Media Organising

OUT FOR CHANGE

Towards Transformative Media Organizing LGBTQ and Two-Spirit media work in the United States

by the MIT Center for Civic Media, RAD, SAS, QUIP, INCITE!, GSANetwork, Freedom, Inc., Esperanza, and Black & Pink FEBRUARY, 2015 -1OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

OUT FOR CHANGE

Towards Transformative Media Organizing LGBTQ and Two-Spirit media work in the United States by the MIT Center for Civic Media, RAD, SAS, QUIP, INCITE!, GSANetwork, Freedom, Inc., Esperanza, and Black & Pink FEBRUARY, 2015

About the Out for Change Transformative Media Organizing Project This report was written collaboratively by the Out for Change Transformative Media Organizing Project (OCTOP). OCTOP, which began in 2013, links LGBTQ & Two-Spirit and allied media makers, online organizers, and tech-activists across the United States. OCTOP is guided by a core group of partners and advisers who are movement leaders working with LGBTQ and Two-Spirit populations, especially People of Color, working class, immigrant, and rural people, youth, and other vulnerable populations.

Resource Organizations Sasha Costanza-Chock, Becky Hurwitz, Kamaria Weemz Carrington The MIT Center for Civic Media works hand in hand with diverse communities to collaboratively create, design, deploy, and assess civic media tools and practices.

Chris Schweidler Research Action Design (RAD) uses community-led research, transformative media organizing, technology development, and collaborative design to build the power of grassroots social movements. We are a worker-owned collective. Our projects are grounded in the needs and leadership of communities in the struggle for justice and liberation.

Partner Organizations Mitchyll Mora, Andrea Ritchie Streetwise & Safe (SAS) builds and shares leadership, skills, knowledge and community among LGBTQQ youth of color who experience homelessness and criminalization. We conduct leadership development and “know your rights” workshops specifically tailored to LGBTQQ youth of color to share critical information about the criminal legal system as well as strategies to reduce the harms of interactions with police. SAS also creates opportunities for LGBTQQ youth of color to claim a seat in policy discussions as full participants, speak out on their own behalf, act collectively to protect their rights, and demand choices that allow them to maximize safety, self-sufficiency, and self-determination.

Luis Ramirez, Carlos Padilla, Jerssay Arredondo The Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project (QUIP), a project of United We Dream, seeks to organize and empower LGBTQ undocumented people, LGBTQ immigrants and allies through grassroots organizing, leadership development, advocacy and engage in alliance building between the LGBTQ and immigrant rights movements in order to fight for the rights and dignity of both communities.

Jill Marcellus, Dawn-Marie Luna, Alan Ratliff Gay-Straight Alliance Network is a national youth leadership organization that connects school-based Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) to each other and community resources through peer support, leadership development, and training.

Karla Mejia, Keren Pérez INCITE! Women, Gender Non-Conforming, and Trans people of Color* Against Violence is a national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and our communities through direct action, critical dialogue and grassroots organizing. INCITE! is made up of grassroots chapters and affiliates across the U.S. working on particular political projects such as police violence, reproductive justice, and media justice; a national collective that works to leverage this grassroots organizing on a national and transnational platform; an advisory collective that helps increase the capacity of national organizing; and thousands of members and supporters.

M Adams, Zon Moua, Quita Griffin Freedom, Inc. engages low- to no-income communities of color in Dane County, WI. We work to end violence against wimmin people, gender non-conforming people, and young people, to promote healthier living. We create healthy communities by organizing against the root causes of violence, creating new definitions and solutions of identity and resiliency, and empowering all community members as agents of change. Our vision for ending violence is to inspire and restore power of those most affected through leadership development and community organizing, in ways that are language-gender-generation and culture-specific to wimmin, gender non-conforming, and youth, in African American and Southeast Asian families– that bring about deep social, political, cultural, and economic change.

Susana Segura, Graciela Sánchez Esperanza Peace & Justice Center - The people of Esperanza dream of a world where everyone has civil rights and economic justice, where the environment is cared for, where cultures are honored and communities are safe.

The Esperanza advocates for those wounded by domination and inequality — women, People of Color, queer people, the working class and poor. We believe in creating bridges between people by exchanging ideas and educating and empowering each other. We believe it is vital to share our visions of hope… we are esperanza.

Gabrielle Joffe, Rev. Jason Lydon Black & Pink is an open family of LGBTQ prisoners and “free world” allies who support each other. Our work toward the abolition of the prison industrial complex is rooted in the experience of currently and formerly incarcerated people. We are outraged by the specific violence of the prison industrial complex against LGBTQ people, and respond through advocacy, education, direct service, and organizing.

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Acknowledgements This project was made possible by the generous support of the Ford Foundation’s Advancing LGBT Rights Initiative. Our gratitude to Luna Yasui for partnership, support and vision. Thanks to all those who participated for taking the time to share your brilliance and experience. It is our hope that this research will support the amazing work that you do, now and in the future.

Lead Authors Sasha Costanza-Chock and Chris Schweidler

Project Coordination & Support Sasha Costanza-Chock, MIT Center for Civic Media, Assistant Professor of Civic Media, project principal investigator Chris Schweidler, Research Action Design, research lead Kamaria Weems Carrington, OCTOP project coordinator, outreach and research support Bex Hurwitz, MIT Center for Civic Media, Codesign Facilitator and Community Organizer, skillshare and web design lead Heather Craig, Research Assistant at the Center for Civic Media, website, communication, and research support Royal Morris, MIT Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, outreach support Yu Wang, Research Assistant at the Center for Civic Media, organizational contact database support Ed Platt, Civic Technology Programmer at the Center for Civic Media, organizational contact database support and web support Rahul Bhargava, Senior Research Specialist at the Center for Civic Media, organizational contact database support and web support Matt Carroll, Research Scientist at the Center for Civic Media, press support Gabrielle Joffe, Black & Pink, survey outreach support Poonam Whabi, Graphic Designer at Design Action Collective, web design Ria, Graphic Designer at Design Action Collective, report design Sabiha Basrai, Graphic Designer at Design Action Collective, report design Puck Lo, Research Action Design, report copyediting

Project Partnership, Project Design & Skillshare Development Mitchyll Mora, Streetwise & Safe, project partner, skillshare, research support Andrea Ritchie, Streetwise & Safe, project partner, skillshare, research support Luis Ramirez, The Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, project partner, skillshare, research support Carlos Padilla, The Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, project partner, skillshare, research support Jerssay Arredondo, The Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, project partner, skillshare, research support Karla Mejia, INCITE! project partner, skillshare, research support Keren Pérez, INCITE! project partner, skillshare, research support M Adams, Freedom, Inc., project partner, skillshare, research support Zon Moua, Freedom, Inc., project partner, skillshare, research support Quita Griffin, Freedom, Inc., project partner, skillshare, research support Gabrielle Joffe, Black & Pink, project partner, skillshare, research support Rev. Jason Lydon, Black & Pink, project partner, skillshare, research support Jill Marcellus, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, project partner, skillshare, research support Dawn-Marie Luna, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, project partner, skillshare, research support Alan Ratliff, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, project partner, skillshare, research support Susana Segura, Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, project partner, skillshare, research support Graciela Sánchez, Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, project partner, skillshare, research support Nora Berson, Black & Pink, project partner, skillshare, research support

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Project Advisers

Image Credits

Celia Alario, communications strategist, grassroots media consultant, facilitator and culture tracker

Cover art by Ria for Design Action Collective

J. Bob Alotta, Executive Director at the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice Jack Aponte, worker-owner at Palante Technology Cooperative Ryan Li Dahlstrom, Movement Building Director for the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT) Jay Donahue, Program Manager at DataCenter, organizer with Critical Resistance Frederick Ginyard, FIERCE, Organizing Director Mary L. Gray, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, New England Lab, Associate Professor of the Media School with adjunct appointments in American Studies, Anthropology, and Gender Studies at Indiana University Kris Hayashi, Deputy Director at the Transgender Law Center Meghan McDermott, Director, Hive City Strategy at Mozilla Foundation

Transformative Media Organizing icons by Sabiha Basrai for Design Action Collective Additional icons from the Noun Project

Print Credits Printed by P&L Printing

Suggested Citation Costanza-Chock, Sasha, Schweidler, Chris, and the Out for Change: Transformative Media Organizing Project (2015). “Towards Transformative Media Organizing: LGBTQ and Two-Spirit Media Work in the United States.” Strengths & needs assessment by the Ford Foundation’s Advancing LGBT Rights Initiative, Research Action Design, and the MIT Center for Civic Media. New York: Ford Foundation. Available online at transformativemedia.cc.

Diana Nucera, Director of the Detroit Community Technology Project at Allied Media Projects (AMP)

License

Harlan Pruden (First Nations nēhiyaw/Cree), NorthEast Two-Spirit Society

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike 4.0 Unported License creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Brad Sears, Roberta A. Conroy Scholar of Law and Policy and Executive Director of the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law Saba Waheed, Research Director at the UCLA Labor Center Larry Gross, Annenberg School of Communications Teresa Basilio, Co-Director, Global Action Project Meghan McDermott, Director, McDermott Consulting Adrienne Marie Brown, writer, sci-fi/Octavia Butler scholar, healer, pleasure activist, facilitator, speaker/ singer, and doula-in-training, living in Detroit.

Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

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Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

Jay Toole, former Director of the Shelter Organizing Project at Queers for Economic Justice

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Key Terms The list below includes key terms used throughout the report, particularly with reference to identity and media. We recognize that identities are part of an evolving landscape, and that movement building language is constantly changing. We hope to be as inclusive as possible.

Cisgender. Non-transgender. Someone whose gender identity is consistent with the way society expects them to be gendered, for example, a person who is assigned male at birth, seen by others as male, and identifies as male is a cisgendered male (cismale). Also shortened to cis, cisman, ciswoman.

Gender Non-Conforming. Can be taken to include identities that are genderqueer, gender variant, gender fluid and third gender/sex, as well as those that are AG, bi-gendered or multi-gendered, non–gendered and andro, masculine-ofcenter, feminine-of-center and gender questioning.

Intersectionality. Intersectionality (following feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw) refers here to the ways in which structural oppression based on gender and sexual identity is not independent from (but rather, intersects with) race, class, immigration status, disability, age, and other axes of identity.

Intersex. Intersex individuals are persons who, at birth, cannot be classified according to the medical norms of male and female bodies with regard to their chromosomal, gonadal or anatomical sex. The term inter* has also been used as an umbrella term that denotes the diversity of intersex realities and bodies.

Jot@. The non-gender specific form of the Spanish language term ‘Joto’ or ‘Jota.’ A once-derogatory Mexican slang term that has been reappropriated as a term of community pride, similar to the word ‘queer.’

LGBTQ. Acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer.

Media. By “media” we broadly include traditional communications (for example, P.R., press releases, writing opeds, purchasing paid advertisements), media production (for example creating films, videos, audio, photography, posters), and ‘new’ media work (webmaking, blogging, social media, online organizing), as well as cultural work (for example music, spoken word, visual arts, and theater).

Media Justice. “Media Justice is a long-term vision to democratize the economy, government, and society through policies and practices that ensure: democratic media ownership, fundamental communication rights, universal media and technology access, and meaningful, accurate representation within news and popular culture for everyone.”

-- The Center for Media Justice Media Platform. A means of media distribution. For example, newspapers, radio, television, and mobile phones are examples of different ‘media platforms.’

Online Organizing. Online Organizing is often used to describe internet and mobile phone focused approaches to political and social movement campaigns. For example, a typical job description for an ‘online organizer’ looks for someone who will write and implement email blasts, run sms/text messaging campaigns, manage social media accounts, use web analytics to understand what content is popular and what response rates different ‘asks’ receive from members, and so on.

Participatory Media. Forms of media that are designed to allow, invite, and encourage many people to take part in the process of media production, in other words, to make their own media or tell their own stories. Also referred to as ‘manyto-many’ media (such as social media or blogs) rather than ‘one to many’ media (such as television or newspapers). In this report, we emphasize that participatory media is not always online, and can include cultural forms such as art-making, music, and dance, among others.

Participatory Research. In participatory research, community members, organizational representatives, and professional researchers are all involved in the research process, ideally working together at all stages to identify research questions, choose methods, conduct research, analyze results, and share findings. All partners in a participatory research process contribute expertise and share decision making and ownership.

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Queer. Queer is used as a broad umbrella term by a wide range of people who identify as outside of normative and/or binary constructions of gender, gender identity, sex, and/or sexual identity. The term is fluid rather than fixed (it doesn’t mean just one thing).

School Push-Out. Discriminatory disciplinary practices, among other factors, produce elementary, junior high, and high school non-completion rates that are much higher among youth of color than among white youth, among LGBTQ youth than among straight youth, and highest among LGBTQ youth of color. “Push-out” rather than “drop-out” emphasizes the structural, systemic, and institutional forces beyond young people’s control that contribute greatly to school non-completion.

Social Media. Websites and mobile applications that allow people to create profiles, connect with other users (‘friend’ or ‘follow’), and upload and share media (usually text, images, videos, and sometimes audio). Examples are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on.

Transformative Media Organizing. “Transformative media organizing is a liberatory approach to integrating media, communications, and cultural work into movement building.

It lies at the place where media justice and transformative organizing overlap. Transformative media organizers begin with an intersectional analysis of linked systems of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and other axes of identity. We seek to do media work that develops the critical consciousness and leadership of those who take part in the media-making process, create media in ways that are deeply accountable to the movement base, invite our communities to participate in media production, create media strategically across platforms, and root our work in community action.” For more information see http://transformativemedia.cc/tmo.

Two-Spirit. Among Indigenous North American culture, Two-Spirit refers to individuals whose spirits are a blending of male and female spirit. Two-Spirit is essentially a third gender recognized in many Indigenous cultures. For more information, see the Northeast Two-Spirit Society.

