Loud & Proud - Supporting LGBTQ+ Advocacy Across Greater Washington
Throughout the year - and especially during Pride Month - The Community Foundation is proud to support the work of our partners who advocate for systems change on behalf of LGBTQ+ communities across the DMV.
We know that Pride isn’t just about celebration - it’s about recognition, resilience, and ongoing work towards a world where everyone can live authentically and feel seen, heard, and loved.
This Pride Month, we celebrate not just the vibrant diversity of the LGBTQ+ community, but also the incredible advocates, allies, and everyday heroes who stand up for equality and inclusion.
-
Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
The DC LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition serves LGBTQ+ communities across all eight wards of Washington, DC, with a strong focus on those who are most systemically marginalized.
This includes:
Black and Brown transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals
LGBTQ+ youth and seniors
Low-to-no-income residents
People with disabilities
Unhoused and housing-insecure individuals
Briefly describe the story behind your organization. What was the inspiration to focus on changing systems rather than just providing services?
The DC LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition was born out of a shared frustration with the status quo, where LGBTQ+ organizations had to compete for minimal funding, and structural change felt out of reach. Rather than focusing solely on direct services, a small group of community organizers and advocates came together to ask: What would it look like to reshape city systems and budgets to reflect the needs and leadership of LGBTQ+ people?
With a vision of collective power, we shifted toward budget advocacy to secure long-term, systemic investments in housing, healthcare, safety, and economic opportunity. What began as a handful of voices has grown into a powerful coalition of over 20 LGBTQ-led and LGBTQ-serving organizations working in unison to push for transformational change.
What changes have you seen that give you hope, even when the work feels challenging?
In just a few years, we’ve helped secure over $20 million in investments for LGBTQ+ programs and services. We’ve seen the District fund initiatives led by trans-led organizations, expand shelter and housing options, expand governmental competency trainings to include LGBTQ+ identities and experiences, provide seed funding for the new and improved DC LGBTQ+ Community Center (akin to centers in LA, NYC, Chicago, etc.) and invest in mental health resources tailored to our communities.
Perhaps most heartening is the shift in narrative — policymakers are beginning to see LGBTQ+ people, especially those at the intersections of race, gender identity, and class, as essential voices in shaping policy, not just as service recipients.
How do you make sure the full diversity of LGBTQIA+ experiences shapes your work?
First and foremost, we are mission-driven. We prioritize leadership from those most impacted: Black and Brown trans folks, youth, and disabled LGBTQ+ residents, and ensure they are at the center of priority setting, strategy, and meetings with decision-makers. We engage in continuous dialogue with community members through listening sessions, surveys, and peer-led convenings. This happens on small and large scales, including organizing the first-ever LGBTQ+ housing summit in DC in 2023. We also support individuals and smaller, underfunded grassroots groups to ensure their perspectives are heard and uplifted.
What do people misunderstand about the challenges LGBTQIA+ communities face today?
There’s a widespread misconception, largely rooted in high-profile wins like marriage equality, that LGBTQ+ people have “won” the fight for rights. But beneath these legal victories lies a more complex and painful reality: trans people of color still face disproportionate violence, many queer youth are unhoused or unsupported by their families, and affirming healthcare remains out of reach for many.
People often overlook how structural issues — housing, policing, education, mental health — impact queer and trans people uniquely. Our work is about addressing those root systems of harm, not just symptoms.
In particular, Black and Brown LGBTQ+ individuals continue to face increased risks of HIV due to systemic barriers to prevention, testing, and care. Economic inequity and limited employment opportunities — especially for Black and Brown trans and nonbinary people — further entrench cycles of poverty and marginalization. Legal progress like marriage equality doesn’t erase the material realities our communities still navigate every day.
What resources or support have been game-changers for your organization's effectiveness?
Support from The Community Foundation and other funding sources over the past several years has been transformative. Multi-year, flexible funding has allowed us to invest in the often-overlooked foundations of systems change: relationship-building, community-led strategy, and sustained political education.
Strategic support from a lead coordinator of the DC LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition has enabled the alignment and coordination of over 20 partner organizations, ensuring we move with clarity and purpose toward shared goals.
Access to the DC Council budget process and strong partnerships with legislative allies, built and maintained through this support, have helped shift public resources toward LGBTQ+ communities most impacted by systemic inequities.
