QEJ is pleased to announce that comedian DIANA YANEZ has agreed to perform for QEJ’s new monthly party this Sunday at Ginger’s Bar!

DIANA YANEZ is a Cuban-American performer,  currently starring in her own one-woman show, VIVA LA EVOLUCION! running at SOHO Playhouse through August 29th. She’s also appeared in MARGARET CHO’S THE SENSUOUS WOMAN the Off-Broadway hit Comedy-Burlesque-Variety Show, and is a core member of queer comedy group sensation, THE GAY MAFIA and now the all girl off-shoot -AUNT FLO. In 2007 she toured America on CYNDI LAUPER’S THE TRUE COLORS TOUR and appeared as well as produced OUTLAUGH ON WISECRACK on MTV’s LOGO network.

The performance starts at 7pm, but we’ll be there from 2pm-11pm. There will be food, laughs, liquor and and prizes auctioned off.

Ginger’s Bar
363 5th Ave (between 5th St & 6th St)
Brooklyn, NY, 11215

Hot Dogs: $1 — Burgers: $2 — Veggie Dogs and Burgers too!

All proceeds from food and auction go to Queers for Economic Justice!

Hang out with cool peeps/queers all day/night long!!

On the Department of Homeless Services’

Work Advantage Program

On July 15, 2010 the New York City Office of the Comptroller released the results of an audit of the Department of Homeless Services’ (DHS) Work Advantage Program (WADV). The report contains conclusions drawn from a review of WADV operations and procedures, as well as recommendations to DHS for correcting the problems that were found.

Queers for Economic Justice applauds Comptroller John Liu and his staff for this report, and hope that this helps bring about changes in the program for homeless New Yorkers.

The Work Advantage (WADV) Program is a subsidized housing program that offers rental subsidies to working homeless families and individuals living in temporary shelters. Once it is determined that a client is eligible for WADV, DHS presents the client with a list of registered apartment units, and after the lease is signed DHS subsidizes the client’s rent in the form of a voucher. The subsidy lasts for one year, and may be renewed for a second year. This program, if administered correctly, can provide the kind of support to help individuals and families move permanently out of the shelter system.

But the Comptroller’s report found several problems with the program, including:

· DHS does not adequately ensure that the WADV program is carried out according to its current guidelines. In part, this is the result of its failure to update and distribute guidelines to DHS staff on a timely basis, which has led to inconsistencies in how they carry out procedures.

· DHS does not adequately deal with landlords and brokers who pressure their tenants to pay additional rent payments outside their lease agreements, otherwise known as side deals.

· DHS does not keep track of, and continues to do business with, landlords who have records of abuses in the WADV program.

· DHS does not have inadequate controls for the maintenance of its case files. These case files contain important information, and DHS has no system in place to keep track of them or prevent their misuse or unauthorized alteration.

The Office of the Comptroller issued a number of recommendations, including that DHS should:

· Ensure that all DHS employees are aware of and abide by all polices and procedures.

· Enforce regulations that prohibit side deals, and refrain from doing business with landlords and brokers who participate in side deals.

· Ensure that shelter clients have accurate information and are informed of their rights.

· Re-examine its current clearance procedures and set stringent thresholds and guidelines with regard to building violations to ensure that apartments with numerous hazardous violations are not registered.

· Emphasize to case workers the importance of obtaining all the required documentation and signatures in the lease-signing process.

Queers for Economic Justice works with LGBT people in the NYC shelter system everyday. We have found that the problems with the WADV program named by the Comptrollers report are in fact an accurate reflection of what our constituents go through with WADV program, and with unscrupulous landlords who are not monitored. We hope that further monitoring happens to ensure the recommendations by the Comptroller are adhered to, so that homeless New Yorkers are given the support they need, are not taken advantage of, and have responsive channels of recourse when abuses occur.

Not only must our shelters be made safe, but so must the housing that people moving out of homelessness are provided.

JOIN THE CALL TO FIND OUT!

Please RSVP to this call.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

2pm-3:30pm EST/11am-12:30pm PST

Conference Call # (712) 432-0600

Password: 751219#

Moderator: Kenyon Farrow, Queers for Economic Justice (New York, NY)

Presenters include:

To hear each presenter press play on the audio. Read materials from each presenter just below the audio player.

Francis X. Tobin, Jobs with Justice (Local Jobs for America Act)

Materials:

Local Jobs for America Act Fact Sheet

Donna Pavetti, Center for Budget & Policy Priorities (TANF)

Materials:

Slides on TANF

Report: “Strengthening Unmarried Parents’ Relationships: The Early Impacts of Building Strong Families.” The Building Strong Families Project. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research, May 2010. Synopsis: This report provides impacts of BSF on couples about 15 months after they applied for the program. Early impacts show that, when results are averaged across the eight individual programs included in the evaluation, BSF did not achieve its primary objective of improving the stability and quality of the couples’ relationships.