Trans*. This report uses trans* to broadly include people whose gender identity differs from the gender assigned at birth, which can be taken to include (among others) the following communities and identities – transfeminine, transmasculine, MTF (Male-to-female), FTM (Female-tomale), genderqueer, gender non-conforming, gendervariant and third gender/sex, transsexual and transvestite/ cross-dresser. Note: we use trans* in place of the umbrella term transgender, which many feel to be exclusive of the experience of some communities.

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Foreword

We all experience the rapid pace of change in our media system; every day, new apps, tools, and social media platforms appear. Organizers, advocates, service providers, and social movements are using these new tools to tell their own stories and mobilize their communities in powerful ways, from #GirlsLikeUs to #Occupy, from #IdleNoMore to #BlackLivesMatter and beyond. Understanding how to harness new media, digital organizing, and strategic communications is one of the most crucial levers for movement building and effective advocacy.

This report is the first attempt at a comprehensive assessment of how organizations that work to improve the lives of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people currently utilize media, and of where there are opportunities to support innovative work. It is essential reading for funders and organizational leaders alike. The MIT Center for Civic Media, Research Action Design, and the Transformative Media Organizing Project partners and advisers have gathered and analyzed interviews with movement leaders and hundreds of survey responses from organizational staff across the country about the present state of their media work. They have done so through a participatory research process that centers the knowledge and expertise of those who work hard every day to advance LGBTQ and Two-Spirit rights, and who do so in ways that honor and harness the power of multi-dimensional identities.

If we listen to the voices gathered in the pages that follow, we hear how activists are using both new and old media technologies not only to shift LGBTQ representations in mass media and popular culture, and not only to fight for LGBT rights as enshrined in policy and the courts, but also to make a resounding call for a lived equality and justice for all people. For funders, such stories are vivid, concrete illustrations of bold work that makes links between multiple struggles tangible.

It is my hope that this report will shift the way that funders and activists think about media making and movement building. Media work is not only crucial for long-term cultural shift, it is a key element of 21st century organizing that can be truly transformative for LGBTQ and Two-Spirit communities, our allies, and the world. — Luna M. Yasui Ford Foundation LGBT Rights, Gender Rights and Equality Unit

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Executive Summary

Making Media, and Making Change Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer (LGBTQ) and TwoSpirit communities make powerful media across a wide range of platforms to tell their own intersectional stories, integrate media making as a key component of their service, advocacy, organizing, and community building work, and use media to win policy and electoral campaigns, as well as to shift culture at large.

The media landscape is rapidly evolving, and savvy social movements are taking advantage of opportunities provided by new communication tools to tell their stories, reach community members and allies, build power, and shift culture. Recognizing the need to share media skills, develop new knowledge, and design innovative media, the Ford Foundation, the MIT Center for Civic Media, and Research Action Design

teamed up with key partners and advisers across the country to create the Out for Change Transformative Media Organizing Project, linking LGBTQ & Two-Spirit and allied media makers, organizers, and tech-activists together in a national network. In 2013-2014, we carried out a strengths and needs assessment of media work by LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations in the United States. We used a participatory action research approach and employed mixed methods including a literature review, a survey of over 3,000 organizations with 231 respondents, 19 expert interviews, and a series of workshops. We also gathered examples of powerful, effective LGBTQ and Two-Spirit media work. This report presents our methodology, key findings, and recommendations.

The OCTOP kickoff at the MIT Media Lab. Photo by Heather Craig.

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Key Findings

Overall, we found that the vast majority of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations have an intersectional analysis that links systems of race, class, gender, sexuality, and other axes of identity. Many seek to do media work that develops the critical consciousness and leadership of their communities, create media in ways that are deeply accountable to their base, use participatory approaches to media making, are strategic and cross-platform in their approach, and root their work in community action. We call this combination of characteristics transformative media organizing, and we believe it represents best practices in the field.

Media capacity is an ongoing struggle for LGBTQ & Two-Spirit Groups.

LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations need more resources to strengthen their existing media work. More than half say that funding and staff are their top needs, while half list media training, such as media production or learning how to talk with reporters, as one of their top needs. We found that full-time media staff are rare in organizations with budgets below $500,000, a third of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations have no media budget, and half of organizations have a media budget that is less than $1,000 per year. Unsurprisingly, LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations have widely varying ability to reach the mainstream media: the largest receive the lion’s share of mainstream media coverage, while the smallest are rarely interviewed by journalists.

This implies a responsibility on the part of national organizations to share media access with smaller, local, and regional organizations.

Media-making is a transformative process, but transformative impacts are not typically recognized or supported.

Most organizations emphasized that media-making can be a transformative process for those who take part. People gain important skills through doing media work together; indeed, two thirds of organizations see building grassroots leadership as a key goal

for their media work. Media making can also be a liberatory, creative, and healing process; three quarters of organizations say that individual and community growth and healing is one of the highest priorities for their media work. However, they note that transformative outcomes are not typically recognized, celebrated, or supported by funders. Transformative impacts are the hardest to measure, but often the most important.

The vast majority of organizations do intersectional work, and aren’t satisfied with predominant single-issue approaches.

We found that the vast majority of organizations have an intersectional analysis of the ways that structural oppression based on gender and sexual identity is not independent from (but rather, intersects with) that based on race, class, immigration status, disability, age, and other axes of identity. Nearly all LGBTQ and TwoSpirit organizations work with diverse communities; nine out of ten work with People of Color, eight out of ten with youth, three quarters with low-income folks, and half with immigrants, among many other communities. Most are also multi-issue focused; more than half say they work on racial justice, trans* rights, and education. Nearly twice as many LGBTQ and TwoSpirit organizations work on racial justice (about sixty percent) as on marriage equality (thirty percent). Many organizations are not satisfied with the predominant single-issue approaches, and see intentional, intersectional organizing as a key movement-building opportunity.

LGBTQ & Two-Spirit media work needs strong community accountability mechanisms.

About three quarters of surveyed organizations seek written or verbal consent for use of their members’ stories. Many also establish clear systems of community accountability in other aspects of their media work; for example, about half review campaign messages

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with their members. However, few establish clear systems to ensure ongoing community oversight of, or participation in, organizational media strategy. Just one in five have a community steering committee that develops messaging and framing.

Many organizations see a need to develop stronger community accountability mechanisms, both internally and in partnerships, such as when working with other organizations or professional media-makers (such as filmmakers). LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations are using participatory media campaigns to help hold the powerful (elected officials, celebrities, and companies) accountable for homophobia, trans* phobia, racism, and more. Social media provide important opportunities for the LGBTQ and Two-Spirit movement, but are also sites of risk: more than half of surveyed organizations say they are concerned about discrimination, stalking, and gender based violence against their members based on information revealed on social media sites.

Most LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations involve their communities in participatory media-making.

Six out of ten ask their community members to create media, and nearly four out of five share their community members’ stories as part of their organizing, advocacy, or outreach work. Participatory mediamaking takes place across many different media platforms, not just online. Nearly half of organizations report that their Executive Director leads their media work, yet many would like to see more community members supported to lead, as well as participate in, media work.

Effective media work takes place both offline and online; relationships with reporters are essential; and digital access inequality remains a key challenge.

LGBTQ & Two-Spirit organizations are producing a wide range of media across platforms, offline and online.

Nearly all feel able to reach their own communities, but only one-fifth say they are reaching the mass media, policymakers, or the broader public. Working with mainstream reporters is one of the most important

strategies for publicizing an organization’s work, according to survey respondents. However, not all organizations maintain lists of press contacts. Nine out of ten say that partnerships are a powerful way to amplify their messages. Face-to-face organizing remains essential: half of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations estimate that more than a third of their community is offline. LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people, especially POC and immigrants, are incarcerated and detained at very high rates, and their communication rights are systematically violated. This underscores the need for offline media making and distribution strategies, as well as for LGBTQ & Two-Spirit digital justice initiatives. Many organizations said they would like to make their media accessible, as well as multilingual.

Media work is most powerful and effective when it is deeply rooted in the struggles, narratives, and actions of the community.

Study participants emphasized that it is important to lift up effective work that already exists. LGBTQ & TwoSpirit organizations use a very wide range of strategies to address issues faced by their communities. Seven out of ten groups take part in coalitions, and the same proportion conduct social media campaigns; six in ten offer leadership development programs, and the same proportion engage in grassroots organizing; four out of ten provide direct services, and a quarter take part in direct action, among many other approaches. Half of survey respondents are involved in policy advocacy, and many would like to see national LGBTQ policy strategy that is more aligned with their members’ lives and experiences. Resources are especially needed for local projects outside of major cities and away from the East and West coasts. Cultural work, in addition to more traditional press and online media work, is deeply important. For Two-Spirit organizations especially, gatherings, dance, drumming, music, storytelling, and ceremonies are all essential forms of community organizing.

Recommendations Based on our findings, we propose the following set of key recommendations for funders, media-makers, and organizations.

For Funders g Resource grassroots LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations to do media work – however they define it. g Support intersectional media work. g Support LGBTQ and Two-Spirit media organizing work by organizations led by, or working directly with, those who live at the intersections of multiple systems of oppression. g Digital access inequality persists, and it must be challenged through media justice initiatives focused on LGBTQ & Two-Spirit communities. g Media impact assessment must include transformative impacts. g Lift up what works, and support people — not just platforms.

For Media-Makers g Be respectful, and non-reductive; dig deeper into the intersections between various aspects of identity. g Don’t sensationalize; use the language used by the person you are speaking with to describe them and their situation. g Create clear accountability mechanisms when you partner with LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations. g Value, seek out, and credit media made by LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people as a source in your own stories.

For Organizations g Ground media work in community action. g Use media work as an opportunity to build grassroots leadership. g Develop intentional community accountability structures. g Plan for and promote safety, security, and harm reduction online. g Find partners to amplify your message.

This page is a topline summary; please see the full recommendations at the end of this report.

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Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................................................................2 Research Methods..............................................................................................................................4 Research Agenda......................................................................................................................... 4 Study Design & Approach........................................................................................................... 4 Demographics............................................................................................................................. 6 Key Findings.......................................................................................................................................8 Media Capacity............................................................................................................................ 8 Transformative.......................................................................................................................... 12 Intersectional............................................................................................................................. 16 Accountable............................................................................................................................... 24 Participatory.............................................................................................................................. 28 Strategic.....................................................................................................................................32 Rooted in Community Action.................................................................................................... 40 Recommendations..........................................................................................................................44 Appendix: Participating Organizations........................................................................................ 46 Appendix: Resources....................................................................................................................... 48 References....................................................................................................................................... 49 Endnotes.......................................................................................................................................... 50

Introduction

Making Media, and Making Change Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer (LGBTQ) and TwoSpirit communities make powerful media across a wide range of platforms to tell their own intersectional stories, integrate media making as a key component of their service, advocacy, organizing, and community building work, and use media to win policy and electoral campaigns, as well as to shift culture at large.

The story we tell in this report is in many ways a hopeful one, focused as it is on the diverse, vibrant forms of media and cultural work that LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations have created in order to amplify the voices, leadership, and agendas of their communities.

Yet we feel it is important to begin by recognizing the harsh reality that in 2015, LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people continue to deal with oppression and structural inequality along intersecting axes of identity. Queer and Trans* People of Color, in particular, continue to face discriminatory policing practices, including forms of police harassment and violence that are specific to gender, gender identity, and perceived sexual orientation. LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people suffer high rates of violence, youth suicide (up to four times the rate of straight youth), school push-out, homelessness, and incarceration. Recent FBI data reveal a continued rise in identity-based violence against people based on their perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. 1 These troubling statistics reflect how heteronormativity and racism operate together to produce intersectional oppression across structural, political, legal, economic, cultural, familial and interpersonal domains.

Yet all too often, mainstream lesbian and gay organizations advance narrative frames and policy solutions that reflect predominantly white, middle class values and fail to connect with the needs and lived experiences of LGBTQ People of Color, TwoSpirit people, those in rural areas communities, new immigrants, homeless and low-income people, incarcerated people, and other marginalized groups.

Organizations that do intersectional work are critically under-resourced and often overlooked. For example, Two-Spirit organizing receives few resources from mainstream gay and lesbian funders, although Two-

Spirit people disproportionately suffer from extremely high rates of poverty, lack of access to education, and cultural erasure under ongoing settler colonialism.

Similarly, organizations that focus on trans* people, especially trans* People of Color, receive a very small proportion of overall funding, 2 as do those who conduct anti-poverty work, challenge state violence, or work against the impacts of mass incarceration on LGBTQ communities.

At the same time, recent advances in LGBTQ and TwoSpirit rights that are grounded in intersectional analysis and organizing have been very encouraging. In New York City, Streetwise and Safe, an organization led by LGBTQQ youth of color who experience homelessness and criminalization, together with Communities United for Police Reform, a broad coalition of community organizers, won passage of the first enforceable ban on police profiling based on gender identity and sexual orientation, alongside race, religion, ethnicity, age, housing and immigration status, and disability, including HIV status. In New Orleans, the work of LGBTQ youth of color-led organization BreakOUT! and allies led to the adoption of a Department of Justice consent decree with the New Orleans Police Department, containing the most comprehensive set of provisions to date addressing discriminatory policing practices that target LGBTQ youth of color. 3 Federally, an executive order against workplace discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation now applies to millions of government employees and contractors, and there is movement towards a trans*-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). 4 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has adopted nondiscrimination regulations to ensure that federal housing programs are open to all regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBTQ and TwoSpirit people are increasingly elected to office at many levels of government. 5 All of these advances have been preceded and enabled by cultural shifts, including increased LGBTQ visibility

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in popular media such as music, film, TV, 6 and social media, as well as in advertising. 7 Public opinion polls continue to demonstrate long-term progress in attitudes about LGBTQ people, especially among younger generations. Two-thirds of people living in the United States now say that they personally know a gay or lesbian person, more than half support samesex marriage, and more than half support same-sex couples’ rights to adopt children. 8 Even in rural areas, where norms shift more slowly, youth have developed strategies to create queer community. 9 Queer and trans* People of Color are increasingly working together to challenge structural, state, and interpersonal violence, racism, heteronormativity, mass incarceration, detention and deportation, and more. They are making their lives, experience, and wisdom visible through media and cultural strategies, community-led research, and innovative approaches to community organizing.

