SOLIDARITY: BLACK LIVES MATTER

Along with many organizations in the LGBTQ+ community, Rainbow World Fund stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor and too many other black people at the hands of police authorities and civilian vigilantes, have sparked righteous outrage. Nationally and world-wide, the realization that for centuries Black people have endured and carried a burden of systematic racism that can only be broken through a collective and conscious resolve to bring about substantive changes in law and society that promote fairness, equality and respect for Black people. 

Rainbow World Fund was founded with the belief that we are all one human family. Our mission calls for engaging the LGBTQ+ community in making positive change through humanitarian actions internationally, including domestic disaster relief. We have tried to maintain an inclusive agenda that has included funding programs benefitting and empowering Black communities in Africa, Haiti, and Cuba, with particular emphasis on serving the needs of the LGBTQ+ members of those communities. Still, we, like the rest of our society, needs to be more aware and sensitive to how our activities and operations touch the lives of black people and how we can use our resources to eliminate racially based policies that contribute to suppression and disempowerment of their communities. 

While Rainbow World Fund has successfully contributed to international efforts to address the needs of Black LGBTQ+ people, we will continue to examine our domestic efforts and organizational structure in an ongoing effort to achieve equity and dignity for black LGBTQ+ people. As we support programs that promote acceptance and understanding, and as we seek to provide humanitarian assistance, the message of the Black Lives Matter movement will be a catalyst for conscious support for the ongoing struggle of Black people for dignity and equality. We cannot and will not turn away from engaging in expanding our own capacity to understand and to put that understanding into action. 

We hope that you; our supporters, followers and friends; will join us in this effort. We welcome your thoughts on how Rainbow World Fund can be a more effective part of this movement.