The Tragedies and Violence of Our Times Will Be Met with the Fierceness of Our Rage and Grace

This year has been like a never-ending game of battleship. The political ground is shifting before our feet. The universe itself has turned herself inside out these past seven months calling forth humanity to step into righteous rage to stand up for and to pick sides, to get in the game, to take risks, and to fight for our lives.

From the audacity of early morning ICE raids that kicked off the year to HB2 and SB1203 to the Pulse Massacre in Orlando to the killing of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, SONG has been forging ahead through the dense fog of choppy waters steering a ship of 6000+ members and supporters willing to sail into unchartered territory together in formation, flags flying, brazenly towards a horizon that we cannot yet see. Our willingness comes from knowing what exactly is on the line: our bodies, our spirits, our lives, our vision, our freedom and liberation.

But there is rising resistance and our numbers are growing.

We find salvation in each other, through kinship, through our political, spiritual and cultural resistance. We find our salvation and sanctuary in SONG by standing together in rising to fight another day. Over 23 years of southern multi-racial LGBTQ grassroots organizing work has taught us that when we are brave and willing to take collective risks in the name of our own self worth and dignity, we move away from the politics of fear and hate and begin to carve out space for transformation and liberation for ALL people, in the South and in the nation.

We are called to dig deep these days and all across the South SONG members are answering the call. We grieve, build altars, bury our dead, and demand a different future for our children, for ourselves, for our chosen family. We have stood down the state, stared down our killers in the eye, built new chapters, engaged in civil disobedience, engaged in political struggle, trained up our own, chased down our enemies, and made art and theater to give voice to our deepest desires and dreams.

The conditions are escalating and so must we.

Our shared vision requires fuel and sustenance, fortified and connected leaders, food for meetings, childcare, banners and art and beauty, gasoline and places to gather. Our shared vision requires our commitment to marry the movement and our hard earned dollars raised on drag show runways, in meetings passing a hat, waiting tables and slinging drinks, behind desks and on factory floors. Join us today to ensure SONG’s survival as a kinship network and as an organization willing to fight for our lives with the fierceness of our rage and grace.

This Give OUT day our goal is to raise $15,000. Help us get there by giving $5, $10, $50, or $500 and join us in finding the tens of thousands of LGBTQ and justice loving Southerners that demand and will craft a different future.

What Does Your Money Do?

BUILD + SUPPORT member-led Free From Fear campaigns that seek to address issues of criminalization and state sanctioned violence from hyper-policing programs like Operation Whiplash in Atlanta to the collaboration between police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in towns all across the South.

FIGHT BACK + SHUT DOWN right-wing politicians, institutions, legislation and policies that seek to harm our communities in the name of “safety”, especially Black, trans, gender non-conforming and undocumented communities.

RESOURCE + FLANK Black LGBTQ leadership and demands from reparations to the investment in the education, health, and safety of Black people through our Black Lives Matter cohort and our work at the national Movement 4 Black Lives Policy Table.

RESOURCE + GROW both the TLC@SONG listening tour to travel across the South to lift up the strategies of resistance of trans and gender non-conforming leadership and the legal strategies needed to fight back state wide legislative attacks and our Free From Fear campaigns.

RESOURCE + NURTURE our collaboration with Mijente to build the network of southern LGBTQ Latinx people committed to ending detentions and deportations.

GROW + STRENGTHEN the SONG kinship and membership network to build resistance and to break isolation through our annual regional keystone convenings like Gaycation, Bayard Rustin, and Out South.