dialogue encourage people to support and lend help saying they can’t do it alone.
“We don’t have people knocking on our door to invite us into the table, to help create change for us, they usually like to make the change for us themselves, so what this fund does helps us and allows us to do the work that needs to be done... again we are not asking for handouts we are just asking for a chance,” Williams said.
Going forward the Contigo Fund encourages everyone to get involved, and volunteer or donate as they continue their efforts of helping the LGBTIQ+ community.