Ari Rosmarin, New York Civil Liberties Union. (REAL ID Act)

Materials:

REAL ID Act Policy Brief

Nia Robinson, Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (American Power Act)

Materials: American Power Act Policy Documents

The purpose of the Act Queer! teleconference series is to connect grassroots LGBTQ, racial,and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and  strategies on racial and economic justice issues.

For Immediate Release: June 28, 2010

Press Release

Contacts:

Caitlin Breedlove, Southerners On New Ground: 404-549-8628

Kenyon Farrow, Queers for Economic Justice: 212-564-3608

Joaquin Sanchez, Communications Liaison for the Queer and Trans Peoples’ Movement Assembly: 917-575-3154

Queers to the Left, to the Left

Queer and Trans Peoples’ Movement Assembly at the United States Social Forum Broaden LGBTQ Movement Agenda to Include Immigration, Racial and Economic Justice

Detroit - A newly formed national coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, transgender and gender nonconforming groups working for economic justice announced a new agenda for the queer rights movement on Saturday at the United States Social Forum (USSF) in Detroit. This is the second United States Social Forum, which brought together over 15,000 activists, organizers and community members from across the United States and around the world to share strategies for advancing human rights and social justice. The ROOTS Coalition, grantee partners of the ASTRAEA Lesbian Foundation’s Movement Building Program, expands the current agenda beyond marriage equality and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to include the needs of the most vulnerable communities and the structural causes of queer oppression.

Kenyon Farrow, Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice in New York City, explained, “The most vulnerable people in our communities face discrimination from schools, landlords, lenders and employers. This leaves them underemployed, underhoused and without access to formal education. This creates a pipeline into poverty, continuing the legacy of state-sponsored violence against poor people.”

“Queer people are immigrants, the working-poor; we are hard working single-mothers, domestic workers and bus drivers, journalists and educators. We live in rural communities, the big cities, the reservations and on the gulf coast. Immigrant rights, reproductive justice, environmental racism, indigenous sovereignty, the economic recession and ecological destruction are all issues that affect our communities,” added Paulina Hernandez, Co-Director of Southerners On New Ground, a southern regional organization based in Atlanta, GA.

The coalition released the “Queer and Trans Peoples’ Resolution for Safe Self-Determination,” statement generated through a collective process called the People’s Movement Assembly. Over 500 people over the course of the USSF worked together to produce a set of principles for Safe Self Determination. According to the statement, Safe Self-Determination is defined as a call to action to hold government systems accountable for ALL forms of state sponsored violence enacted upon queer, trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, gender non-conforming people; to fight for specific and concrete human rights and overall system transformation, deconstructing the US and global capitalist economy while building alternative economies, infrastructure and interdependence among groups rooted in the most vulnerable communities. (For the full text, follow the link: http://pma2010.org/node/210)

In the closing ceremonies, the more than 15,000 participants of USSF committed to upholding the resolutions produced by the 52 People’s Movement Assemblies that took place over the course of the week, including the Queer and Trans Peoples’ Movement Assembly.

###

WWRC co-researchers conducted surveys with 171 low-income LGBT and gender nonconforming (GNC) people, gathering information about the economics of peoples’ lives, struggles with social services and police, as well as the many ways people generate justice. They also video recorded 10 storytelling interviews and audio recorded hundreds of hours of our research meetings, both of which were analyzed as data for this report. Some of the findings in the report are:

• Most of the people who participated in our survey (69%) have been homeless at some point in their lives. The majority (58%) currently live in a shelter, on the street or subway, or in temporary living situations.
• Survey takers manage intense targeting by police: over half have been stopped for questioning and almost half have been arrested. Further, 29% have been strip-searched and 19% have been physically assaulted by police at least once.
• Over 70% of survey takers rely on government financial and health benefits. Yet almost half report discrimination in a government or community agency - ranging from verbal harrassment to physical assault - and two-fifths of those were denied services. Staff or employees were involved in over 50% of incidents, police in over 40% and guards in 20%.

As these statistics begin to indicate, the report shows that low-income queers are dealing with issues of government and nonprofit violence, both inside and outside LGBT organizations. The struggles go beyond making ends meet; violences of poverty, racism, policing, and ablism pervade the lives of low income LGBTGNC New Yorkers.

At the same time, low income LGBTGNC communities give back and fight back. 113 responders described the 271 groups and organizations they are part of and 58% take action on their own and with others to resist daily injustices and build the communities they want to live in. Recommendations and desires included in the report include promoting community ethics, ending the use of the law against our communities, and taking action together for economic, housing, racial, sexual, and gender justice.

WWRC findings contribute to the ongoing call for attention to the ways racism and economic injustice intersect with homophobia and transphobia. This is necessary because of the ways LGBT issues continue to be framed in mainstream political and research agendas primarily in terms of sexuality, and to some extent gender, while ignoring racialized and classed dimensions of peoples’ everyday lives. Further, because low-income LGBTGNC people draw on their identities to survive and resist discriminatory and dehumanizing treatment, it is crucial to see and honor each other as members of multiple communities.

