Daily Donations: 6/10/2020 — (Brave Space Alliance, Shahid Buttar (House of Representatives, CA), Soul Trak Outdoors)
Every day in June I’ll be making 3 donations — one to a cause in the immediate term, one to a cause in the medium term, and one to a longer term cause. If you’d like to get involved, let me know! I’d be more than happy to share ideas and take suggestions. You can find all of the causes I’ve donated to so far, HERE.
I’m hoping to be able to make a post on Medium every day that explains why I’ve chosen each of my causes, with a little bit of my research linked. Here are my causes today:
First: Brave Space Alliance
Brave Space Alliance is another Chicago organization that’s doing great work in their community. I was initially made aware of them during the CTA shutdowns that left people stranded in the city past curfew. Brave Space Alliance worked with other organizations to organize rides and safe spaces for people affected by the situation.
But the core function of this organization is as a local LGBTQ space. Brave Space Alliance is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ Center located on the South Side of Chicago, dedicated to creating and providing affirming, culturally competent, resources, programming, and services for LGBTQ individuals on the South and West sides of the city.
They provide events, programs, and resources aimed at promoting health and wellness, visibility and expansion, and bravery and solidarity within Chicago’s LGBTQ community and oppressed peoples as a whole.
I wanted to make sure that I donated to an organization that was focused on this cause because it has been truly amazing to see the LGBTQ community set aside a lot of their Pride month programming in solidarity with the black community as work towards achieving racial equality has taken center stage.
You can donate to Brave Space Alliance here.
Second: Shahid Buttar (US House of Rep., CA)
Shahid Buttar is a candidate for the US House of Representatives for California’s 12th District. Buttar was born in London before attending the University of Chicago, Harold Washington Community College, Northwestern University (woo!), and Loyola University Chicago; he earned a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2003. Buttar’s career experience includes working as a legal advocate and the Director of Grassroots Advocacy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization.
Buttar will be running against the current Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. There are a lot of reasons why I believe that Buttar would make a better representative than Pelosi — some as trivial as his awesome beard, some slightly less trivial like the fact that he didn’t join in some weird performative pseudo-racist staged tribute recently, and some really damn important like the juxtaposition between his representation of the more progressive wing of the Democratic part with Pelosi’s centrist agenda.
Buttar is incredibly well spoken, has a great track record of service, and supports a thoroughly progressive agenda — backing Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and other progressive cornerstones.
You can donate to Shahid Buttar here.
Third: Soul Trak Outdoors
Thanks to Ellen for recommnding this awesome DC-based org!
From Ellen:
Soul Trak Outdoors is a nonprofit based in D.C. that “connects communities of color to outdoor spaces while also building a coalition of diverse outdoor leaders.” There is a large disparity between the percentages of people of color visiting US National Parks compared to white people (white people make up 76% of the US population and comprised 78% of park visitors in 2016 while Black people make up 13% of the US population and comprised 7% of park visitors). Soul Trak Outdoors aims to connect people of color in outdoor spaces and empowers individuals to develop lasting engagement in the outdoors, leading to more inclusive outdoor spaces. They provide low-cost adventures for youth, college-age, and adults.
You can donate to Soul Trak here.