Before I just inundate you with stats and historical facts about why it’s important to AMPLIFY and RECOGNIZE Black LGBTQ lives, I want to do a little storytime on an incredible leader involved in the LGBTQ Movement in America. Her name is Marsha P. Johnson.

Sahara Powell is one of my dearest friends, and I don’t think my resource guide on this movement would be a real resource guide if I didn’t include her amazing voice. I won’t be copying and pasting her post on this thread, because I strongly feel that you need to be visiting her site and reading her amazing writing on the incredible platform she’s built.

Here’s a list of the GoFundMe Fundraisers that she’s shared with me. A lot of these are for helping families and small businesses directly and on an individual level, which is super helpful to get the funds in their hands quicker than if you’re donating through a a bigger org:

Maybe you’re like me and you’re totally immunocompromised or you live with someone who’s immunocompromised. Maybe you’re not, and you’re just tryna do your best to survive this global pandemic—that’s fair too.

Either way, you’ve come to this post because you’re trying to see how you can not only give a shit about what’s going on, but you also want to educate, spread knowledge, and actually DO something for the cause. You’re in luck. I’ve outlined a few things below:

Thinking about emailing your manager or your bosses about what your company can do to contribute to the BLM movement? Same.

This idea had consumed me so much that I actually put together a 12-slide powerpoint presentation on Corporate Responsibility and The Black Lives Matter movement— because it’s more than just a hashtag.