Voices of Solidarity / OUR PRIDE Shorts & Arts Fest
is a WorldPride 2025 Partner Event
Matt Beard, the Executive Director of All Out, discusses the organization's mission to promote LGBTQ+ rights globally and their approach to supporting frontline organizations and activists. He highlighted current challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community, including significant funding cuts and their impact on HIV/AIDS services and activism.
Matt emphasizes the importance of resilience, inclusive activism, and innovative funding strategies in the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ equality and liberation. Felipe Zurita Quintana of the Charter for Compassion interviews Matt about his international organization working for love and equality.
Matt explains All Out's mission to create a world where everyone can enjoy their rights to family, freedom, safety, and dignity, regardless of who they are or who they love. He described their approach of linking supporters with frontline organizations, conducting campaigns, and providing crowdfunding and training for young queer activists in Africa and Latin America.
LGBTQ+ Activism and Community Resilience
Matt discusses the current challenges facing the global LGBTQ+ community, emphasizing the need for resilience and the importance of calling people in rather than just out. He highlighs the necessity of renewing a more inclusive approach to activism, avoiding puritanical attitudes that may alienate potential allies. Matt also touches on the importance of funding and the impact of recent cuts to HIV/AIDS funding, while expressing optimism about the community's ability to overcome adversity.
LGBTQ+ Activism Funding Crisis Impact
Matt discusses the significant impact of funding cuts on global LGBTQ+ activism, highlighting that 45% of staff in partner organizations had already been dismissed or left, and 75% reported having to reduce or end life-saving services.
He estimates that between $100-150 million had been removed from the LGBT activism system, with a recent study in South Africa projecting an additional 500,000 excess deaths from HIV/AIDS over the next decade due to these cuts. Matt emphasizes the need for innovative and strategic approaches to address the underfunding, acknowledging that there is no simple solution.
LGBTQ+ Equality and Community Resilience
Felipe and Matt discuss the importance of power, resilience, and funding in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality. Matt emphasizes that achieving true liberation and equality will require continued community effort despite differences, and expresses confidence in the eventual success of the movement.
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