We have an incredible slate of speakers lined up for this year’s Funding Forward in Atlanta, GA. To help you get ready for the conversations at our annual conference of grantmakers committed to LGBTQ issues, we thought we would compile some pre-readings. Enjoy! (See the full Funding Forward schedule here.)

Out in the South: Assets and Opportunities

More than one in three LGBTQ Americans live in the U.S. South and LGBTQ Southern communities are more likely to live in hostile environments, face discrimination, live in poverty, and experience health disparities than their peers in other regions of the country. Thursday’s morning plenary will highlight Southern leaders and organizations that are working hard to build community and solve problems with minimal resources. Funding communities are learning how to better support them. (Get more details on the session here).

• For background reading, see Funders’ For LGBTQ Issues “Out in the South” report series. Part One focuses on foundation funding in the U.S. South, part two focuses on community assets in the U.S. South.
• The Williams Institute also has a great report, “The LGBT Divide: A Data Portrait of LGBT People in the Midwestern, Mountain & Southern States”
• Check out Southern Equality Campaign’s Southern “LGBT Rights Tool Kit”

Critical Voices: Trans Justice in the South

From the media to funding conversations, transgender issues are a hot topic. Simultaneously, in 2014 with murder rates at an all time high, trans communities are literally fighting for their lives. Thursday’s afternoon workshop will bring together a community-led funder, a Southern community organization, grantees and activists. We hope to help give funders first hand access to learning what transgender communities themselves have identified as most important to them. (Get more details on the session here).

• Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ newest report “TRANSformational Impact: U.S. Foundation Funding for Trans Communities” provides a good overview and analysis of the current state of trans funding
• Gabriel Foster, Director of the Trans Justice Funding Project, recently wrote a case study of TJFP’s new funding model for the Grassroots Fundraising Journal called, “Funding a Movement”

Religious Exemptions, Religious Freedom and LGBTQ Equality and Justice

Thursday’s afternoon plenary will speak to the issue or religious exemptions/freedom and how the law can be used to undermine and undo the progress the LGBT community has made with the freedom to marry among other freedoms. (Get more details on the session here)

• To better understand religious exemptions laws, how they effect LGBTQ communities and why we should keep them from being passed, read ACLU’s report, “4 Laws That Allow Religion to Be Used to Harm Gay and Transgender People”
• Also check out “Religious Refusals to Public Accommodations Laws: Four Reasons to Say No,” which was published in Harvard Journal of Law and Gender

The Lives and Needs of LGBTQ Sex Workers and the Case for Expanded Funding for the Health and Rights

Many activists and funders also understand the interlinked needs; the social, economic and legal marginalization of trans people, LGBTQ people of color, and young LGBTQ people is a part of why people choose to be sex workers even where sex work is criminalized, and the violence, incarceration, and poor health faced by LGBTQ sex workers is of concern for the health and rights of the LGBTQ communities in which they live. Thursday will end with a session that explores how funding for sex worker rights is one important way to support the lived experience of LGBTQ people.  (Get more details on the session here)

• For background reading see: “Funding for Sex Workers Rights: Opportunities for foundations to fund more and better”
• “Public Health Crisis: An analysis of the impact of using condoms as evidence of prostitution in New York City”
• “The Road North: The Role of Gender, Poverty and Violence in Trafficking from Mexico to the US”

The Past, Present and Future of Funding for Marriage Equality

The Friday morning plenary will have us exploring the great success of the marriage equality movement and how philanthropy has played a pivotal role. The session will also discuss the challenges and lessons learned over the years and how these lessons may be applicable to other LGBT social justice movements. (Get more details on the session here)

• The Civil Marriage Collaborative has supplied us with a case study of what it took to pass legal marriage equality in NY State. “Enacting Marriage Equality in New York State: A three-month campaign that took years to build.”
• The Civil Marriage Collaborative has also written an evaluation on the impact of C3 funding on marriage equality. You can read more about that here, “Advancing Marriage Equality in 2012: The impact and efficacy of public education funding.”

A Global Gaze: Funding LGBTQI Rights Internationally

One of Friday’s sessions will feature the major advances and regressive actions of international LGBTQI rights. Speakers will share the dynamic landscape of global LGBTQI activism and share lessons learned and promising strategies for funding. (Get more details on the session here)

• To better understand basic international LGBTQI rights concepts and learn about more resources, read “Global LGBTQI Rights – Terms and Resources”

The Day After Legal Equality: Civil Rights, Culture Change and Social Justice

Friday’s closing plenary will have us reflect on lessons from other movements that have achieved legal equality but struggled to make progress on economic and social inequities. The speakers will share promising strategies for advancing culture change and for building movements for social change in the 21st century. Together, we will explore how we can seize the momentum of our progress on legal equality to achieve the longer-term vision of equity and social justice. (Get more details on the session here)

• Read about new leadership that is taking bold, innovative and radical read, “Celebrating MLK Day: Reclaiming our Movement Legacy”
• Read about what has changed in Selma thanks to the civil rights movement, and what still has yet to be done, “What Happened in Selma?”
• Read about Funding Culture Change, “The new GLAAD report maps long road to full LGBT acceptance, despite historic legal advances”