Lgbtq movement in the south
Background: History and Need
In 2013, a organization of Funders for LGBTQ Issues members with roots in the South gathered around the mutual concern that Southern LGBTQ communities faced stark needs and were severely under-resourced. The group commissioned Funders for LGBTQ Issues to analyze the current declare of funding for LGBTQ communities in the South. This resulted in the first Out in the South announce, which found that, at the moment, the South received $1.71 in foundation funding per LGBTQ adult, compared to $10.10 for the Northeast.
Spurred by this under-funding of the region, a collective of Southern and national funders worked collaboratively to evolve strategies for bringing more resources to the region, resulting in the Out in the South Initiative.
Progress to Date
The Out in the South Initiative has made substantial progress toward increasing foundation funding for Southern LGBTQ communities. As explained in the latest Out in the South infographic, LGBTQ funding for the South has increased from $4.8 million in 2012 to $17.8 million in 2016 (excluding OneOrlando Fund grantmaking). Since its inception, the Out in the South Fund has awarded more than $4.3 million to locally
Anti-LGBTQ
A central theme of anti-LGBTQ+ organizing and ideology is the opposition to Diverse rights or support of homophobia, heterosexism and/or cisnormativity, often expressed through demonizing rhetoric and grounded in harmful pseudoscience that portrays LGBTQ+ people as threats to children, society and often public health.
Top Takeaways
In 2024, the number of anti-LGBTQ+ groups increased by about 13% from the previous year. Anti-LGBTQ+ groups maintained a trend in heavy mobilization across multiple strategies with increasing political and financial support from the hard right.
Anti-trans narratives were instrumental to the 2024 election at all levels of government, especially at the local level where anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-inclusive education activism continue to heavily overlap. The politicization of gender-affirming health look after and LGBTQ+-inclusive school curricula contributed to what has been characterized as the “most Anti-LGBTQ election in decades.” Republicans spent almost $215 Million on TV ads to smear transitioned people, surpassing ads on rival issues such as economy, immigration and housing. Another wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation broke records at state and federal le
Latin America’s Gay Rights Revolution
My book Out in the Periphery heralded Latin America’s emergence as the “undisputed champion of gay rights in the Global South,” a momentous happening considering the region’s historic reputation as a bastion of Catholicism and machismo. At the age of the book’s publication in preceding 2016, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and the “mini-state” of Mexico City had already legalized same-sex marriage, ahead of several countries that had led the earth in advancing male lover rights, including the United States, Britain and Germany. A handful of Latin American countries—including Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia—had also introduced civil unions opened to same-sex couples.
Out in the Periphery by Omar G. Encarnación
No less significant is that in 2016 Latin America had already experienced a transgender rights breakthrough. In 2011, only months after legalizing gay marriage, Argentina became the first country in the world to allow anyone to change the gender assigned at birth through a process known as gender self-identification. It allows anyone to convert genders without permission from a assess or a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. There did
LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Mapping LGBTQ Equality in the U.S. South
This report is released in partnership with PRIDELAND, a new Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) digital series and television special that follows queer actor Dyllón Burnside on a journey across the South to meet diverse members of the LGBTQ community. From a lesbian rodeo champ in Texas to an African American mayor ally in Alabama, he discovers how LGBTQ Americans are finding ways to inhabit authentically and with lgbtq+ fest in the modern South.
MAP’s southern policy tally aggregates nearly 40 LGBTQ-related laws and policies into a concise yet comprehensive way
Telling a New Southern Story: LGBTQ Resilience, Resistance, and Leadership
Telling a New Southern Story: LGBTQ Resilience, Resistance, and Management (PDF)Download
Executive Summary (PDF)Download
InfographicsDownload
Press Release: New Report on LGBTQ People in U.S. South Highlights Unique Challenges and ResilienceVisit
Despite being home to the most hostile policy landscape in the territory for LGBTQ issues, the South is also house to some of the most innovative, resilient, and effective LGBTQ organizing and activism in the nation. The Movement Advancement Proposal released a new announce, Telling a New Southern Story: LGBTQ Resilience, Resistance, and Leadership, which explores the unique experiences of LGBTQ Southerners and the innovative ways they erect community, provide direct sustain , and make cultural and political change in the region.
Released in partnership with the Campaign for Southern Equality and Equality Federation, this report examines the experiences and advocacy strategies of LGBTQ people in the U.S. South. Despite the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming employment discrimination protections nationwide, 93% of LGBTQ Southerners inhabit in a