While this progress is significant, continued and expanded investment is essential. Additional funding is needed to sustain momentum, deepen impact, and ensure long-term support for the work and infrastructure of the coalition.
If we were having this conversation again in five years, what change would you hope to be celebrating?
A fortified and fully funded LGBTQ+ agency within DC government — the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs (MOLGBTA) — equipped to lead, coordinate, and resource transformative policy and programming across the city.
A fully funded youth homelessness services continuum that includes prevention, emergency housing, transitional programs, and long-term supports tailored to LGBTQ+ young people.
Permanent funding for trans-led housing and safety programs.
Sustainable, affordable, and dedicated housing options for LGBTQ+ youth and seniors — designed with and for community members to ensure dignity, stability, and long-term impact.
Full access to comprehensive healthcare and affirming care for everyone in the LGBTQ+ community — with a focus on ensuring trans people can receive the respectful, competent, and life-saving services they deserve.
Multiple pathways to and expanded access for culturally competent mental health services — especially for LGBTQ+ individuals experiencing homelessness, living with chronic conditions, or navigating trauma.
A culture shift where queer and trans leadership is reflected more in the DC government (and nationally) as elected officials, agency leads, etc.
-
Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
We serve all of Maryland’s marginalized communities. Every day we do our best to connect with and provide resources to LGBTQ+ Marylanders, people living with HIV, Black and Brown communities, and the many other groups who are too often left out of ongoing conversations around support.
Briefly describe the story behind your organization. What was the inspiration to focus on changing systems rather than just providing services?
FreeState Justice actually has a very unique origin story; we were created from the merging of two separate organizations, Equality Maryland and FreeState Legal Project. These were both groups that operated in the early 2010s fighting for the rights of LGBTQ+ Marylanders, with Equality Maryland especially being instrumental in legalizing same-sex marriage! In 2016 they combined, taking the most valuable aspects of each to forge FreeState Justice, Maryland’s leading LGBTQ+ legal nonprofit. We were founded through innovation, by organizations committed to improving society for all — we’re proud to say that changing systems has always been a part of our mission!
What changes have you seen that give you hope, even when the work feels challenging?
It cannot be overstated how elated FreeState Justice is regarding the recent passing of the Carlton R. Smith Jr. HIV Modernization Act, a piece of legislation we’ve been pushing for years. In a time when our communities are constantly facing legislative attacks, seeing a bill that safeguards the rights of those living with HIV — an illness whose criminalization disproportionately impacts LGBTQ+ and Black/Brown communities — receive so much support has been so uplifting. It's a reminder of the immense good our communities can do when we work together, and it's helped everyone at FSJ re-commit themselves to our mission.
How do you make sure the full diversity of LGBTQIA+ experiences shapes your work?
We recognize that the most effective form of advocacy is one that is constantly in conversation with those being advocated for. We are lucky that Maryland's LGBTQ+ community is filled with different identities, and we host many opportunities throughout the year for these people to speak with us on how we can improve our services. From policy listening sessions, to digital town halls, to literally speaking with people at Pride festivals, we are constantly looking for feedback to ensure our work is one that supports the full diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community.
What do people misunderstand about the challenges LGBTQIA+ communities face today?
Too often, individuals within the LGBTQ+ community focus on our different identities rather than the fact that we are all one big community. It makes it far too easy for our more privileged members to believe that attacks on our more vulnerable members — especially our Trans siblings — don't affect them. It's only until we overcome this divisive mindset and commit to completely supporting the rights and respect of one another that we can hope to move forward as a community. Now more than ever, we have to unite and remember that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us!
What resources or support have been game-changers for your organization's effectiveness?
While FSJ is immensely grateful for the institutional grants and donations we receive throughout the year, it's been the uptick in local support that has truly been a game changer. Our entire mission is dedicated to serving Maryland's LGBTQ+ community, so to have seen an outpouring of donations from local organizations, coalitions, and individuals in recent years means more than I can describe. Not only is it essential for us to provide what we do, it helps our staff see the direct impact of their work and improves effectiveness overall.
If we were having this conversation again in five years, what change would you hope to be celebrating?