Download the full report here.

An accompanying documentary produced by the Welfare Warriors’ Research Collaborative will be screening in NYC and around the country. Portions will be made available online soon.

JOIN THE CALL TO FIND OUT!

Please RSVP to this call.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

2pm-3:30pm EST/11am-12:30pm PST

Conference Call # (712) 432-0600

Password: 751219#

Moderator: Kenyon Farrow, Queers for Economic Justice (New York, NY)

Presenters include:

Donna Pavetti, Center for Budget & Policy Priorities. (TANF)

Ari Rosmarin, New York Civil Liberties Union. (REAL ID Act)

Francis X. Tobin, Jobs with Justice. (Local Jobs for America Act)

Nia Robinson & Kari Fulton, Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (American Power Act)

Click Here to RSVP!

The purpose of the Act Queer! teleconference series is to connect grassroots LGBTQ, racial,and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and  strategies on racial and economic justice issues.

1) Amber Hollibaugh–QEJ Board Member–delivers QEJ’s Tidal Wave Report to the Whitehouse! QEJ is proud to announce that the Obama administration now has several copies of QEJ’s Tidal Wave Report–a collection of much of the existing data on LGBTQ people, poverty, health-care, housing, disability, and other economic justice issues with particular attention to dynamics of race, gender, geographic location, and immigration status. It is especially important as the 2010 Census gets into full swing, that the federal government has some empirical picture of our lives and needs.

2) The Shelter Organizing Project prepares a report on their experiences of City shelters.  QEJ has stepped up its organizing efforts in with LGBTQ people in NYC shelters, and is gathering stories from shelter residents to prepare a report as one step towards a campaign for safety for queer, trans and gender nonconforming shelter residents.

3) The Welfare Justice Campaign (which QEJ is a coalition partner) continues to push the Human Resources Administration to begin implementing best-practice guidelines around gender-non-conforming and LGBTQ welfare applicants after a 5-year push by the Welfare Justice Campaign, which QEJ is a coalition partner.

4) The National Public Education Project’s very popular Act Queer! Teleconference Calls has had over 500 participants in its first year! It serves as a platform for engaged discussion around LGBTQ people and jobs, welfare, incarceration, immigration, the economic recession and other issues & QEJ Plans to reignite the local and national queer economic justice network with a renewed focus on forming alliances with economic justice advocates. Next Call: May 27th at 2pm EST will focus on The REAL ID Act, Local Jobs for America Act, and upcoming TANF Re-authorization. Details coming soon!

5) QEJ will be presenting at the Allied Media Conference and the US Social Forum in Detroit this June! Our Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative will be screening its new documentary at the AMC, while QEJ is also working with the other organizations of the Astraea Movement Building Program to convene dozens of other queer and trans organizations from around the to build a national strategy for future coalition work.

6) The Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative’s new report “A Fabulous Attitude: Low-Income LGBTGNC People Surviving & Thriving on Love, Shelter, & Knowledge,” to be released later this month.
The Amazingly Queer Race for Economic Justice is a fundraiser benefiting Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ). Questions? Please contact us at race@q4ej.org.

Research is something many grassroots movements shun, given its history of pathologizing low-income, queer and trans people, people of color, the disabled, etc.

And yet, there is a wealth of research happening by grassroots organizations, and researchers interested in the strength & resilience of communities.

What are the research strategies being utilized by different queer and progressive groups? What has been successful and what has failed in the past? When complete, where and how is this research distributed? How can the movements engage research towards creating a vision of social justice?

The April 29th call focused on the grassroots research of several organizations:

To hear each presenter press play on the audio. Read materials from each presenter just below the audio player.

Michelle Billies, Dwayne Bibb and Kagendo Murungi, Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative (New York, NY)

• Their report should be released this summer, stay tuned!

Shira Hassan, Young Women’s Empowerment Project (Chicago, IL)

• Download their report entitled Girls Do What They Have to Do to Survive: Methods Used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal here!

Juan Battle, Social Justice Sexuality Initiative (New York, NY)

• Take his survey here!

Download QEJ’s most recent report entitled Tidal Wave: LGBT Poverty & Hardship in a Time of Economic Crisis.

If you have questions, comments, or know of other resources or events related to this topic, please feel free to post in the comments section!

The purpose of Act Queer! is to connect grassroots LGBTQ racial and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and strategies on racial and economic justice research, organizing and advocacy.

Building a Queer Left

QEJ is working on a new research report through the Building a Queer Left project (BQL). The BQL project seeks to build a progressive and radical coalition of organizations who approach their work in queer communities through a racial and economic justice framework. This coalition is determined to identify what issues are present within the “other” gay agenda.

The creation of an organizational directory is one of the tasks of the BQL coalition. This directory will feature organizations/groups/projects that are organizing around issues affecting our queer communities. This directory will be available to the public and can be used as a tool for grant proposals, referrals and coalition-building. We hope to complete this report by the end of the summer. Stay tuned!