Our Mission and History

	MISSION STATEMENT     Queers for Economic Justice is a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation.   Our goal is to challenge and change the systems that create poverty and economic injustice in our communities, and to promote an economic system that embraces sexual and gender diversity.   We are committed to the principle that access to social and economic resources is a fundamental right, and we work to create social and economic equity through grassroots organizing, public education, advocacy and research.   We do this work because although poor queers have always been a part of both the gay rights and economic justice movements, they have been, and continue to be, largely invisible in both movements.   This work will always be informed by the lived experiences and expressed needs of queer people in poverty. Values and Vision We are a multi-racial, multi-classed, multi-cultural group of people of diverse marginalized sexual and gender identities, as well as diverse ages, skills, educational levels, backgrounds and abilities. We seek to amend the conditions and policies of our economic system to prioritize the needs of the poor, and to embrace sexual, gender and family diversity. We work to broaden the discourse, vision and agenda within both queer and economic justice organizations, as well as in society at large, toward greater integration of economic justice issues as they impact our communities. We seek to promote a society where people of all classes, sexual orientations and gender identities can enjoy complete sexual and reproductive freedom and expression, as part of their full enjoyment of life, without fear of economic or legal penalty. We work to establish and/or protect the legal rights of poor and working-class queers, and to encourage and facilitate self-advocacy. We advocate for radical, compassionate changes in systems such as housing and shelter, the workplace, courts, prisons, welfare and other public benefits, citizenship/immigration, healthcare and other social services. We understand the interconnections between different oppressions that perpetuate economic injustice, and we work on multiple levels to eradicate them. We work to affect these changes through grassroots organizing, public education, advocacy, research, legal action, leadership development and coalition building with gay rights and economic justice organizations. We are committed to this work because, although we witness and experience financial hardship and need in our communities, we also have hope in the possibilities for change. ______________________________________________________________   The History of Queers for Economic Justice: In October of 1999, NY State Senator Tom Duane and SAGE/Queens Director Joseph DeFilippis convened a meeting of 60 social service agencies in NYC to discuss the impact that welfare reform had had upon lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender poor people.   As a result of that meeting, dozens of anti-poverty groups and LGBT organizations began to meet on a regular basis, to address issues of concern to poor LGBT people on welfare, and the Queer Economic Justice Network was born. Eventually, the Queer Economic Justice Network became a coalition of organizations from different movements that worked together, for the first time ever, to address a variety of poverty issues in the LGBT community.   For three years, economic justice groups such as: * The Coalition for the Homeless * Community Food Resource Center * The Legal Aid Society * Legal Services of NY * The Osborne Association * The Urban Justice Center  and * The Welfare Rights Initiative worked with numerous LGBT organizations, including: * The Audre Lorde Project * The LGBT Community Center * The Empire State Pride Agenda * GLSEN * God's Love We Deliver * The Latino Commission on AIDS * The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force * The NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project * SAGE  and * SAGE/Queens to engage in advocacy and public education about how LGBT people were impacted by issues such as welfare reform, homelessness and the shelter system, and the Rockefeller Drug Laws.   During this work, many of the people involved in the Network decided that there was the need for an organization that could concentrate on these issues full-time, with a mission and a staff whose priority was to address the needs of LGBT people in poverty. In 2003, with a grant from The Open Society Institute, a new non-profit, Queers for Economic Justice, was born.   Queers for Economic Justice is committed to the principle that access to social and economic resources is a fundamental right, and we have begun our work of grassroots organizing, public education and advocacy.   Queers for Economic Justice currently receives funding from the Funding Exchange, the New York Foundation, the North Star Fund, Open Meadows Foundation, the Open Society Institute and Resist.