Through our work together, we learned that many LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations have an intersectional analysis of linked systems of race, class, gender, gender identity, sexual identity, ability, and other axes of identity. Many seek to do media work that develops the critical consciousness and leadership of their communities, create media in ways that are deeply accountable to their base, use participatory approaches to media making, are strategic and cross-platform in their approach, and root their work in community action. We call this combination of characteristics transformative media organizing, and we believe it represents best practice in the field.

We found literally hundreds of powerful examples.

We are excited to share these with you, along with our methodology, key findings, and recommendations, in the pages that follow.

In part, increased visibility and new organizing strategies for LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people are enabled by the widespread adoption of mobile phones and social media. The media landscape is rapidly evolving, and savvy social movements take advantage of opportunities provided by new communication tools to tell their stories, reach community members and allies, build power, and shift culture. Recognizing the need to share media skills, develop new knowledge, and design innovative media projects, in 2013 the Ford Foundation’s Advancing LGBT Rights Initiative, the MIT Center for Civic Media, and Research Action Design teamed up with key partners and expert advisers across the country to create the Out for Change Transformative Media Organizing Project (OCTOP). OCTOP links LGBTQ & Two-Spirit and allied media makers, organizers, and tech-activists together in a national network.

In 2013-2014, we launched the project, conducted a series of monthly media skillshares, and carried out a participatory strengths and needs assessment of media work by LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations in the United States.

-3OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Research Methods Researchers at Research Action Design (RAD) and MIT’s Center for Civic Media used a participatory action research approach, guided by seven OCTOP partner organizations and a group of expert advisers, to develop the study design and research instruments.

Participatory research values community experience, knowledge, and expertise. Community members, organizational representatives, and researchers worked together to define areas of investigation, develop research questions, choose methods, gather and analyze information, and produce and share findings.

We employed mixed methods including a literature review, a nationwide organizational survey of over 3,000 organizations with 231 respondents, 19 expert interviews, and a series of workshops with partners and advisers. In addition to organizational demographics, we gathered information about different organizations’ capacity to engage in transformative media organizing, groups’ media organizing strategies, and visions for media and social change, as well as what organizations see as key barriers, needs, and opportunities. We also asked research participants to share examples of powerful and effective LGBTQ and Two-Spirit media work.

Research Agenda We assessed media and communications strengths and needs among organizations that work with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer (LGBTQ), and/or Two-Spirit communities across the United States. We began with the following research questions:

Barriers, Needs & Opportunities. What are the barriers that LGBTQ and Two-Spirit groups face in conducting their media work, what are their most important needs, and what do they see as key opportunities?

How to Strengthen Media Organizing Across the Movement(s). What specific recommendations do organizations advance for how to build the media capacity of the LGBTQ and Two-Spirit movement(s)?

Our goal for the report is to provide groups that work with LGBTQ and Two-Spirit communities, as well as their allies and funders, with a snapshot of the current challenges and opportunities in media and communications work.

Study Design & Approach We employed mixed methods research design, including a literature review, nationwide survey, interviews, and workshops. The research team convened a diverse advisory board to review our study design and to help with outreach. We recruited advisory board members based on their experience with LGBTQ and Two-Spirit movement work, subject matter expertise, and geographic diversity. Using a participatory action research approach, 10 researchers at Research Action Design (RAD) and MIT’s Center for Civic Media developed the OCTOP Strengths and Needs Assessment survey instrument and interview guide, together with the project partners and with feedback from our advisers.

Current Media Capacity. What resources do organizations currently have to support their media work, and how do groups with varied levels of resources employ media in their work?

Media Organizing Strategy. What innovative and effective media strategies do movement organizations employ?

Vision for Media and Social Change. What are the visions that LGBTQ and Two-Spirit groups hold for how to effectively use media for social change?

Analyzing the survey data together.

-4OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Surveys Our survey instrument had questions about organizational demographics, as well as effective strategies, campaigns, and opportunities for transformative media organizing. It was also designed to surface challenges organizations face in doing media work. All organizations whose mission states that they work directly with or on behalf of LGBTQ and/or Two-Spirit communities in the United States qualified for survey participation. We developed a database of contact information for a population of 3,752 organizations that met our study criterion, through automated and manual keyword searches of IRS Form 990 data, Idealist, and Facebook. From March through May of 2014, we systematically reached out to LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations to take the survey online, via surveymonkey. The incentive to participate was entry in a lottery for one free registration to the 2014 Allied Media Conference. We contacted all 3,752 organizations at least once via email, Facebook, Twitter, and/or phone calls. We conducted targeted follow-up to encourage more representative organizational diversity along a broad spectrum including organization size, geography, and focus of work. Only one survey per organization (or chapter, if applicable) was included. Two hundred and thirty-one unique organizations completed the survey.

Interviews We conducted nineteen semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. Interviewees included staff at OCTOP partner organizations, as well as individuals with extensive relevant experience in media work with LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations. We asked interviewees to share their insights about what movement organizations need most, trends in media and communications work, and key strengths and opportunities.

Data Analysis Workshops Researchers at MIT and RAD cleaned, anonymized, and prepared the data, and conducted basic statistical analysis such as frequencies and descriptives. In some cases, we recoded open-ended questions based on themes in the data. We conducted popular-education style data analysis workshops at the 2014 Allied Media Conference, as well as later via videoconference, where we discussed the findings and recommendations with partner organizations and advisers. The final report findings and recommendations reflect this process of participatory analysis.

Literature Review We conducted an extensive literature review in order to assess the state of research on the role of media in LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizing for social change. The literature review also sought to capture current research and framing on the role of media in transformative organizing work.

-5OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Demographics This section describes the demographics of the organizations that completed the survey.

231 LGBTQ & Two-Spirit

organizations nationwide participated in the online survey

1 in 3

organizations reported working with members in rural communities

29% Rural

Organizations from thirty nine states participated in the survey.12 The top three states were California, New York, and Massachusetts, each with more than 20 participating organizations. States with 9-10 participating organizations included Florida and Texas, with 6-7 organizations each from Washington, Georgia, Illinois, and the District of Columbia.

Over half (52%) of participating organizations focus their work locally. Many organizations also work at the state level (42%) or nationally (38%). A few (16%) work internationally, as well as in the U.S. Just 6% work on reservations.

65% Urban

WHAT IS THE GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF YOUR ORGANIZATION’S WORK? Scale

Local 52%

A total of two hundred and thirty one unique organizations completed the survey, representing a wide diversity of movement organizations across the country. 11

State 42% National 38% International 16%

Focus

Urban 65% Rural 29% Reservation 6% Border 4%

Region

Northeast 14% Midwest 13% South 11%

Legend 0 surveys 1-4 surveys 5-10 surveys 11+ surveys

Southwest 11% Northwest 9% Southeast 9% Western US 8%

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WHAT IS YOUR ANNUAL BUDGET? 6% 6%

No budget $1-$999

5%

$1,000-$4,999 $5,000-$9,999 $10,000-$24,999 $25,000-$49,999 $50,000-$99,999

29% of participating organizations have an annual budget between zero-$50,000 per year

3% 5% 4% 7% 8%

$100,000-$199,999 $200,000-$499,999

20%

$500,000-$999,999

12%

$1 million - $5 million

15%

9%

Over $5 million

The organizational ecology is very diverse. Close to half (44%) of organizations have an annual budget under $200,000. One in five (20%) operate on a shoestring, with an annual budget below $10,000. A third (29%) operate with small budgets (under $50,000 per year).

Close to half (44%) have an annual budget under $200,000. The most common budget bracket (20% of all orgs) is between $200,000-$500,000 per year. Just one-fifth (21%) of organizations have annual budgets of more than a million dollars, and a handful have budgets over five million dollars per year.

About three quarters of survey respondents were nonprofit organizations; about a third identified as grassroots groups. A fifth were fiscally sponsored projects of another organization, while about one in three said they were either a network, collective, or community center. A few were coalitions, businesses, school clubs, faith based organizations, or private foundations.

Respondents indicated a very wide range of organizational ages. About a third were founded in the last decade; most were founded within the last 40 years.

A handful (10 organizations) were founded nearly one hundred years ago, or more.

WHAT IS YOUR STRUCTURE? 69%

501c3 (Nonprofit organization)

30%

Grassroots group or CBO

20%

Fiscally sponsored orgnaization

13%

Charitable orgnization Netork

11% 11% 10%

Collective or cooperative Community center Coalition

4%

Business

3%

College group, club, or program 501c4 School group, club, or program (K-12)

3%

Government Agency (or program) Foundation Faith-based organization

0%

3% 2% 2% 1% 1%

20%

40%

-7OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

60%

80%

Key Findings Media Capacity “A lot of resources are being spent to create new campaigns or develop new messaging, when there are already people doing that work who need support from foundations and other groups.”

—survey participant

to do so. A majority (54%) of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations say that the mainstream media is one of their highest priority audiences, but only a fifth (19%) say they are reaching that audience. Similarly, sixty-four percent of organizations say that shifting mainstream media coverage is one of their highest priority impact goals, but only twenty percent say that their efforts are successful.

“I feel like we’re in a rut: It’s the same media releases, with the expected positions and quotes from the same people. Often it feels like media are happy to seek us out for stories, but maddeningly they don’t give us credit.”

—survey participant

We asked a number of questions designed to better understand the existing media capacity and key needs of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations.

Mainstream media coverage remains elusive for many groups.

Although most want to reach and receive coverage by the mainstream press, few report that they are able

WHICH AUDIENCES DO YOU MOST WANT TO REACH? WHICH AUDIENCES ARE YOU MOST SUCCESSFUL REACHING? 85% 83%

Members of our organization of network Our LGBTQ and/or Two-Spirit community Allies

Mainstream media Policymakers

76%

45%

Funders Broader public

94%

66%

64%

27%

Highest Priority Audience

66%

20% 19%

54%

19%

-8OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

59%

Most Success Reaching

Smaller organizations are rarely interviewed by journalists.

Participants say that they need more resources for existing media work.

We asked survey respondents how frequently journalists interview their organization: weekly, monthly, a few times a year, or never. Unsurprisingly, there is a strong correlation between organizational budget and interview frequency, with about 30-40% of organizations with budgets over $1 million reporting weekly interviews, and between half and three-quarters of these organizations reporting monthly interviews.

By comparison, just a handful of organizations with budgets below $500,000 are interviewed by reporters on a weekly basis, and less than a quarter are interviewed on a monthly basis.

One of the most frequent comments from survey participants was the desire to see more resources allocated to strengthening existing on-the-ground work.

“We have the stories and the creativity, but we need resources for higher production value media if we want to reach new audiences.”

— survey respondent

HOW FREQUENTLY DO JOURNALISTS INTERVIEW YOUR ORGANIZATION? No Budget

Weekly

Annual Budget

$1-$999 $1,000-$4,999

Monthly

$5,000-$9,999

A Few Times a Year

$10,000-$24,999

Never

$25,000-$49,999 $50,000-$99,999 $100,000-$199,999 $200,000-$499,999 $500,000-$999,999 $1 million -$5 million Over $5 million 0%

20%

50%

75%

-9OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

100%

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP NEEDS FOR STRENGTHENING YOUR MEDIA WORK?

We asked organizations, “What are your top needs for strengthening your media work?” More than half of organizations say that funding (59%) and staff (56%) are their top needs for strengthening media work. Half list media training (for example, media making skills, or how to talk to reporters) as one of their top needs. A third also mention media equipment or software (33%), media strategy (33%), and partnerships (30%). Other responses included websites (12%), databases (6%), social Media (4%), and physical space (2%).

Funding 59%

Staff 56% Media Training 50% Media Equipment or Software 33%

Full time media staff are rare in organizations with budgets below $500,000.

Media Strategy 33% Partnerships 33%

We asked organizations how many paid media staff they have. Almost no organizations with budgets below $100,000 have even a half-time media staff member, and none have a full-time media staff. In fact, full-time media staff are rare in organizations with budgets below $500,000.

Media for Organizing 28% Press 25% Databases 6% Social Media 4% Physical Space 2%

Funding and staff are the top needs, followed by media training.

Website 12%

HOW MANY PAID MEDIA STAFF DO YOU HAVE? (COMPARED BY ORGANIZATION’S ANNUAL BUDGET) No Budget

None

$1-$999

None, but other staff pitch in

$1,000-$4,999

Annual Budget

$5,000-$9,999 .5 staff

$10,000-$24,999 $25,000-$49,999

1 staff

$50,000-$99,999

2 staff or more

$100,000-$199,999 $200,000-$499,999 $500,000-$999,999 $1 million -$5 million Over $5 million 0%

20%

50%

75%

- 10 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

100%

WHAT IS YOUR MEDIA BUDGET THIS YEAR? 33%

No media budget

17%

$1-$999

13%

$1,000-$4,999 $5,000-$9,999 $10,000-$19,999

4% 5% 6%

$20,000-$49,999 $50,000-$99,000

12%

$100,000-$499,999 $500,000 or more

About one of every four organizations (24%) have no funding at all for their media work. Without dedicated funding for media work, research participants note that it is often deprioritized when budgets are tight. One interviewee noted that “media is often an add-on, when organizations are struggling to survive.”

9% 2%

A third of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations have no media budget, and including them, half have a media budget below $1,000 per year.

“Many organizations are not able to think expansively about media work while just trying to exist.”

— research participant

A third of organizations (33%) have no media budget at all. The next third (30%) have a media budget that is less than $5,000/year. Half of all surveyed organizations (50%) have an annual media budget below $1,000. A tiny proportion of organizations (2%) command annual media budgets greater than $500,000.

Two-thirds of organizations fund their media work from their core operating budget.

Most (67%) use their core or general operating budget to fund media work. Individual donors are the second most important source of funding for this work, for about a third (32%) of organizations. Private foundations only resource media work for a small minority (16%) of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations.