In five years, I hope we’ll be celebrating the massive amount of pro-Trans, LGBTQ+ inclusive legislation that FreeState Justice has been able to help pass. Not only will our organization continue providing free legal services and resources to those who need it most, with the recent announcement of our C4, FreeState Equality, we’ll play even more of a role in passing legislation that makes this state — and the entire country — more inclusive for all.
-
Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
We serve LGBTQIA+ Virginians across the Commonwealth.
Briefly describe the story behind your organization. What was the inspiration to focus on changing systems rather than just providing services?
Equality Virginia was founded in 1989 as Virginians For Justice with the goal of advancing the cause of equal justice for all across the Commonwealth. Today, the organization is known as Equality Virginia and our mission is to advocate and organize across Virginia to build a future where LGBTQ+ people thrive. We believe that lasting change happens not just through supporting individuals, but by transforming the systems that harm or exclude them in the first place. While direct services are essential, they often address symptoms rather than root causes. We focus on addressing those root causes, shifting narratives, and building power within LGBTQ+ communities.
Since 2020, our movement has faced a wave of policy attacks on LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people. Anti-equality forces have weaponized trans youth in particular. Unless we solve this, it’s not just LGBTQ+ rights that suffer - democracy, bodily autonomy, and progress toward racial justice also hang in the balance. As we look ahead, we know the legislative landscape will present challenges, especially given a hostile federal administration and states governed by extremist legislators who continue to target transgender people as part of their anti-rights agenda.
As a movement, we’ve invested in research on how to talk about specific issues affecting trans people, such as transition-related care and the ability to participate in sports. We see the need to invest in a comprehensive framework that fundamentally shifts worldviews toward empathy and justice for transgender people, is authentic to the diverse experience of transgender people, and is grounded in community organizing and capacity building. Across the LGBTQ+ and allied movements, leaders and funders recognize the need to shift culture through new narratives and organizing strategies, and we are ready to meet the challenge.
What changes have you seen that give you hope, even when the work feels challenging?
Pure and simple-- we've seen people power. That's what gives me hope.
And we're seeing greater collaboration across movements for racial justice, reproductive freedom, and LGBTQ+ rights. That kind of intersectional, community-led momentum gives me real hope. It reminds us that progress isn’t always linear, but it is always possible when people show up for each other.
How do you make sure the full diversity of LGBTQIA+ experiences shapes your work?
In early 2024, Equality Virginia embarked on a strategic planning journey to shape a clear, actionable vision for the organization’s future. The process began with a focused pre-Gather phase, where Equality Virginia’s leadership and Strategic Planning Team came together to define key questions and goals that would ensure a strategic plan rooted in the organization’s mission and responsive to the current climate.
Committed to genuine community engagement, Equality Virginia prioritized gathering input from a broad range of voices. This decision led to one-on-one interviews with 19 stakeholders, engagement with 184 community members through a comprehensive survey, a staff retreat with its five-member team, and a strategically focused board retreat. These conversations provided valuable insights and perspectives that informed the objectives of the strategic plan.
Our 2025-2027 Strategic Plan is truly informed by the community we serve and the goals within the plan provide continuous opportunities for community engagement and feedback.
What do people misunderstand about the challenges LGBTQIA+ communities face today?
Many people assume the work is done because of marriage equality or growing LGBTQ+ visibility. Many people assume that enacting laws and policies addressing the challenges we face makes those challenges go away. Many people assume that the threats we face are not imminent or real, but they are.
What resources or support have been game-changers for your organization's effectiveness?
General operating support and volunteers are game-changers!!
As a small team with a critical mission, general operating support has been an absolute game-changer for Equality Virginia. Flexible funding is both kindness and trust. It allows us to be nimble and responsive. It means we can focus on strategy and impact.
Equally important are the incredible volunteers who power our work—from leading voter registration drives to sharing their stories.
This combination of trust, flexibility, and people power is what makes our work both possible and powerful.
If we were having this conversation again in five years, what change would you hope to be celebrating?
For Equality Virginia, I hope we're celebrating a larger staff! I hope we're celebrating an increase of meaningful investments in LGBTQ+ movement work in Black, brown, trans, and rural communities.
Broadly speaking, I hope we're celebrating a culture and narrative shift. I hope we've built, or are starting to build, durable change for transgender and non-binary people through community-informed tools and organizing strategies.