Celebrating Women's History Month

Stonewall Riot instigator Stormé DeLarverie poses outside of West Village lesbian bar, The Cubby Hole

Stonewall Community Foundation has a long history of actively supporting women. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows our work, including Bee’s Fund, which provides microgrants to support LBTQ young women and nonbinary youth, and the Traub-Dicker Rainbow Scholarship, which provides assistance for lesbians pursuing college or graduate degrees.

Women have been at the forefront of our Movement from the very beginning, when trailblazers like Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Ernestine Eckstein, or Barbara Gittings were organizing the Daughters of Bilitis and butch lesbian of color Stormé DeLarverie was helping ignite the Stonewall Riots. They’ve deepened our community’s culture, like through the art of jazz singer Gladys Bentley or Black lesbian poet Audre Lorde. They’ve provided constant community care, such as through the 80’s when women stepped forward to care for gay friends dying of HIV/AIDS. Cis and trans women have always been there, often doing the work side by side with men, usually while receiving disproportionately little credit.

For Women’s History Month, we wanted to share some of the great women-focused organizations that we support through a variety of programs. If you’d like to make to advise a grant to any of these, please let me know!

National Center for Lesbian Rights was the first national LGBTQ legal organization founded by women, bringing a fierce, longstanding commitment to racial and economic justice and our community’s most vulnerable.

Iris House saves lives through comprehensive support, prevention and education services for women, families, and underserved populations affected by HIV/AIDS and other health disparities in a safe, family-centered environment by passionate, professional, and culturally competent staff. It was named for early AIDS activist Iris De La Cruz.

New York Women’s Foundation is an inclusive platform for women and non-binary people, and a force for change. The Foundation's mission is to create an equitable and just future for all women and girls. It achieves this goal by uniting cross-cultural and community alliances that ignite action. The Foundation invests in women-led, innovative, and bold community-based solutions that promote the economic security, safety, and health of the most overlooked women.