HOW DO YOU FUND YOUR MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS WORK? 67%

Our Core/General Operating Budget

32%

Individual Donors

16%

Media-specific grants from Foundations Earned income/Sales

8%

Member dues

6%

Media-specific Government grants

4%

Crowdfunding platforms

4%

Advertising

3%

Media-specific Corporate grants

3%

N/A: we do not fund our media work

24%

- 11 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Transformative “There is power in telling our own stories, both for ourselves, and for others.”

— Research Participant Many LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations involved in this study feel that media making can be a transformative process.

People gain important skills through doing media work together.

Survey respondents and interviewees say that media making can help people gain skills in critical thinking, strategic visioning, analysis, digital literacy, leadership, and facilitation, as well as develop new relationships, opportunities to express creativity, and space for healing and growth. Media making can thus be a liberatory experience. Additionally, they emphasize that transformation may manifest at multiple levels: individual, interpersonal, familial, community, organizational, and more broadly, in long-term cultural shifts. They argue that media-making is not simply an instrumental means to sway an abstract ‘public opinion;’ instead, it can be a powerful, creative means to transform systems through cultural shifts, and to be transformed in the process. They also note that media impact assessment by funders and organizations should take account of transformative impacts, not only measures of audience ‘reach’ and ‘engagement.’

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Two-Spirit Gatherings & Powwows Respondents from Two-Spirit organizations talk about gatherings, dance, drumming, and music as essential forms of community organizing. They note that these may not fit within some people’s definitions of either ‘media’ or ‘place based resources,’ but are crucial forms of cultural work that can build shared identity, foster community, and save lives.

“For the Two-Spirit community our Gatherings are so important to us. I have witnessed individuals that are contemplating suicide, or who have been dislocated from their ways/culture, and as a result of being in a space that affirms and celebrates their full identity...it is like a light is turned on inside of them! ” —survey participant http://ne2ss.org/ Image by Northeast Two-Spirit Society

- 12 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

WHAT ARE THE HIGHEST PRIORITY IMPACTS FOR YOUR MEDIA? WHERE ARE YOU SEEING THE HIGHEST IMPACT NOW? Highest Priority Impacts Highest Impacts NOW 91%

87%

87%

82%

81% 75%

72%

64%

67%

49%

49% 40% 40%

37% 32% 26%

25% 20% 19%

18%

17%

14%

11%

Help sell products that we offer

Increase use of services we provide

Long term cultural shifts

Win campaigns

Raise Funds

Shift mainstream media coverage

Individual & community growth & healing

Build leadership of members/staff

Build membership or base

Gain new allies

Tell our communities’ stories

Make our organization more visible

3%

Two thirds of organizations see building grassroots leadership as a key goal for their media work.

Many participating organizations feel that media can be an essential component of leadership development and movement building. We asked “what are the highest priority impacts for your media,” and later “where are you seeing the highest impact NOW?” In response, two-thirds (64%) see building the leadership of members and staff as one of the highest priorities for their media work, although just a quarter (26%) see this as one of their highest impact areas. Many organizations report that resource limitations keep them from effectively integrating media work with with their organizing, campaigns, mobilizations, leadership development, political education, and movement building work. In thinking about how to use media work to build leadership, one survey participant said: “Make sure that those who are most impacted are speaking out, are being trained up to be visible, not in a tokenizing way but centering their experiences.”

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Remix Counter-ads,

by Media Literacy Project The Media Literacy Project (MLP) provides a powerful example of transformative media work and leadership development through counter-advertising workshops. The internet thrives on remix culture and memes. MLP organizers teach young people to remix materials from popular culture and advertising in order to create new memes, challenge heteronormative and trans* phobic narratives, and insert their own critiques and counternarratives. Along the way, their media campaigns are picked up both in social media and in widely read online magazines and blogs, even as community members learn how to deconstruct power inequalities, heteronormativity, and racism in dominant media messages and gain critical media literacy skills.

“In the summer of 2013, we created a counter ad to challenge a trans*phobic, youth unfriendly sex ed campaign. We invited a conversation with our local Transgender Resource Center, a writer from Original Plumbing, and transgender epidemiologist. Together, we created the meme. We posted it on our Facebook page and tweeted it out. It was picked up by transgender organizations across the globe, by ColorLines, Feministing, and Sociological Images. We were also interviewed for a story that ran in the Windy City Times.” http://medialiteracyproject.org.

- 13 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Media making can be a liberatory, creative, and healing process; three quarters of organizations say that individual and community growth and healing is one of the highest priorities for their media work.

Successful media campaigns often involve community members telling their own stories, developing their digital media making abilities, and building leadership.

At the same time, the process of media making itself can be an important healing experience for participants.

Three-quarters of surveyed organizations (75%) say that individual and community growth and healing is one of the highest priorities for their own media work, although just a quarter (25%) say that they are having an impact in this area now.

Four out of five organizations say that long-term cultural shift is a high priority for their media work, but just one out of five feel they are achieving this kind of impact.

Many LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations that participated in this study express dreams of long-term cultural transformation. Despite the daily pressures of organizational work, they say that there must be space for dreaming big and visioning into the future.

Most desire, but don’t see, long-term cultural shifts as a key media impact: Four-fifths (82%) say that long term cultural shift is one of the highest priorities for their media work, but only one-fifth (17%) feel that they are achieving it. Indeed, the greatest gap between organizations’ highest media impact priorities and their perceived current impact is in long term cultural shift.

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Digital Storytelling, Healing, and Anti-Isolation Workshops,

by SAGE Story In 2013, Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) launched SAGE Story, a national digital storytelling and anti-isolation program for LGBT older people. The goal was to change representations of LGBT older people in the media by equipping them with storytelling skills and partnering with media outlets to share their digital

stories—essays, photos, videos and podcasts. SAGE Story workshops helped reduce isolation in seven sites around the country, while equipping LGBT elders with modern-day storytelling skills. In just a year, we have trained LGBT elders nationwide; partnered with leading national groups such as StoryCorps, The Moth, the AARP Foundation and Freedom to Marry, among others; and inspired local advocates around the country to take their stories into the public discourse and change policies in their states, including winning? a multi-year nondiscrimination struggle in North Carolina. http://www.sageusa.org

- 14 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Film Festivals

“We are excited to see all the different documentaries coming out like Major! and Free CeCe, and will do all we can to support their fundraising and distribution. We are partnering with our local gay and lesbian film festival to put on a transgender film festival in April of this year, which will be the first transgender film festival in our region.

I think better and more authentic portrayal of trans* lives would help quite a bit with the culture shift we as trans* people need.” http://www.tgrcnm.org

— survey participant

Transformative impacts are the hardest to measure, but should not be ignored in media impact assessment.

There has recently been a great deal of interest in new tools and metrics to assess media impact. Many LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations that participated in this research appreciate the utility of tools to measure audience reach and engagement, but also feel that it is important for organizations, funders, and communicators to explore transformative 13 media impacts at the level of the personal, organizational, community, and beyond, as well as both short and longterm. Media and communications strategies that were developed during the age of broadcast media focus on short-term audience metrics of reach: how many people were exposed to the message? More recently, social media strategists emphasize engagement: did people click, like, share, or comment? There has also been a recent effort in the academy and in the documentary film community to synthesize various approaches to media impact assessment, with the key takeaways being the importance of maintaining methodological diversity, the growing availability of a wide range of metrics, and the concept of audience engagement. 14 For example, transformative media impact might be qualitatively assessed through the degree to which organizational leaders emerge from media making projects. Quantitative analysis of large-scale message and frame shifts in mass media and/or social media is also increasingly accessible. Survey respondents feel that it is important to ask big questions, such as “are we shifting culture?” instead of just looking at victories and failures campaign by campaign. They note that media impact assessment must account for transformational, not just transactional, impacts. 15

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Intersectional

“LGBTQ topics feature prominently in the mainstream media. However, the issues being advocated for (ex. marriage equality) are not the primary struggles of our members. We believe that creating our media about our struggles (housing rights, economic justice, racial profiling, etc.) and creating spaces for these narratives to be viewed, discussed and debated will open up space to fight for a more progressive and inclusive LGBTQ agenda.”

— survey participant In the context of this project, we define intersectionality16 as the ways in which structural oppression based on gender and sexual identity is not independent from (but rather, intersects with) that based on race, class, immigration status, disability, age, poverty, and other axes of identity. We found that many LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations have an intersectional analysis and do intersectional media work, although they say that funding and mainstream media coverage are often narrowly focused on single issues.

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Blog, by Black Girl Dangerous “Focusing on intersectionality is going to be the way to raise ourselves above identity politics and actually work together to accomplish social justice reform. I think the website Black Girl Dangerous has done a lot to make space for QTPOC stories and analysis.”

— survey participant http://blackgirldangerous.org

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WHO DO YOU WORK WITH? 44% People with disabilities

45% Indigenous

41% Pacific Islander

89% People of Color

43% South Asian

75% Latino/a

65% White

75% Low-income

44% Homeless

52% Immigrants

32% SWANA

74% African American

53% Homo/trans*phobic violence survivors

50% HIV+

57% Asian

46% DV Survivors

Most surveyed organizations work with diverse LGBTQ communities. For example, nine out of ten say that they work with People of Color, eight out of ten with youth, three quarters with lowincome folks, and half with immigrant communities.

People of Color, youth, and low-income communities are the most frequently identified constituencies, but there is tremendous range in the communities with whom organizations work. Most organizations (92%) say they work with transgender communities, and 42% say they work with Two-Spirit people. 17 The overwhelming majority (89%) work with People of Color (POC).

Within POC communities, three quarters of surveyed organizations say they work with Latina/os (75%) or African Americans (74%), and just over half work with Asian communities (57%). Most (78%) work with youth and students, close to half (44%) work with elders, and a quarter (24%) work with children. Three quarters (75%) work with low-income people. About half work with immigrants (52%), HIV+ people (50%), or survivors of homophobic or transphobic violence (53%).

- 17 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

34% Incarcerated

37% Sex Workers 38% Rural

WHAT ISSUES DO YOU WORK ON? Gentrification 10% Environmental Justice 13% Workers’ Rights 17%

Other 19% LGBTQ Rights 78%

Media Justice 18% Sex Workers’ Rights 24%

Racial Justice 57%

Two-Spirit Rights 26% Reproductive Justice 29%

Trans* Rights 56%

Marriage Equality 30% Employment /NonDiscrimination 31%

Education 56%

Criminal Justice System 33% Housing/ Homelessness 34%

HIV/AIDS 46%

Mental Health 38%

Safe Schools 46%

Immigrant Rights 39% Economic Justice 40%

Most organizations are multi-issue focused; for example, more than half say they work on racial justice, trans* rights, and education.

The majority of organizations who participated in this research argue that our movements are “Better Together,” 18 and that centering the issues, stories and policy concerns of LGBTQ People of Color and TwoSpirit communities can challenge traditional silos in advocacy work.

Health 46% Trans* Health 45%

More than half (57%) of surveyed organizations work explicitly at the intersection of racial justice and LGBTQ Rights. They note that the struggle for racial justice is deeply interlinked with advancing LGBTQ & Two-Spirit rights, and that Two-Spirit and LGBTQ People of Color experience police violence, incarceration, detention and deportation, workplace discrimination and economic inequality, school pushout, and many other issues at much higher rates than white LGBTQ people.

- 18 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Pen Pals and Newspaper,

by Black and Pink “The Black and Pink newspaper is an excellent media source. It’s created by incarcerated members of Black and Pink and goes out to nearly 5,000 LGBTQ prisoners across the country — survey participant http://blackandpink.org/newsletter

A key media opportunity for advancing LGBTQ and Two-Spirit rights is communicating how LGBTQ and Two-Spirit rights are connected to immigrant rights, voting rights, and criminal justice reform in order to build stronger intersectional progressive coalitions.

— survey participant

“We want to challenge the media message that the most important fight of our times is that for same sex marriage. We aim to help make visible issues of criminalization, HR violations, sex worker rights, economic, social, gender and racial justice.”

— survey participant Forty percent also work for economic justice. Despite tremendous evidence that LGBTQ people in general, and those who are People of Color in particular, face major barriers to employment and housing (barriers often codified in laws that protect discriminatory practices),19 these realities remain at the margins of media coverage of LGBTQ issues.

Over a third (33%) work against police violence and/or to end detention, deportations, and mass incarceration. Profiling and discriminatory, unlawful, and abusive policing, immigration enforcement, and mass incarceration are critical issues for many LGBTQ and Two-Spirit communities. In particular, research participants fight the criminalization of LGBTQ youth of color, organize to end discriminatory stop-and-frisk practices, and battle the detention and deportation system.20 They struggle to end the school-to-prison pipeline, and challenge school push-outs that disproportionately impact LGBTQ and Two-Spirit youth of color.21 They conduct research, advocacy, and media campaigns to challenge the criminalization of people in the sex trades.22 They also work to support the rights of incarcerated LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people.23 More than half work with trans* communities. Many (56%) of organizations work to challenge trans*phobic messages and to end the dehumanization of trans* people. Research participants would like to see more trans* specific messaging, both by, for, and/or about trans* people, as well as media skillshares, public education campaigns, electoral campaigns, and community education. They feel it is important to

- 19 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

recognize that within the mainstream LGBT movement, there is a continued lack of resources for trans* specific work.24 As one participant put it: “increased trans* visibility means increased attacks by the right on trans* people. We need to fight that, and we need to specifically call out transmisogyny wherever it appears.”

“We want to challenge the media message that trans* Latinas are disposable and their deaths are inevitable.”

