Organizers from racial and LGBT social justice groups across the South today launched their new #WeAreTheSouth/#SomosElSur social media photo campaign. The groups have been collecting photos from organizers and community members all summer and they say the project will “amplify the lives, intersectional organizing and leadership of LGBTQ people, people of color, and immigrant communities and organizations in the South.”
“As immigrants, people of color and/or LGBTQ people living in the South, we understand that our lives and our work are not contained within single issues and we refuse to be siloed and separated from one another Âbecause we are truly better together,” the groups said in a release.
The project is organized by the Better Together Southern Leadership and Action Cohort, a coalition of eight organizations: BreakOUT!, Center for Artistic Revolution, Fairness Campaign, Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition, Southeast Immigrant Rights Network, SPARK Reproductive Justice Now, the Greensboro, N.C.-based Trans* People of Color Coalition and the Charlotte-based The Freedom Center for Social Justice. The initiative is supported by Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation.
Better Together says they are a “multifaceted initiative” that combines research, media and leadership development. Much of their work is based on a Race Forward report released last year, “Better Together: Bridging LGBT & Racial Justice.”
According to their campaign media kit, the group seeks to:
- Increase the visibility of organizations and activists who are often overshadowed by castÂled and single issue organizing,
- Highlight the true diversity of the South and the vital Southern leadership in intersectional LGBTQ organizing that goes beyond marriage equality, and
- Create a space that honors the unique experiences of being immigrants, people of color and/or LGBTQ people in the South.
Better Together is inviting the public to participate in their photo campaign today by tweeting, tumbling and Facebooking messages and photos of support using the hashtags #WeAreTheSouth and #SomosElSur. A collection of photos already collected can be found on the campaigns website at wearethesouth.org.