We see you: Lavender Rights Project

As part of the Fund’s commitment to elevating truthful Black narratives, connecting communities for collective power, and supporting our grantees, we are excited to share brief highlights of our We See You grantees.

Learn more about their work, their vision for a free Black future, and the ways the community can support moving forward.

1.   Who are you as an organization?

Lavender Rights Project (LRP) is a Seattle-based nonprofit elevating the power, autonomy, and leadership of the Black gender diverse community throughout the Pacific Northwest and across the United States. We use Black feminism as a guide to tackle our three priority areas: economic justice, housing justice, and ending gender-based violence. Our primary goal is policy and social change, primarily through direct services and movement building that strategically advances the collective liberation of Black and LGBTQI+ communities. In all of our program development, LRP places the most vulnerable members of the community — namely Black trans girls, women, femmes — at the center of our work in order to find solutions that will truly protect and benefit everyone.

2.   What is your vision for a free Black future, and how is your organization contributing to that vision?

When doing advocacy work for Black trans community (and Black people in general), there tends to be a focus on the oppression side of intersectionality. But by doing so, they miss so much of the creativity, ingenuity, and beauty that our intersectional identities offer to the community-at-large. A free Black future is where that brilliance in our identities and cultures are finally acknowledged *and* thriving. At LRP, we are contributing to that vision by lifting up the leadership of Black trans people and empowering them to do organizing work that is directly informed by the talents they bring to the table, whether it's through their personal histories, what that they have naturally, and what was learned from survival. We are also working every day to break down barriers to Black trans thriving and positioning our community, as well as our staff, to lead.

3.   How has the Black Future Co-op Fund helped support your work? In what other ways would you like more support?

The Black Future Co-op Fund has a unique funding model where they provide critical, unrestricted, low-barrier funding for organizations that they believe in. They trust us to do the work that aligns with their mission, and their team has worked to highlight who we are and lift our concerns that we have as a community. We are so lucky to be in relationship with their staff, who push every day to make connections with Black organizers in the field and support work that ensures Black trans people are truly at the center of movement building.