— survey participant Four in ten do “undocuqueer” work. Migrant rights and LGBTQ rights intersect in crucial ways, and twofifths (39%) of surveyed organizations say they work at this intersection. There are an estimated 267,000 undocumented LGBTQ people living in the U.S. 25 “Undocuqueer” organizers work to advance LGBTQ visibility and rights in new immigrant communities,

while challenging the mainstream LGBT movement to fight against immigration policies that favor heterosexual individuals and couples, exclude LGBTQ people, and result in the widespread separation of families (both born and chosen) as well as the detention and deportation of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of LGBTQ people since Obama took office. 26 One in four survey participants say they work with Two-Spirit people. Two-Spirit organizing is rarely funded, and many respondents feel strongly that Two-Spirit work in particular needs to be recognized, made visible, understood, and resourced. 27 They argue that we must address the legacy of violent erasure, settler colonialism, and marginalization that Two-Spirit people continue to experience today, work to honor the uniqueness and historical specificity of different Two-Spirit identities, and challenge the idea that TwoSpirit people never existed in Native cultures. Instead, research participants note the importance of learning from each others’ struggles:

MEDIA THAT WORKS

I am Undocuqueer Poster Art,

by Julio Salgado “We don’t hear about the separation of families, police brutality and racial profiling in New Mexico in the gay mainstream. Making all families visible in our movement is key to the immigrant rights movement.”

— survey participant (media message you want to challenge) http://juliosalgado.com

- 20 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

MEDIA THAT WORKS

It is Our Birth Right Health Guide, by Brown Boi Project “Brown Boi works on birth and parenting justice for all people, with consciousness and inclusiveness of gender identity. The birth worker collective, Luna Sagrada/Sacred Moon, is intentional about including people of all genders in our work and deeply values representations of masculine-of-center and trans* birth and parenting.

Other organizations use their artwork and health guide to provide birth and nursing support to LGBTQ people and expand notions of birth and parenting justice nationwide.”

— survey participant

“Indigenous knowledge, ways and practices often stand in opposition to western ways. The way we conceived of gender and sexuallity does not fit comfortably with today’s world, but it is valuable as a way of showing there is another way to engage and interact with the world around us.”

— Research participant There are many other issues that LGBTQ and TwoSpirit organizations work on. Nearly half (45-46%) work on HIV/AIDS, educational justice, and trans* health, economic justice (40%), and mental health (38%). About a third (29%) work on reproductive justice or housing and homelessness (34%). About a quarter (24%) say they work on sex workers’ rights.

Some organizations also work on gentrification (10%),

environmental justice (13%), workers’ rights (17%), or media justice (18%). Some work for gender justice, including on the growing visibility of gender nonconforming, genderqueer, and agender identities. Some work with LGBTQ elders.

Challenging the dominant narratives.

“We are challenging the narratives of ‘It Gets Better,’ with stories of resistance and resilience based on community struggle. We are challenging the message of marriage equality as being the central issue for queer people, with stories of other issues such as homelessness, police brutality and racism.”

— survey participant

- 21 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Many research participants said that mainstream media coverage of LGBT issues, dominated by marriage equality, ignores more pressing issues facing LGBTQ and Two-Spirit communities of color.28 They criticized dehumanizing, phobic and stereotypical coverage of low-income LGBTQ communities and/or LGBTQ communities of color by the mass media. Many wage campaigns targeting media outlets and challenging such misrepresentations.

“In February 2013, the LA Times published a very trans*phobic article about transgender sex workers. But, unlike past depictions that have gone unanswered, the LA trans* community this time responded! Grassroots response, a petition and social media got attention, and the trans* community has forced the LA Times to acknowledge our community, and made media organizations around the country take note that the trans* community cannot simply be ignored.”

— survey participant Several organizations pointed out that the invisibility of LGBTQ People of Color in both mainstream media and the LGBT mainstream exacerbates homophobia and trans*phobia in communities of color:

“The gay pride slogan ‘We’re Everywhere!’ is a truism.

Unfortunately, LGBT Asian American Pacific Islanders are often invisible in the mainstream Asian American community and overlooked in the LGBT community. Eighty percent of all Asian Americans speak a language other than English in their homes. The LGBT community has not engaged

non-English speaking Americans. This has allowed bias and homophobia to fester unchallenged. For example, the Chinese-language newspaper, World Journal, published a national editorial against same-sex marriage.

Multilingual exit polls found that the majority of older, foreign-born, and limited English proficient Asian American voters opposed samesex marriage. We must engage the community on its own terms and in the language/s it speaks.”

— survey participant At the same time, organizations also challenge media messages that stereotype communities of color as overwhelmingly homophobic and trans*phobic, while representing LGBTQ issues as, in the words of one participant, a “white thing.” In interviews and surveys, participants challenged mainstream LGBT organizations to confront oppression existing within the LGBT community itself, and to transition away from media strategies that sacrifice visions of intersectional equality in favor of “winnable” goals.

“We want to challenge the idea that marriage equality should be the goal for LGBTQ communities. We need to be focused on more critical goals like trans access to healthcare; LGBTQ youth homelessness; anti-racism; poverty; workplace discrimination and harassment; overturning hate crime legislation that is meant to protect LGBTQ individuals but often means increased prison sentences for People of Color; intersectionality;

- 22 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

sexual assault support services for LGBTQ people; increased rights for LGBTQ sex-workers; etc.”

— survey participant Some research participants said that there is an ongoing need to decolonize the revolutionary imagination, or in other words, build the capacity of LGBTQ and TwoSpirit community members to envision a truly liberated future, rather than limit their imaginations to small steps that are immediately winnable. Specifically, many feel that it is important to open up spaces for vision beyond the limits of the mainstream gay, white, cisgendered (non-transgendered), middle class narrative, and to include and center QPOC, immigrant, and Two-Spirit voices, vision, and leadership.

Challenges to Intersectional Work Participants note that single-issue funding, concentrated funding, and underinvestment in grassroots organizations has a chilling effect on the capacity of movement groups to engage in intersectional organizing, promotes the siloing of movement work, and devalues solidarity organizing.

Many point out that resources for movement work are highly concentrated, privileging a select handful of single-issue, national organizations, while dynamic, smaller organizations, often working locally in their own communities, remain severely under-resourced.29

“Some of the most vibrant and exciting conversations about the LGBTQ movement are happening on Twitter. Recently the #itgetsbitter hashtag started trending and sparked a necessary conversation about the invisibility of queer People of Color in the mainstream gay rights movement.”

— survey participant

- 23 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Accountable “We train people to tell their OWN stories in ways that respect them, their lives and experiences. Then we have permission to screen those videos in various venues. We believe strongly in people telling their OWN stories, and believe that we don’t have the right to use other people’s stories — for example, our partners in other countries have asked us to come train them, as opposed to documenting them, and that is our commitment to social justice as well.”

— survey participant

In interviews, workshops, and open-ended survey responses, we found a strong, persistent thread emphasizing that media work is most effective, and most just and powerful, when it is accountable to the community. We asked organizations to share information about specific accountability mechanisms.

About three quarters of organizations employ explicit accountability mechanisms, such as written or verbal consent, when using their community members’ stories.

Most ask for verbal (78%) or written (73%) consent to use their community members’ stories in their media work.

Some organizations establish clear systems of community engagement in other aspects of their media work.

DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION DO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING TO HELP ENSURE THAT YOUR MEDIA WORK IS ACCOUNTABLE TO YOUR COMMUNITY?

We ask for verbal consent to use our community members’ stories

78%

We gather written consent to use our community members’ stories

73%

We review campaign messages with a group of our members We have a community steering committee that develops our messaging and framing Other accountability practices

45% 17% 18%

- 24 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

About half (45%) of surveyed organizations review campaign messages with their members. A few organizations (17-18%) have other formal accountability mechanisms that give community members power over messaging and framing, such as community steering committees.

“We gather written consent/ permission to use our community members’ stories. Other accountability practices: [We] work in partnership with other trans* and LGBT organizations on message development and framing.”

— Survey participant Many organizations would like to develop stronger community accountability structures and processes, both internally and in partnerships.

“We do a lot of story circles — and in a story circle, we all share a story. To us that is a form of accountability, because it’s not just ‘you talk, we listen, write down, and make money.’

We all take turns talking and take turns listening and use the stories we share to create themes that we base our work off.”

—survey participant

MEDIA THAT WORKS

#whatablacklesbianlookslike Accountability Campaign,

by NBJC LGBTQ and Two-Spirit communities are increasingly using social media to hold public officials and celebrities accountable for homophobic and transphobic comments.

Sometimes this strategy is used to demand public apologies; in other cases, it has been used to force officials to resign:

“We launched a campaign against the homophobic comments made by then Lt. Governor of Florida, Jennifer Carroll, that ultimately led to her resigning her position.”

— Survey respondent http://www.nbjc.org/ whatablacklesbianlookslike

- 25 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Research participants emphasized that they would like to see broader recognition of, and resources for, accountable approaches to community storytelling.

Examples include workshops, story circles, trainings, and approaches to media work that give community members power over messaging and framing and over their own stories.

“We’re working towards better community accountability practices, but have struggled to establish a sustainable structure. For example, we created a Youth Media Council for young people to work with staff on developing our communications strategy, but it dissolved because the youth were overcommitted with all of our other programs.

Instead, now, we consult the existing regional youth councils about individual communications campaigns as they arise.”

— survey participant Additionally, respondents note that it is important to create clear accountability when collaborating with partners and allies. Many would like to see professional media makers, such as filmmakers, agree upon accountability and ethical representation practices.

Others say that organizations should find resources for and fully involve artists and media makers, rather than just ask them to implement ideas that they have had little participation in.

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Community Message Accountability in “Love is Love” Poster Campaign,

by Freedom Inc. One accountability mechanism that was shared by multiple participants is to involve community members directly in developing campaign messages and images. They note that this can help ensure consistency between the organization’s media work and the goals and desires of the community. For example, Freedom, Inc. shared their approach to developing a queer people of color-centric poster campaign, based on developing and testing images together with community focus groups:

“We engaged community members in creating a queer media poster visibility campaign. We developed images by and for low-income communities of color with queer positive messages and images, which we disseminated where our communities congregate (e.g. barbershops, church, community centers).”

— survey participant More information about this example is available at http://transformativemedia.cc/skillshares/freedom-inc.

- 26 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Social media provide important opportunities, but also expose LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people to discrimination, stalking, and gender based violence based on information revealed on social media.

A majority of organizations have security and safety concerns about discrimination against community members based on information revealed in their social media accounts (58%), the use of social media for stalking, bullying, and gender based violence

(53%), and a lack of consent in terms of how, when, and by whom personal data are used or accessed (43%). Research participants emphasize the need for a harm reduction approach to the ways their members use corporate social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and so on, in terms of content ownership, use of content and personal data, data portability, and surveillance. Additionally, in doing media work, research participants emphasized that it is important to focus on the emotional well-being of people who share their stories, and to support individuals to determine when they are in a good place to share, and with whom.

WHAT ARE YOUR ORGANIZATION’S BIGGEST SECURITY AND SAFETY CONCERNS, WHEN IT COMES TO MEDIA WORK?

58% Discrimination against our community members based on information revealed in their social media profiles and posts 53% Physical, mental and emotional safety

43% Consent 36% Privacy 19% Data ownership 18% Local police surveillance 17% Federal surveillance

13% Not concerned about issues of security and safety

12% Data persistence 11% Other

- 27 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Participatory Many of the most powerful examples of media campaigns that work well involve everyday people taking part in media making, in a wide range of formats -- from printmaking to posting on Instagram, from writing poetry to editing digital video. Participatory media making is not synonymous with social media; organizations conduct participatory media work both online and offline. Even as participatory media making becomes mainstream, survey responses show that Executive Directors frequently lead their organization’s

MEDIA THAT WORKS

#GSAs4Justice,

by GSANet For more info see http://transformativemedia.cc/gsas4justice/

media work, while community members often participate by providing stories. Many LGBTQ and TwoSpirit organizations feel that they could benefit from learning how to engage their communities more directly in all stages of media work, from strategy, messaging, and framing to media creation and sharing. At the same time, they emphasize that not everyone is comfortable with media-making, and that it is important to support those who want to learn new skills and tools.

“For the National Week of Action on School Pushout, we asked members to share images of their GSA pushing back against school pushout with the hashtag #GSAs4Justice. In addition to participatory media campaigns, we often ask individual youth to write a blog post or email.”

— survey participant

- 28 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

DO YOU EVER ASK YOUR COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO CREATE MEDIA AS PART OF A CAMPAIGN OR ADVOCACY WORK?

No: 43%

DO YOU EVER ASK YOUR MEMBERS TO SHARE PERSONAL STORIES AS PART OF YOUR MEDIA WORK?

No: 22%

Yes: 57%

Yes: 78%

Movement media work is participatory; six out of ten organizations ask their community members to create media.

Four out of five organizations ask their members to share personal stories as part of their media work.

More than half (57%) say that they have asked community members to create media as part of their media work.

The majority (78%) of organizations say that they sometimes ask members to share personal stories as part of their media work.

“We created a tumblr in connection with one of our films that addresses sexual assault. The tumblr asks for people to add their “I Will” statement about an action they will take to end sexual violence.”

— survey participant

“Last fall, we launched a “Youth Voices” partnership with the Washington Blade in which youth submit monthly articles about their experience which are published in the paper.”

— survey participant

- 29 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

A number of respondents mentioned Laverne Cox and Janet Mock as important trans* women of color who do activist work and are producing a cultural shift. Many specifically mentioned the #GirlsLikeUs hashtag for trans* women as a powerful example of effective participatory media.

MEDIA THAT WORKS

#GirlsLikeUs, by Janet Mock

“Janet Mock’s #girlslikeus has been a great way of connecting people and communities on social media through user-driven content.”

— survey participant

Participatory media making takes place across many platforms, both online and offline.

There is sometimes an assumption that “participatory media” is synonymous with social media. However,

LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizers involve their communities in participatory media making across many different media platforms. For example, one survey respondent described leading participatory film, video, digital storytelling, and screen printing workshops with Two-Spirit youth.

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Film, Video, and Screen Printing Workshops,

by Branching Seedz of Resistance More info: http://coavp.org/bseedz/rainbow-warriors-film

“Digital stories are a transformative way to share youth experiences and stories of resilience and justice. Rainbow Warriors is a film project created by and for young queer and Two-pirit people of color to portray the resiliency our community experiences in response to the emotional and physical effects of suicide. Sex InQUEERies is our LGBTQ youthcreated video series exploring issues of reproductive justice, sexual health, etc.”

