Queers For Economic Justice: Closing Due To Economic Injustice

"Queer issues are class issues. They are issues of government and nonprofit violence, both inside and outside LGBQT organizations. The struggles we face go beyond making ends meet; violences of poverty, racism, policing, and ableism pervade our lives" from A Fabulous Attitude.

It is with profound sadness that I write to tell you QEJ is closing.

Funding has always been a challenge for QEJ throughout our 12 years of existence, but this year the financial crisis has been relentless. We finally had to face the painful reality that we cannot keep going. The crisis cannot be resolved simply by a one-time burst of money. Had that been true, we would have turned to you, our community, and asked for help. I am sure of your response.

What the Board and I had to confront was that this financial crisis would remain an ongoing emergency because we had no certain guarantees of future long-term funding. We were looking down the barrel of the funding-world shotgun, and understood that we could not stay alive. We know that QEJ is not unique in this crisis. We see clearly how our radical vision of social change -- including issues of poverty, incarceration, sexuality and racism too often did not align with more mainstream foundation priorities. And we know that this gap between our vision and the funding that enables it is a critical issue for our communities in the future.

We have never had a large number of major donors able to write big checks (though we thank the ones who have). What we have always had was a loyal and committed group of donors who believe in what QEJ does, and who gave—not huge sums—but all they could. Yet that wasn’t enough to keep us afloat. We needed to find another way to stay alive and, though we had a strategy, we did not have the time to implement it. Realizing this, we looked at each other and said what we had never said before: We have to close.

This has broken our hearts...

Queers For Economic Justice, statement on their website.

Annual revenue of Human Rights Camapign [HRC], America's biggest LGB organisation - $9,976,000.