Cultivating queer joy
Over the summer, Stonewall leaned into joy as an integral aspect of queer liberation. Providing funding and organizing support for events that centered queer and trans joy, we got a glimpse of the future our community deserves — the future we fight for every day at Stonewall! Read on to learn about a couple events we partnered on this summer that turned joy into action for our community.
Drag artist The Illustrious Pearl performs during Stand Up: NYC, a benefit drag show that raises funds for trans and queer organizations and issues across the country.
Stand Up: NYC - more than just a drag show
Produced by drag artist Julie J and nightlife producer Aaron S. Hock, Stand Up: NYC is a benefit drag show that raises funds for trans and queer organizations and issues across the country. Since March 2023, Stand Up: NYC has raised over $75,000 for causes ranging from national transgender organizations to memorial costs for murdered Black queer men O’Shea Sibley and DeAndre Matthews. The benefit shows feature dozens of NYC drag performers and allow New Yorkers to dance and celebrate while raising money for important causes. In the face of trans identities and drag performers being criminalized in legislation across the country, Stand Up: NYC is a defiant way to show support and raise funds for our trans and queer siblings. The ethos is right up Stonewall’s alley.
Stonewall fund partners Christopher and David Murray approached us in May of 2023 with a request. They wanted to make a grant through their donor-advised fund to three organizations that the Stand Up: NYC drag benefit was supporting and wanted to know if Stonewall could join them in matching their grants. The Stonewall team was so inspired by this idea that we used discretionary funds to make $5,000 grants to each of those organizations.
“With the help of your inspired matching support, Stand Up NYC: Pride raised $38,011.01 for trans and queer lives in NYC and across the country,” wrote Julie and Aaron.
The organizations supported by the June event were: Black Trans Femmes in the Arts (BTFA), Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, and Campaign for Southern Equality's Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project, a new regional effort which provides rapid response support directly to the families of youth who are impacted by anti-transgender healthcare bans in the South. We’re proud to amplify the work for Stand Up: NYC and can’t wait for the next show.
TRANSMISSION - NYC’s first-ever trans music festival
On June 20, the Williamsburg, Brooklyn waterfront played host to NYC’s first-ever trans music festival, TRANSMISSION. Fittingly located in Brooklyn’s beautiful new Marsha P. Johnson State Park, TRANSMISSION was produced by Stonewall board member Cecilia Gentili and her consulting firm Trans Equity Consulting, Inc.
TRANSMISSION featured an iconic all-trans lineup of singers, rappers, musicians, and drag performers. The festival was free, accessible, and open to the public, and featured interactive installations, nonprofit pop-ups, and food vendors. Hundreds of attendees packed the park to dance, eat, and watch performances from POSE’s Maya Margarita, rapper Rah Rah Gabor, composer STEFA*, NYC drag favorites Dev Doee & Charlene Incarnate, and more.
All proceeds raised from the festival benefited our work here at Stonewall Community Foundation, along with Black Trans Liberation Kitchen and Queer Art. We can’t wait to do it again next summer!
Stonewall funds critical work that advances our dream of collective liberation and improves the everyday lives of LGBTQ people. Your gift plays a definitive role in making progress possible.