Charity launches new fund to help trans campaigners across the world
The trans flag (Creative Commons)
LGBT charity Giveout has launched a new fund to support trans activism worldwide, which is being sponsored by trans businesswoman Antonia Belcher and her wife Andrea.
The annual grant – called ‘The Antonia & Andrea Belcher Trans Fund’ – will provide at least £12,500 to support trans campaigners globally.
Antonia and Andrea Belcher hope to grow the fund to more than £25,000 annually.
“To be the true me, I have had a lot of luck, and an accepting and loving family and workplace – I know only too well that for many others this is not the case,” said Antonia Belcher, who is a founding partner of the building consultancy MHBC and has also appeared on the Independent’s Rainbow List.
“If I can help one soul to be free and true with this fund then I will be the proudest transgender woman alive.”
“I hope my contacts and friends will share my aim by giving to this fund, when I talk or join panels in the future perhaps.”
According to GiveOut, trans organisations globally are “deeply under-resourced.”
(GiveOut_Org/Twitter)
A 2017 survey, called ‘The State of Trans Organising’, found that more than half of trans groups globally had annual budgets of less than US$10,000 (£7,500).
Rupert Abbott, GiveOut’s executive director, said: “We are tremendously excited to be working with Antonia and Andrea to bring new resources into the trans movement, and are ambitious to grow the fund.”
“We aim to work with established trans funds and groups and consult across the LGBTQI movement to learn where the new fund can have the most impact.”
The first grants from the fund will be allocated in the second half of 2018.
GiveOut is a UK-based charity that supports LGBTQI causes worldwide.
(GiveOut_Org/Twitter)
The charity is welcoming donations from the public to support the new grant.
To donate to The Antonia & Andrea Belcher Trans Fund, visit giveout.org/donate.
Or, to set up a standing order or to make a bank transfer to the fund, email Abbott at [email protected].
On Sunday, PinkNews reported on transfeminine and gender non-conforming Alok Vaid-Menon, who shared a powerful message on social media about the abuse they receive, after getting “thousand of comments telling me to die.”
The performance artist told PinkNews that trans and non-binary people are in a “state of emergency.”
They told PinkNews: “I am routinely verbally, physically, and sexually assaulted just for navigating the public as a gender non-conforming person.
“People take photos of me without my consent, shove me, spit on me, laugh at me, and insult me simply for walking down the street.”
“In the past I have been physically attacked and groped by random people on trains and on the street.”