- 30 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Executive Directors frequently lead media work; many would like to see staff and community members more engaged in this area.

Nearly half (45%) of organizations report that their ED does most of their media work, while two-fifths (39%) said that media & communications staff are the ones who lead. Research participants note that organizations do need resources to hire dedicated media and communications staff, in order to shift media work away from EDs. At the same time, they say that EDs need to trust, and proactively engage, their own staff and their broader community to participate in and lead their organization’s media work.

WHO IN YOUR ORGANIZATION DOES MOST OF YOUR MEDIA WORK?

45% 39% 34%

24% 16% 16%

Interns

Organizers

Other

Members

Volunteers

Other Staff

Media & Communications Staff

Executive Director

11%

9%

Consultants

18%

- 31 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Strategic “To bring LGBTQ youth projects using media as an organizing strategy to the Allied Media Conference for the past 5 years with our partner has created collaborations, resource sharing, and increased communication among groups nationally” — survey participant

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Know Your Rights Youth Outreach Material,

by Streetwise and Safe http://transformativemedia.cc/creatingeffective-tools-to-reach-our-communities.

LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations are thinking strategically about how to reach and engage people where they are.

People, not just platforms Organizations make media across many platforms, online and offline, and connect to audiences where they are, not just use whatever new social media platform is hot. Online media, especially social media,

“We created ‘Know Your Rights’ materials, tailored to LGBTQ youth and packaged in condom cases — which have been replicated by a number of agencies serving homeless LGBTQ youth.LGBTQ youth made “Know Your Rights” videos featuring situations LGBTQ youth commonly encounter. We made posters for LGBTQ youth organizations and drop-in centers, and a “Know Your Rights” website for LGBTQ youth!”

- 32 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING DID YOUR ORGANIZATION DO IN THE LAST MONTH?

Online 94% 80%

Mainstream Media & PR

72%

43%

39% 29%

24% 24%

18%

17%

12%

9%

Pr es sR ela se Di re Ra ct di M oA ail pp ea TV ra nc Ap pe e ar an ce Op .E d.

Pr es Ad sC s on fe re nc e

12%

SM On lin S eP et iti on

So cia lM ed E ia m Up ail da B te las Yo ts ur W eb sit e B On lo g lin e O Post rg an izi ng

17%

Direct Contact 76%

Media Analysis

Cultural Work 12%

12%

Vi su al Ar t Th ea tre Po et ry

Fa ce -To -Fa ce

M ee tin Ph on gs eB an Do kin or g Kn oc kin g

3%

email, and organizational websites, are important for LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizing, but other forms of media production remain popular as well. We asked about media that organizations made in the last month: almost all used social media (94%) and email blasts (80%). Three quarters (76%) held face-to-face meetings, which several participants describe as the “bread and butter� of community organizing. Three quarters (72%) updated their website in the last month.

Mainstream media and public relations remain an important part of organizational media work, although not all organizations do this well. We have seen that not

16%

11%

Po lic al An Ed aly .W ze ith M ain M ed str ia ea m M ed ia

13%

32%

M us ic

20%

many organizations feel they are regularly covered by mainstream radio, TV, and newspapers. Only forty-three percent produce press releases. About a quarter (24%) appeared on the radio in the last month, a fifth (18%) on TV, and a fifth (17%) wrote an Op Ed. Just one in ten (9%) held a press conference in the last month. About a third (32%) conduct political education using media, while a sixth (16%) critically analyze mainstream media.

More than half (53%) made posters or flyers, while a third (31%) produced a video or photographs (30%).

A minority (11-13%) engaged in cultural work, such as visual art, theater, poetry, and music.

- 33 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Organizations most frequently spend their media budgets on websites, staff, and art.

We asked organizations how they spend their media budget. Surprisingly, the largest single category of

expenditure is website hosting and design (selected by 57% of respondents). The second largest category is staff (41%). Art came in third, with thirty-five percent of organizations spending their scarce media budgets on artwork; this indicates the importance of art to movement building and media organizing. A third of organizations (34%) selected “No Media Budget.�

HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR MEDIA BUDGET?

25%

Online Ads

22%

Contacts DB Traditional PR

21%

Direct Mail

21% 16%

Print & Bcast Ads Press DB

Advertising and PR

7% 35%

Art/Propaganda Media Production (Video, TV, Radio)

27%

Media Making

26%

Printed newsletter

16%

Software

41%

Staff

21%

Consultants Stipends

People

9% 57%

Website Hosting/Design No Media Budget Other Training/Coaching Media Analysis

34% 9% 8% 7%

- 34 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Know Your Rights Photo Shoot,

by BreakOUT! A picture is still worth a thousand words, and several respondents described photo projects as an example of effective media. Photography projects that have powerful impact often involve high-quality photographs, whether professionally produced and/or participatory but carefully curated. http://www.youthbreakout.org/content/ knowyourrights-photo-shoot

“I was extremely moved by a photo project by BreakOUT! on youth legal rights when dealing with law enforcement. The photos had a stunning professional quality and were extremely eye-catching, as well as informative…”

— Survey participant

There are gaps between the audiences that organizations most want to reach with their media work, and those they feel they are best able to reach. Nearly all (85%) reach their own communities, but just one-fifth feel they are reaching the mass media, policymakers, or the broader public.

Overwhelmingly, organizations most want to reach members of their LGBTQ and/or Two-Spirit community (94%), followed by members of their organization or network (83%). Most (85%) do feel they are successful at reaching their own organizational members.

However, just two-thirds (66%) feel they are successful at reaching their top-priority audience (members of their community). Although more than three-quarters (76%) see allies as a key audience, less than half (45%) feel they reach this audience successfully. Very few

WHICH AUDIENCES DO YOU MOST WANT TO REACH? WHICH AUDIENCES ARE YOU MOST SUCCESSFUL REACHING? 85% 83%

Members of our organization of network Our LGBTQ and/or Two-Spirit community Allies

Mainstream media Policymakers

76%

45%

Funders Broader public

94%

66%

64%

27%

Highest Priority Audience

66%

20% 19% 19%

54% 59%

- 35 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Most Success Reaching

MEDIA THAT WORKS

“As movements committed to social and economic justice, where are the disabled people in our communities, organizations, bases, and movements? Are they isolated? …What would access beyond logistics look and feel like? Access that allows people to not just be included, but maintain their dignity and connection to their communities?”

Video Captioning Workshop,

by INCITE! and SONG http://transformativemedia.cc/intro-to-video-captioning

— Mia Mingus, quoted in OCTOP Skillshare #8: INCITE!: Introduction to VIDEO CAPTIONING: let’s make our media more accessible!

Multilingual translation is an important goal for many LGBTQ & Two-Spirit organizations, but few actually have the resources to translate their work. Similarly, many would like to include closed-captioning for videos and audio versions of written and visual materials, but most are only able to do this occasionally.

Nearly half of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations estimate that more than a third of their community is mostly offline.

LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people also suffer high rates of incarceration and detention, and their communication rights are systematically violated.

29% 24% 17% 12% 3%

6%

4% 1%

2%

010 % 1120 % 21 -3 0% 31 -4 0% 41 -5 0% 51 -6 0% 61 -7 0% 71 -8 0 81 % -9 0 91 % -10 0%

Translation and accessibility are important goals.

WHAT PROPORTION OF YOUR COMMUNITY IS MOSTLY OFFLINE? percent of orgs choosing this response

feel they are able to reach the mass media (19%), policymakers (19%), or the broader public (20%), although a majority say they would like to (54%, 59%, and 66%, respectively). Two-thirds (64%) see funders as an audience they would like to reach, but just onethird (27%) feel they do so. Few organizations are able to effectively do audience segmentation work (reach different audiences with different messages).

proportion community offline

Nearly half (47%) of the LGBTQ & Two-Spirit organizations we surveyed estimate that more than a third of their community is mostly offline. This reflects the fact that, despite continued progress toward universal Internet access, broadband Internet access continues to be determined largely by socio-economic status, race, gender, age and immigration status, and is denied to people who are incarcerated. LGBTQ and Two-

- 36 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

HOW DO YOU REACH YOUR OFFLINE FOLKS? More ofte n

mentione

d

Face-to-Face: at gatherings; pow wows; events; workshops...

Printed fliers, posters, notecards Phone Direct Mail & Letters Door Knocking; Organizing; Outreach Word of Mouth Mass Media (radio, news, tv)

Less often m

entioned

Newsletters Partnerships; referrals; networks SMS; text messages Schools & Libraries

Spirit people, especially People of Color, are incarcerated at much higher rates than the general population, and are thereby systematically denied communication rights.30 Given that such a large proportion of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people are offline, with poor internet connectivity or low digital literacy, many organizations feel that there is a continued need for digital justice initiatives focused on affordable broadband and digital skills training for LGBTQ and Two-Spirit communities.31 For example, many community centers have computer labs, but don’t have resources for a skilled staff person who might help make the lab a vibrant site for transformative media organizing work.32

Organizations employ a wide variety of strategies to connect with their offline base.

Among the most frequently cited effective strategies to reach offline audiences: face-to-face events, printed matter, phone, direct mailing, door-knocking, word of mouth, and mass media. Several organizations indicate that even as their online media presence increases, they struggle to find resources to reach offline audiences and to effectively link their online and offline media strategies.

Social Spaces Drop-in; hotline Ads Church Org Programs

A number of respondents highlight working with mainstream reporters as a key strategy for changing media representations of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people.

For them, it is worthwhile to build relationships with individual reporters, as well as to educate well-meaning writers about LGBTQ and Two-Spirit identities, issues, stories, and frames. They describe following up with reporters to thank them for their work, and also to help them correct errors.

“When Chelsea Manning came out, we focused on that all day. Our ED did over 20 interviews. I followed up with each and every reporter ,helping them get the story right. When they got it wrong, we followed up again,and had several corrections made. It was a huge teachable moment for the media.”

— Survey participant

Working with mainstream reporters can change news coverage.

- 37 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Not all organizations maintain lists of press contacts, and there is surprising variation in which organizations do and which do not.

Maintaining a list of regular press contacts (sometimes called a “hotlist”) is a tried and true strategy for gaining coverage in both traditional (newspaper, TV, and

radio) and digital media outlets (high-traffic blogs and websites). We asked organizations whether they have a list of press contacts, and found wide and surprising variation in responses. For example, more than three quarters of organizations with budgets between $10,000-$25,000 have hotlists, compared to less than half of organizations with $50,000-$100,000 budgets.

Also surprising: not all organizations with budgets over $1 million have a hotlist (about 15-20% do not).

DO YOU HAVE A LIST OF PRESS CONTACTS OR “HOTLIST”?

No budget

Yes No

$1-$999 $1,000-$4,999 $5,000-$9,999 $10,000-$24,999 $25,000-$49,999 $50,000-$99,999 $100,000-$199,999 $200,000-$499,999 $500,000-$999,999 $1 million - $5 million Over $5 million 0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Bad Encounter Line Zine,

by Young Women’s Empowerment Project “The Young Women’s Empowerment Project’s Bad Encounter Line documented service providers and institutions in Chicago and the challenges faced by LGBTQ when trying to access these services.”

— survey participant https://ywepchicago.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/bad-encounter-linereport-2012.pdf

- 38 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Three quarters of organizations have partnered with others on their media work. Of those who have, nearly all (92%) say that partnerships strengthen their media work.

HAVE PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE OTHER ORGS STRENGTHENED YOUR MEDIA WORK? IF SO, HOW...?

We haven’t partnered on our media work 25%

Yes: 69%

No: 6%

The overwhelming majority of surveyed organizations find that partnerships are an important way to leverage existing resources, build visibility, broaden reach, amplify work that addresses shared problems, mutually build capacity over time, and increase impact. Several organizations noted that there are sometimes missed opportunities to share resources, when groups adopt a ‘scarcity mentality’ rather than work to share and build together with others. Others agreed that partnerships can be wonderful, but emphasized that it is important to find the right partners.

“By partnering with other organizations, we’re able to reach new audiences and show public support for other organizations.”

—survey participant

HOW DO PARTNERSHIPS STRENGTHEN YOUR WORK? n

Builds media strategy & technical skills

n

Builds visibility

n

Broadens reach, builds base

n

Creates opportunities to support allies

n

Partners can operate as an echo chamber for key messages

n

Reaches mainstream media (visibility; share media contacts)

n

Builds collaboration & communication among allies

n

Shares & leverage resources; Share costs

n

Increases Impact

- 39 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Rooted in Community Action

“Our communities are at the heart of our movements.”

— Research participant LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations use a wide diversity of approaches to advance their goals. Research participants emphasized that for them, media that

MEDIA THAT WORKS

Fotohistorias del Westside,

by Esperanza Peace and Justice Center From the OCTOP skillshare description, at http://transformativemedia.cc/en-aquellos-tiemposfotohistorias-del-westside/

is rooted in community action is not primarily about generating attention, likes, or views. It is rooted in the struggles, needs, narratives, and actions of their community. Many feel that too often, media work is focused on the latest and greatest online strategies and tools; they note that it is unlikely that the movement will win real victories with online-only strategy. Instead, we heard over and over again that media work is a part of, rather than a replacement for, on the ground organizing.

“En Aquellos Tiempos…Fotohistorias del Westside is an ongoing celebration of the traditions and strength of the people of Westside of San Antonio, Texas. Through community platicas in which elders share photos and stories about the Westside, musica, comida, and an outdoor historic photo installation, this project honors and reclaims the history and culture of the Westside.”

- 40 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

LGBTQ & Two-Spirit organizations use a very wide range of strategies to address issues faced by their communities.

Research participants would like to see more grounded policy strategy.

Coalition work is the most frequently reported (70%), followed by social media (69%), leadership development (61%), and grassroots organizing (59%).

