#COVID-19 and the #LGBT+ community

Dear friends,

In the past few months, we've been reaching out to grassroots LGBT+ groups around the world to hear about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From every corner of the world, we are hearing the same heartbreaking story: LGBT+ people who were already vulnerable before the crisis are now literally struggling to survive.

We have heard stories of pain, desperation, and fear: The lesbian refugee, terrified to return to her home country, whose asylum plea is now on hold indefinitely. The young, transgender woman, kicked out of her home and now unable to find work or afford safe housing. The HIV-positive gay man unable to access vital meds. Queer communities, targeted by police while their countries are on lockdown and no one is looking.

Now more than ever, we have a duty as a community to protect and defend our LGBT+ siblings who are at the sharp end of this pandemic. That's why All Out launched the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.

For the past two months, we've been working with donors and foundations to raise over US$150,000 to provide urgent support to LGBT+ communities facing immediate danger.

Our response has been fast and effective. So far, we're sending funds to about 50 groups around the world to help pay for essential needs such as food, soap, face masks, medications, and rent for safe shelter.

But we have run out of funds and there are still over 30 groups who urgently need life-saving support.

That's where you come in. 

By becoming an Equality Champion – All Out's group of monthly donors – you can help enable emergency relief for these LGBT+ groups in the months ahead.

Click here to start supporting this emergency relief work by becoming a monthly donor.

Here's just a snapshot of what we've been able to accomplish through this fund in the past month alone:

• In partnership with the Refugee Coalition of East Africa and African Human Rights Coalition, we paid for the purchase and delivery of hundreds of pounds of food and sanitation supplies to over 250 LGBT+ refugees in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp.

• Funds were delivered to our partner group in northern Italy, Quore, to expand their shelter for LGBT+ migrants facing homelessness. Of the support, one shelter resident said: "It's good to feel that I'm not alone anymore; this is so much more than a house, but a bigger community I can belong to."

• Ugandan police raided an LGBT+ shelter during the country's lockdown and wrongfully arrested 20 people for allegedly "breaching social distancing rules." We provided emergency support to a partner group in Uganda to help get the men released and safely re-housed.

• In partnership with Acción Igualitaria, we delivered food and other emergency supplies to the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador. Guayaquil has been ravaged and overwhelmed by COVID-19, with reports of bodies left to rot on the streets. Our partner there said: "You have been an oasis in the midst of so much disease, death, poverty and pain."

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. We've also provided emergency support to groups in Brazil, Cameroon, Costa Rica, France, Greece, Kenya, Tanzania, the UK, with many other applications for support in progress right now.

But the current need is so great, there are countless requests for help that will be left unfunded without further support.

Without additional, ongoing, monthly support, we won't be able to see this through. LGBT+ communities across Latin America and Africa are just starting to see the devastating impacts of this pandemic and are bracing for incredibly difficult months ahead.

This is the biggest crisis to hit our global LGBT+ family in a generation, but we can still make a difference. Do your part by becoming an Equality Champion today.

We'll be sure to keep you updated in the coming weeks on the progress we make, together.

Thanks for going All Out,

Matt, Sharifah, Mathias, Sarah, Angie, Leandro, and the rest of the All Out team