Pride
is a riot.
BY SHAKIVLA TODD, MARKETING ASSOCIATE, IFUNDWOMEN
JUNE 18, 2020
Pride was never just a celebration. It has always been a protest.
History lesson: The Stonewall Riots back in 1969 were led by the legendary Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two Black and Brown trans women. They were the catalyst of the gay rights movement, and what we know as Pride today. Dontcha forget it.
As a Black queer woman, each time I step outside of my apartment I am protesting—fighting to be seen, heard, and valued.
By the looks of it, Pride is not cancelled this year. Instead, it showed up dressed as an international movement against police brutality, racial injustice, and the dehumanization of Black and trans bodies—the most authentic iteration of Pride.
This weekend, I attended the epic Black Trans Lives Matter Liberation Rally in Brooklyn, NY organized by The Okra Project, the Marsha P. John Institute, GLITS, For the Gworls, and Black Trans Femmes in the Arts Collective (all organizations you should donate to today) to honor the lives of Layleen Polanco, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, Riah Milton, Dominique “Rem'Mie” Fells, and countless more. It was such a powerful movement. This quote from featured speaker, writer and activist Raquel Willis, stuck with me:
“White queer folks are worried about legislation while black queer and trans folks are worried about our lives!”
How I heard that, as an employee of a company whose mission is to put funds into the hands of women entrepreneurs, was: Trans and queer folks aren’t worried about launching and growing their business, they’re trying to LIVE.
In sum, we’ve got some work to do. This Pride, and forever, IFundWomen is committed to driving funding to ALL women-owned businesses. To that end, we will be launching a Fund Queer Founders page, easily accessible from our homepage, with the goal of driving dollars to Queer communities across the globe by making it easier for generous people to fund them.
If you identify as a Queer Founder, and have previously crowdfunded on IFundWomen, or are interested in crowdfunding on IFundWomen for your business, please reach out to [email protected] to be included on the page.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a way to make an immediate positive impact on the Queer community for Pride, consider funding these campaigns:
Women’s National Football Conference
The VDOM: Made by a Woman. Curated for Humankind.
Advice we’re giving our entrepreneurs, regardless of their identities? When your business services our most marginalized communities, you automatically serve everyone.
With so much love,
Shakivla Todd (she/her)
Marketing Associate, IFundWomen