To Fight Effectively for Any, We Must Fight for All

Many pundits and a number of national LGBT leaders have called for increased post-marriage equality focus on cross-movement justice work from LGBTQ organizations. 

Cross-movement work involves us in not only in the direct LGBTQ concerns of the movement, but also the racial justice movement, immigrant justice movement, the environmental justice movement, the HIV justice movement, the worker justice movement and the reproductive justice movement, among others. The Center is and will continue to be, a proud partner with many in the various justice movements and struggles. But more than just cross-movement work, this work involves the explicit recognition of the intersectionality of all of these identities and issues. All of these struggles and communities are interconnected. 

To fight fully and effectively for any of them requires that we work together to fight for all of them.  More than 50% of our LGBTQ community members in San Diego are of color and/or struggle to find the resources to live healthy lives in the most unaffordable area in the nation.  These are the issues of our community.

For example, as we fight against the stigma that exists for those living with HIV and work to ensure equal access to current information, insurance, HIV treatments and new protective treatments like PrEP and PEP – we are instantly faced with the obstacles of anti-LGBT attitudes and discomfort about gay male sexuality, along with the profound issues of poverty and racism. Thirty years after the virus exploded in America these struggles remain. In the age of possibility provided by Truvada, undetectable viral loads and the Affordable Care Act, with the promise of manageable, healthy lives and prevention treatments that can truly protect - epidemic levels of HIV continue. 

The issues and attitudes (poverty, racism, discrimination, bias and anti-LGBT attitudes) impact the lives and hopes of our youth, our black and Latino brothers, our transgender community and all those infected with HIV. 

This is intersectionality. This is the work. Join us. #Bethegeneration that does the work.
#blacklivesmatter
#translivesmatter
#bethegeneration