In terms of media work, most (69%) use social media, about a third (27%) conduct media campaigns or do mass media outreach, and just 9% purchase advertisements. Forty-two percent say that they organize online. About half of organizations engage in policy advocacy (50%), arts/cultural work (48%), and individual advocacy (48%). About a third conduct Know Your Rights education (37%), political education (36%), or popular education (35%). Only fifteen percent do “Get Out the Vote” work — less than direct action (25%), lobbying (19%), or legal advocacy (18%).

Many feel that there is a need to better align policy and strategy with the priorities of the broader movement.

Several participants noted that extensive resources are allocated to “Get Out the Vote” work, rather than to issues they find most pressing: community safety, police abuse, and intersectional coalition work.

Place-based organizing is undervalued, and regional resources are needed.

Many participants say that grassroots groups focusing on local work often go unrecognized — yet, the success of regional and national campaigns ultimately depends on place-based efforts that respond to the needs of the local community. Also, some regions receive

WHAT DO YOU DO TO ADDRESS ISSUES LGBTQ & TWO-SPIRIT COMMUNTIES FACE? 69%

Social Media Paid Advertising

MEDIA

9% 27% 27%

Media Campaigns Mass Media Outreach / P.R.

POLITICAL & KNOW YOUR RIGHTS EDUCATION

Know Your Rights Education/Campaigns

37%

Popular Education

35% 36%

Political Education

50%

Policy Advocacy ACTION AND ADVOCACY

19%

Lobbying Legal Advocacy

18% 25%

Direct Action

59%

Grassroots Community Organizing

42%

Online Organizing ORGANIZING, ORG DEVELOPMENT & MOVEMENT BUILDING

61%

Leadership Development Electoral / Get Out the Vote

15% 48%

Arts/Cultural Work

70%

Coalition/Alliance/Network-Building Research

DIRECT SERVICES

35%

Direct Services Individual Advocacy (Help folks navigate systems)

- 41 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

43% 48%

MEDIA THAT WORKS

“Out in the South” Research Report and Infographics,

by Funders for LGBTQ Issues A number of respondents say that research and report releases are effective at gaining attention, and also that the research process can be an effective organizing tool.

Infographics especially are widely circulated on social media.

“Our recent report and infographic on LGBT issues in the South has gotten a lot of attention in both traditional and social media. A number of nonprofits and activists have told us that they are using it as a tool to raise awareness of the need for more attention on LGBT issues in the South.”

— Survey participant http://www.lgbtfunders.org/resources/ LGBTQsouth.cfm

much more attention, funding, and resources than others; the regional disparity in LGBTQ funding is well documented.33 The Southeast, Southwest, and Midwest regions are often overlooked; these regions would benefit from more resources, and more contact with other movement networks. One research participant noted: “Regional gatherings are too rare. They could be key places to link our work, strengthen our change-making approach, and also build our media-making power.”

LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations want to lift up what works.

Overwhelmingly, research participants emphasize that LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations are creating amazing media work every day. Many want to see successful case studies shared more widely,34 and would like to see more funders resource existing, powerful media work by increasing the proportion of funding that goes to local, community-led, and membershipbased groups. Additionally, many feel that it is important to support collaborative work that already exists, rather than create new funderselected cohorts.

- 42 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

MEDIA THAT WORKS

I AM: Trans People Speak Project, by the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition Another example of media work that was rooted in community action was the I AM: Trans People Speak project, which was used by the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition as part of a successful campaign to pass the MA Trans Equal Rights Bill: http://www.transpeoplespeak.org

“...Trans* people and parents of trans* people uploaded videos about themselves and their lives to show all aspects of trans* people. The videos were used to encourage the passage of the Trans Equal Rights bill and show the need. The videos are powerful and we use them for talking about barriers to care.�

- 43 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

RECOMMENDATIONS Based on these findings, we recommend the following: For Funders Resource grassroots LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations to do media work – however they define it. Support and trust organizations to do media work in the ways that they want and need. Move beyond the tendency to measure success by counting column inches in newspapers, or clicks, likes, comments, and shares on social media.

Support intersectional media work. Intersectional work is often under-resourced, in comparison to single-issue media campaigns. We need to find new models to fund, resource, and otherwise support and encourage intersectional organizing, and resource media work that reflects the complex realities of our communities.

Support LGBTQ and Two-Spirit media organizing work by organizations led by, or working directly with, those who live at the intersections of multiple systems of oppression.

LGBTQ and Two-Spirit youth, immigrants, women, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, trans* and gender nonconforming people, and People of Color are not only among those critically impacted by oppression, exclusion and violence, they also lead much of the most cutting edge media making, organizing, and advocacy happening today. However, they receive just a small share of funding. Funders can help change this by following the slogan of the disability justice movement, “Nothing About Us Without Us,” when making funding decisions.

Digital access inequality persists, and it must be challenged through media justice initiatives focused on LGBTQ & Two-Spirit communities. LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people, especially those who are low-income and/or living in rural areas or reservations, and those who are incarcerated, need greater access to broadband connectivity and digital media education. Resource digital justice efforts to increase access and affordability, as well as digital media literacy programs run by and for LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people to build capacity for media creation of all kinds. Support spaces where media makers rooted in grassroots communities can gather to share strategies, successes, and challenges.

Media impact assessment must include transformative impacts. As funders develop media impact metrics and use them to inform grantmaking, it is crucial to recognize that

transformative impacts, such as leadership development, healing, and personal and organizational growth, although perhaps the most difficult to measure, are among the most powerful.

Lift up what works, and support people — not just platforms. We encourage funders to promote and share existing, powerful media work that is bubbling up from the grassroots, support existing collaborations, increase resources to local organizers, and fund face-to-face, offline, artistic, and cultural approaches to media work — not only television and print advertising, or the latest social media tools. Amplify media made by grassroots LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations through funder gatherings and information networks, as well as in publications, such as annual reports and the philanthropic press.

For Media-Makers Be respectful. We invite journalists and members of the press who write stories about LGBTQ and Two-Spirit communities to dig deeper into the intersections between gender, gender identity, sexual identity, race, class, immigration, and other axes of identity.

Don’t sensationalize. Use the language used by the person you are speaking with to describe them and their situation, and stick to the story they are telling, not the one you think will cause the biggest splash. Be mindful of how the media you create might inadvertently perpetuate perceptions of LGBTQ people which are ultimately limiting or harmful.

Create clear accountability mechanisms when you partner with LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations. Media professionals, such as filmmakers, should agree upon accountability mechanisms and ethical representation practices when partnering with organizations. It is possible to do this without sacrificing artistic freedom (a common objection). For example, create a community advisory group to review your media project’s narrative, messaging, and any “action asks,” very early in the production process — not just at the tail end or when you get to the rough cut. This will make your project stronger, more believable, and more useful to the community, in additional to being the the ethical thing to do.

- 44 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Value community media. Understand that you will not always be able to interview someone who is directly affected by the issue you are reporting on. Publicity can still put some LGBTQ people at risk of discrimination, abuse, and violence, particularly if they are People of Color, Two-Spirit, youth, migrants, or are engaged in criminalized survival strategies.

Seek out media made by LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people and communities on their own terms, with whatever precautions they feel necessary to take, and consider using this media as a possible credited source in your own stories.

with journalists and bloggers, and find artists and cultural workers who are sympathetic to your organization’s mission and vision. Local media outlets, such as local newspapers and local TV news, can be important allies when national media are hard to reach. Larger and better funded organizations should develop concrete initiatives to share their media access, skills, staff, reach, and other assets with smaller, more regional and local organizations. This is a key aspect of community responsibility, and can help surface and amplify intersectional narratives.

For Organizations Ground media work in community action. Recognize that we are not going to win with online-only strategy; our communities are the heart of our movements.

We need media that is generated organically through genuine engagement with members of directly impacted communities, which will creatively speak to members of those communities, in addition to reporters and policymakers.

Use media work as an opportunity to build grassroots leadership. Ideally, those who participate in transformative media organizing build power together, and gain skills, relationships, opportunities to express creativity, and space for healing and growth along the way.

Develop intentional community accountability structures.

Invite and support your community to meaningfully participate in all stages of your media work, from strategy, messaging, and framing to media-making and sharing. Work with your community to use participatory media to hold powerful people (such as elected officials and celebrities) and companies accountable for homophobic, trans* phobic, racist, sexist, ableist, anti-immigrant, and other oppressive statements, actions, and policies.

Plan for and promote safety, security, and harm reduction online. Social media are powerful tools, but they also expose our communities to harm. Develop dedicated materials and workshops for LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people to learn about online safety and security. Develop materials for securing informed consent for the use of images, testimony, and other forms of media that have the potential to be widely disseminated around the globe through the internet, and be sure your community understands that for practical purposes all digital media can be used and altered without permission, and will persist indefinitely online.

Find partners to amplify your message. Develop accountable partnerships with media-makers and organizations with strong media presence, build relationships

- 45 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Appendix: Participating Organizations Ackerman Institute for the Family

City of Angels Two-Spirit Society

Global Action Project

ACT for Women and Girls

Colorado Anti-Violence Program

Grand Street Settlement

Advocates for Youth

Colorado State University

Health Imperatives

All Out Arts, Inc

Columbus Public Health

Heartland Pride

Alliance For Full Acceptance

Communities for a New California Education Fund

Hispanic Black Gay Coalition

ALSO Youth, Inc

community of unity

American Civil Liberties Union

CultureStrike

API Equality-LA

DarkMatter

Arbor Circle Youth Services Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice Atlanta Pride Committee, Inc. Audre Lorde Project Autonomous Communities for Reproductive and Abortion Support

DeColores Queer Orange County

Indiana Two-Spirit Society

El/La Para TransLatinas

Indigenous Peoples Task Force

Encuentro

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Equality Michigan

Esperanza Peace and Justice Center

Birthmark Doula Collective

Family & Children Services of Silicon Valley

Bisexual Resource Center

Fenway Health

Black and Pink

FIERCE

Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100)

Forward Together

Blue Mountain Clinic Family Practice

Freedom to Marry

Boston Bisexual Women’s Network

Freedom, Inc

Bread & Roses Community Fund

Fresno BHC (Hood Fix Up)

BreakOUT!

Funders for LGBTQ Issues

Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders

Capital City GLBTA Democratic Caucus

Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada

Center for Media Change Center on Halsted CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers Central Oklahoma Two-Spirit Society

imMEDIAte Justice

Dreams of Hope

Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits

Center for Gender & Sexuality Law

Hudson Valley Community Services

INCITE! Women & Trans People of Color against Violence

Equality Toledo

Center for Constitutional Rights

Hope Manifest, Inc.

Detroit REPRESENT!

Basic Rights Oregon

Center for Artistic Revolution, CAR

HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA)

JCC of Greater New Haven Kaleidoscope Youth Center LaGender inc.

Lesbian Health Initiative (LHI) LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland Los Angeles Immigrant Youth Coalition Los Angeles Transgender Film Festival Madison NOW MakeShift Boston MAP For Health Marriage Equality USA Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth Media for the Public Good, Inc.

Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools

Media Literacy Project

Gay-Straight Alliance Network

Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center

Gender Justice LA

Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC)

Georgia Equality

Miami Gay Men’s Chorus

GetEQUAL

Milwaukee LGBT Community Center

GetEqual Massachusetts

Moab Pride

Global Action for Trans* Equality

Mobile Homecoming

- 46 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Montana Gay Straight Alliance Network

Rainbow Center

Time Out Youth Center

Montana Two-Spirit Society

Raise A Child Inc.

Trans-E-Motion

Movement Advancement Project

Red Umbrella Project

Trans(forming)

Murray Grove Retreat and Renewal Center

Resource Center

Transgender Law Center

National Black Justice Coalition

River City Mixed Chorus

National Center for Transgender Equality

Ruth Ellis Center

Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico

National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance

Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE)

New York City Anti-Violence Project

Scenarios USA

Twin Cities Pride

New York Law Collective

SCO Family of Services

Two-Spirits of Seattle

North East Transwomens Alliance Inc. (NETA Inc.)

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

TYSN

Skidmore College LGBTQ Faculty & Staff group

Unity Fellowship of Christ

SMYAL

Urban Justice Center

Soulforce

Utah Pride Center

Southerners On New Ground

VINE Sanctuary

PFLAG Tampa, Inc.

STAR Program at SUNY Downstate Medical Center

Voices Rising

PFund Foundation

Streetwise and Safe (SAS)

PIzza Klatch

Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan

T-FFED: Trans Folx* Fighting Eating Disorders

Positive Wellness Alliance

TEACH Alliance

Pride Films and Plays

Texas Two-Spirit Society

Women’s Health and Justice Initiative

Pro-Choice Resources

The Center for Hope and Healing

Young Women United

Project South

The Center of SWFL-LGBTQA

Youth Action Coalition

Providence Youth Student Movement

The Family Partnership

Youth Leadership Institute

QSanAntonio.com

The Family Tree Community Center

90.9 KRCL

Queer Ancestors Project

The Frederick Center

Queer Asian Pacific-Islander Alliance (QAPA)

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center

NorthEast Two-Spirit Society NW Alliance for Alternative Media & Education OneAmerica Otter Activism

Queer Detainee Empowerment Project Queer People of Color CSUF Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP)

The Living Room The Montrose Center The Night Ministry The Queer Connection

QUIP

The UP Center of Champaign County

Qulture.org

Three Dollar Bill Cinema

Transvisible Film Tulsa Two-Spirit Society

Waterloo Counseling Center Western States Center Wichita Two-Spirit Society Windy City Times

We thank all of the participating organizations for taking the time to complete the survey, and for the tremendous work you do. The organizations listed above consented to being identified publicly as participating in the survey; the survey was completed by over 40 additional organizations.

- 47 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Appendix: Resources transformativemedia.cc We are pleased to share a series of free media skillshares, workshop facilitation guides, and other materials developed by the OCTOP project on our website, at transformativemedia.cc.

Lifting Up What Works: A Gallery of Examples LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations are already doing amazing media work on a daily basis. We asked survey respondents to share an example of how they used media to make an impact in their community. A gallery of examples and links drawn from all responses to this question is available at http://transformativemedia.cc/ whatworks.

