In the Spotlight
Latest Headlines
For Immediate Release: Equality Texas and Texas Pride Impact Funds Announce Queer Texas Crisis Funds Grant Recipients
Posted on October 16, 2020 at 12:57 pm

Contact:  Angela Hale, 512-289-2995 angela.hale@equalitytexas.org 

Equality Texas and Texas Pride Impact Funds Announce Queer Texas Crisis Funds Grant Recipients 

Austin, Texas – October 15, 2020  – Today, Equality Texas, the largest statewide organization solely dedicated to securing full equality for LGBTQ+ Texans and Texas Pride Impact Funds, a community foundation created to propel the LGBTQ+ movement in Texas by supporting nonprofits that help thousands of our citizens across the state every day announced the Queer Texas Crisis Fund (QTCF) grant recipients. 

The QTCF was created to raise emergency relief funds to be distributed to LGBTQ+ serving nonprofit organizations across Texas who are providing relief assistance to communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Today more than ever, we need to show up and support organizations providing direct service to our LGBTQ+ community members impacted by the pandemic and the effects of systemic racism which include restricted access to services, economic hardship, and food insecurity. 

“Mutual aid projects, like Queer Texas Crisis Fund, are special because they are initiatives where people/organizations take responsibility for caring for one another, shifting resources to where they are needed the most. When the pandemic began, we knew we had to do something to support local and regional LGBTQ+ serving nonprofit organizations who were providing relief to our most vulnerable. We decided the best thing we could do was use our organization’s platform to raise money to allow our community partners to continue their vital work. We are proud of the Queer Texas Crisis Fund and all of the amazing people who contributed to the initiative, especially Texas Pride Impact Funds. It was an honor to partner with an organization that has uplifted our community by helping grant more than $170,000 this year,” said Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas. 

Projects that have been granted awards include some that focus on basic needs assistance (i.e. food, socks, underwear, personal hygiene products, etc.), outreach to LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness, rental/eviction legal and financial assistance for people facing housing instability and utility bill payment assistance, bus vouchers, fuel vouchers, phone bill payment assistance, car payments, medication co-pays, and access to technological equipment and communication platforms necessary to build and maintain connections between nonprofit organizations and their constituents.

Grant recipients of nearly $50,000 raised for the Queer Texas Crisis Fund include: 

  • AIDS Outreach Center, Fort Worth 
  • AIDS Walk South Dallas, Inc., Dallas 
  • Austin Latino/a Lesbian Gay Organization DBA allgo, Austin 
  • BEAT AIDS Coalition Trust, San Antonio 
  • Borderland Rainbow Center, El Paso 
  • East Lubbock Art House, Lubbock 
  • Embrace: A Festival for all LGBTQIA+ Austinites, Austin 
  • Institute for Chicanx Psychology, Austin 
  • Organizacion Latina de Trans in Texas, Houston 
  • Panhandle AIDS Support Organization, Amarillo 
  • Save Our Sisters United, Inc, Houston 
  • South Texas Equality Project, Harlingen 
  • The Mahogany Project, Houston 
  • Transforming Texas, San Antonio 
  • Transfronterizxs, El Paso 
  • WhatsintheMirrror, Austin 

“Difficult decisions were required to arrive at sixteen awards from thirty-eight very deserving organizations. These recipients most effectively demonstrated how they are leading critical social justice work at the intersections of race and LGBTQ+ identities and/or providing emergency relief as a response to COVID-19. Our board of directors is proud to work with Equality Texas to create this innovative partnership in support of the intersectional work of these sixteen organizations serving LGBTQ+ communities across Texas,” said Ron Guillard, Texas Pride Impact Funds Board President. “As TPIF now looks to 2021, we know there will be even more change as we face this ongoing pandemic: widening gaps in service for the most marginalized, momentum to end police brutality, anti-Blackness and racism in our communities; and injustice and inequity impacting communities along and near our border with Mexico.” 

The fund was sponsored in part by The Texas Women’s Foundation, Lew Aldridge, Steve and Lisa Rudner, and Texas Pride Impact Funds Donor Advised Fundholders. 

### 

Equality Texas is the largest statewide organization working to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Texans through political action, education, community organizing, and collaboration. The Equality Texas Foundation works to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Texans through education, community organizing, and collaboration. 

Texas Pride Impact Funds exists to propel the LGBTQ+ movement in Texas by supporting nonprofits that help thousands of our citizens across the state every day. Our work strengthens community organizations and their leaders, mobilizes donors and funders, inspires giving, and actively secures our LGBTQ+ community’s future for generations to come.