In the time since our last qnotes article, the world around us changed beyond recognition. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis is disproportionately impacting our communities and the most vulnerable among us while revealing massive flaws and holes within our social and political systems. All the while, so many of us are isolated in our homes without access to physical community spaces or support systems we’d long since become reliant upon.
Those being most heavily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis are, in many cases, the communities who were already under the most threat in our nation: resource-poor folks, people of color, immigrants, undocumented individuals, people experiencing homelessness, people engaging in underground economies like sex work and people without access to healthcare. In many ways, it makes the reality of intersectional oppression even pronounced and visible through a lens that we haven’t seen before.
It’s a scary time to be alive, but Equality North Carolina (ENC) is working around the clock to try and plug in where we can and support those who need it most during this ongoing crisis.
Join Us Online
We’ve put together a community assessment survey in an effort to reach you and find out what our communities need most during this time. You can find it on our website and social media channels. If you need support, let us know — we’re here to help you navigate this uncertain time and connect you with the resources that you need.
We’ve also moved all of our events and programming online. If you head to our Facebook page you can find information about weekly yoga classes, movie nights, monthly chapter meetings and transgender and gender non-conforming support groups in addition to special events like Town Halls and open forums.
ENC is also continuing to seek out and promote a wide variety of resources through our website channels. From unemployment to mental health to food scarcity, we all need support in different ways right now. You can find our ongoing list of avenues for support here. If you have something you’d like us to uplift, email nate@equalitync.org.
These are difficult and isolating times for us all, but LGBTQ people have a rich history of building community and finding one another during some of this country’s most difficult periods. Please, join us online as we continue this tradition and come together and support one another during this hour of need.
Join Us In Coalition
ENC has joined NC United for Survival and Beyond, a coalition of over 200 organizations that co-created 10 demands of the North Carolina General Assembly and governor to respond to with regard to the most vulnerable communities during COVID-19 — and beyond.
These demands include calls for expanding medicaid, protecting immigrants and protecting incarcerated folks — asks for our legislators to take steps to protect the most vulnerable among us in the weeks and months ahead.
We’re asking all of you to be a part of this movement and add your name to the list of the demands on the NC United for Survival and Beyond website.
Soon, we’ll bring these demands directly to our legislators. We invite you to be a part of this movement and join our staff and membership as we all take tangible steps towards building a better North Carolina — even while we’re stuck in our homes.
Join Us As We Move Forward Together
The world is never going to look the same once we’re past the collective trauma of COVID-19. The way we work will be different.
The way we move through the world will be different. The way we live will be different.
We all have a role today in shaping what that future will look like. At the end of the day, Equality North Carolina wants you to know that we are here to help guide you through this ongoing process as we collectively fight for a better world than we had before.
If you’d like you to join us, please visit equalitync.org. We’d love to have you be a part of this movement.
Kendra R. Johnson is the executive director for Equality North Carolina based in Raleigh, N.C.