- 48 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

References Bowman, Karlyn, Andrew Rugg, and Jennifer Marsico. “Polls on attitudes on homosexuality & gay marriage.” American Enterprise Institute. 27 March, 2013. www.aei.org/outlook/politics-and-public-opinion/ polls/polls-on-attitudes-on-homosexuality-gay-marriage-march-2013.

Gruberg, Sharita. Dignity Denied: LGBT Immigrants in U.S. Immigration Detention. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2013. http:// cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ImmigrationEnforcement-1.pdf.

BreakOUT! We Deserve Better: A Report on Policing in New Orleans by and for Queer and Trans Youth of Color. New Orleans: BreakOUT!, in collaboration with National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 2014. getyrrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WE-DESERVE-BETTER-REPORT. pdf.

Hanssens, Catherine, Aisha C. Moodie-Mills, Andrea J. Ritchie, Dean Spade, and Urvashi Vaid. “A Roadmap for Change: Federal Policy Recommendations for Addressing the Criminalization of LGBT People and People Living with HIV.” New York: Center for Gender & Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, 2014.

Burdge, H., Licona, A. C., and Hyemingway, Z. T. LGBTQ Youth of Color: Discipline Disparities, School Push-Out, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline.

San Francisco, CA: Gay-Straight Alliance Network and Tucson, AZ: Crossroads Collaborative at the University of Arizona, 2014. www. gsanetwork.org/Pushout-Report.

Kan, Lyle Matthew. Out in the South: Building Resources for LGBTQ Advancement in the U.S. South. New York: Funders for LGBTQ Issues, 2014. www.lgbtfunders.org/resources/LGBTQsouth.cfm.

Center for Transformative Change. Framing Deep Change: Essays on Transformative Change. Berkeley: Center for Transformative Change, 2010. issuu.com/xsochange/docs/framingdeepchange.

Conrad, Ryan (Ed.) Against Equality: Queer Revolution, Not Mere Inclusion.

Oakland: AK Press, 2014.

Daniels, Jessie, and Mary Gray. Vision for Inclusion: An LGBT Broadband Future. LGBT Technology Partnership Institute, 2014. lgbtbroadband.org.

DataCenter. The National Trans*, Two-Spirit, and Intersex Landscape Survey.

Oakland: DataCenter, 2012. www.datacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012-FINAL-Arcus-Landscape-Survey-Report-Final-Draft-120705_ v2.pdf,

Movement Advancement Project. LGBT Community Center Survey Report.

Denver: Movement Advancement Project, 2014. www.lgbtmap.org/ lgbt-movement-overviews/2014-lgbt-community-center-survey-report.

Movement Advancement Project, Center for American Progress, Freedom to Work, Human Rights Campaign, and National Black Justice Coalition. “A Broken Bargain for LGBT Workers of Color.” Denver: Movement Advancement Project, 2013. www.lgbtmap.org/file/a-broken-bargain-for-lgbt-workers-of-color.pdf.

Napoli, Philip. “Measuring Media Impact: An Overview of the Field.” Los Angeles: Norman Lear Center, 2014. www.learcenter.org/pdf/measuringmedia.pdf.

Detroit Future Schools. “Guide to Transformative Education.” Detroit: Detroit Future Schools, 2014. www.detroitfutureschools.org/toolkit.

Pastor, Manuel, Ito, J., & Rosner, R. Transactions, transformations, translations: Metrics that matter for building, scaling, and funding social movements. Los Angeles: USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, 2011.

Emmer, Pascal, Adrian Lowe, and R. Barrett Marshall. “This is a Prison, Glitter is Not Allowed: Experiences of Trans and Gender Variant People in Pennsylvania’s Prison Systems.” Philadelphia, PA: Hearts on a Wire Collective, 2011. www.galaei.org/documents/thisisaprison.pdf.

Sen, Rinku, Seth Wessler, and Dominique Apollon. Better Together: Research Findings on the Relationship between Racial Justice Organizations and LGBT Communities. Oakland: Applied Research Center, 2010. www. antiracistalliance.com/Better_Together_ARC_2010-1.pdf.

Gates, Gary. “LGBT Adult Immigrants in the United States.” Los Angeles: Williams Institute, 2013. williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-studies/us-lgbt-immigrants-mar-2013.

Sender, Katherine. Business, not politics: The making of the gay market.

New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

Grant, Jaime M., Lisa A. Mottet, Justin Tanis, Jack Harrison, Jody L. Herman,and Mara Keisling. Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Washington: National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 2011. www.thetaskforce.org/static_html/downloads/reports/reports/ ntds_full.pdf.

Gray, Mary. Out in the country: Youth, media, and queer visibility in rural America. New York: NYU Press, 2009.

Gross, Larry P. Up from invisibility: Lesbians, gay men, and the media in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Torres, C. Angel, and Naima Paz. “Denied Help! How Youth in the Sex Trade & Street Economy are Turned Away from Systems Meant to Help Us & What We are Doing to Fight Back.” Chicago, IL: Young Women’s Empowerment Project, 2012. ywepchicago.files.wordpress. com/2012/09/bad-encounter-line-report-2012.pdf.

Trans Justice Funding Project. 2013 Trans Justice Funding Report. Trans Justice Funding Project, 2013. www.transjusticefundingproject. org/2013-report.

Whyte, William Foote (Ed.) Participatory action research. Sage Publications, Inc, 1991.

- 49 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

Endnotes 1. “Rising hostility against LGBT.” The Boston Globe.” 27 Mar. 2013 http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/01/15/podium-lgbt/ RWUuvnDT4Ldvjodf0HNFAP/story.html

14. See Philip Napoli, 2014: “Measuring Media Impact: An Overview of the Field.” L.A., Norman Lear Center. http://www.learcenter. org/pdf/measuringmedia.pdf

2. Trans Justice Funding Project, 2013: http://www.transjusticefundingproject.org/2013-report

15. See Pastor, M., Ito, J., & Rosner, R. (2011). Transactions, transformations, translations: Metrics that matter for building, scaling, and funding social movements. Los Angeles: USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity.

Also see Detroit Future Schools’ methodology for assessing digital media literacy education at multiple levels: Detroit Future Schools, 2014, “Guide to Transformative Education.” Detroit, Detroit Future Schools. http://www.detroitfutureschools.org/ toolkit.

3. BreakOUT! “We Deserve Better: A Report on Policing in New Orleans by and for Queer and Trans Youth of Color.” http://getyrrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WE-DESERVE-BETTER-REPORT.pdf.

4. One version of ENDA passed the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support by a vote of 64-32 in November of 2013.

5. For example, the 2012 election of Tammy Baldwin as the first openly gay United States Senator, the 2013 milestone of Mark Takano (D-CA) as the first non-white openly gay member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the election of Susan Allan to the Minnesota House of Representatives as the first openly Two-Spirit elected official.

6. Gross, L. P. (2001). Up from invisibility: Lesbians, gay men, and the media in America. Columbia University Press.

7. American Enterprise Institute. “Polls on attitudes on homosexuality & gay marriage, March 2013.” American Enterprise Institute. 27 Mar. 2013. http://www.aei.org/outlook/politics-and-public-opinion/polls/polls-on-attitudes-on-homosexuality-gay-marriage-march-2013 8. Sender, K. (2004). Business, not politics: The making of the gay market. Columbia University Press.

9. Gray, Mary. Out in the country: Youth, media, and queer visibility in rural America. NYU Press, 2009.

10. Whyte, William Foote Ed. Participatory action research. Sage Publications, Inc, 1991.

11. Some organizations gave permission to share their names as survey participants. This list is available in the Appendix.

12. No surveys were completed by organizations from any of the following 12 states: Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, West Virginia or Wyoming. This reflects the smaller numbers of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit organizations in these states, which in turn has to do with well-documented regional funding disparities. See Out in the South: Building Resources for LGBTQ Advancement in the U.S. South. New York: Funders for LGBTQ Issues. http://www.lgbtfunders.org/resources/LGBTQsouth.cfm.

13. For more on transformative change, see Framing Deep Change: Essays on Transformative Change. Available at http://issuu.com/ xsochange/docs/framingdeepchange.

16. Following the work of feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw; for example, a white lesbian cisgendered (non-transgendered) woman will experience homophobia differently than a Black lesbian ciswoman.

17. These numbers seem high, in light of recent studies that show very little resource allocation to trans* organizing and almost no resources or visibility for Two-Spirit organizing. See The National Trans*, Two-Spirit, and Intersex Landscape Survey. DataCenter, 2012: http://www.datacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012-FINAL-Arcus-Landscape-Survey-Report-Final-Draft-120705_v2.pdf, as well as the 2013 Trans Justice Funding Report, Trans Justice Funding Project, 2013: http://www.transjusticefundingproject. org/2013-report.

18. “Better Together” is the title of a current initiative sponsored by Race Forward, and sponsored by the Arcus Foundation. The initiative “combines research, media, and leadership development to strengthen and inform efforts to advance racial justice and LGBT liberation” in the South.

19. Movement Advancement Project, Center for American Progress, Freedom to Work, Human Rights Campaign, and National Black Justice Coalition (2013). “A Broken Bargain for LGBT Workers of Color.” http://www.lgbtmap.org/file/a-broken-bargain-for-lgbtworkers-of-color.pdf 20. Catherine Hanssens, Aisha C. Moodie-Mills, Andrea J. Ritchie, Dean Spade, and Urvashi Vaid. 2014. “A Roadmap for Change: Federal Policy Recommendations for Addressing the Criminalization of LGBT People and People Living with HIV.” New York: Center for Gender & Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School.

21. Burdge, H., Licona, A. C., Hyemingway, Z. T. (2014). LGBTQ Youth of Color: Discipline Disparities, School Push-Out, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline. San Francisco, CA: Gay-Straight Alliance Network and Tucson, AZ: Crossroads Collaborative at the University of Arizona. http://www.gsanetwork.org/Pushout-Report.

- 50 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

22. C Angel Torres and Naima Paz (2012). “Denied Help! How Youth in the Sex Trade & Street Economy are Turned Away from Systems Meant to Help Us & What We are Doing to Fight Back.”

Chicago, IL: Young Women’s Empowerment Project. http://ywepchicago.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/bad-encounter-line-report-2012.pdf.

23. Pascal Emmer, Adrian Lowe, and R. Barrett Marshall (2011).

“This is a Prison, Glitter is Not Allowed: Experiences of Trans and Gender Variant People in Pennsylvania’s Prison Systems.”

Philadelphia, PA: Hearts on a Wire Collective. http://www.galaei. org/documents/thisisaprison.pdf.

24. See the trans* justice funding project report: http://www.transjusticefundingproject.org/2013-report.

31. For more, see Daniels, Jessie, and Mary Gray. 2014. Vision for Inclusion: An LGBT Broadband Future. LGBT Technology Partnership Institute. http://lgbtbroadband.org.

32. See the Movement Advancement Project 2014 LGBT Community Center Survey Report: http://www.lgbtmap.org/lgbt-movement-overviews/2014-lgbt-community-center-survey-report 33. Out in the South: Building Resources for LGBTQ Advancement in the U.S. South. New York: Funders for LGBTQ Issues. http://www. lgbtfunders.org/resources/LGBTQsouth.cfm.

34. We encourage readers to browse a gallery that we created from survey respondents’ examples of media that works: http://transformativemedia.cc/whatworks.

25. The Williams Institute reported in March 2013 that there were an estimated 267,000 undocumented LGBTQ people living in the US: http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-studies/us-lgbt-immigrants-mar-2013/.

26. The Obama administration has deported over 2 million people; yearly deportations are now above 400,000 according to Department of Homeland Security statistics. A conservative estimate (1 in 10) would thus be that Obama has deported more than 200,000 LGBTQ people since taking office. Additionally, a report by the Center for American Progress (http://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ImmigrationEnforcement-1.pdf) details how LGBTQ people face increased rates of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse while in detention and deportation proceedings, both from other detainees and from guards.

27. DataCenter. The National Trans*, Two-Spirit, and Intersex Landscape Survey. DataCenter, 2012: http://www.datacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012-FINAL-Arcus-Landscape-Survey-Report-Final-Draft-120705_v2.pdf 28. See Ryan Conrad (Ed.), Against Equality: Queer Revolution, Not Mere Inclusion. Oakland: AK Press. 2014.

29. In their 2010 report on racial justice organizations and LGBT organizations, the Applied Research Center (recently renamed Race Forward) found that mainstream LGBT organizations were making progress in engaging LGBT People of Color, but “...tend to focus on individual LGBT people […] rather than on building sustained relationships with established racial justice organizations” (see http://www.antiracistalliance.com/Better_Together_ ARC_2010-1.pdf). The ARC research, just as this study, found that there are many LGBTQ POC organizations across the country doing tremendous work. However, organizations working explicitly at these intersections are less visible and more poorly resourced than mainstream groups that work only on either racial justice or LGBTQ issues.

30. See Grant, Jaime M., Lisa A. Mottet, Justin Tanis, Jack Harrison, Jody L. Herman,and Mara Keisling. Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Washington: National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 2011. http://www.thetaskforce.org/static_html/downloads/reports/reports/ntds_full.pdf.

- 51 OUT FOR CHANGE: Towards Transformative Media Organizing

What Is Transformative Media Organizing?

Transformative media organizing is a liberatory approach to integrating media, communications, and cultural work into movement building. Transformative media organizers begin with an intersectional analysis of linked systems of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and other axes of identity. We seek to do media work that develops the critical consciousness and leadership of those who take part in the media-making process, create media in ways that are deeply accountable to the movement base, invite our communities to participate in media production, create media strategically across platforms, and root our work in community action.

Why You Should Read This Report “Social movements are using new tools to tell their own stories and mobilize their communities in powerful ways, from #GirlsLikeUs to #IdleNoMore, from #Occupy to #BlackLivesMatter and beyond. This report provides an incredibly valuable overview of how the organizations that work to improve the lives of LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people currently utilize media, and of opportunities to support innovative work and address capacity challenges. It is essential reading for funders and organizational leaders alike.”

— Luna Yasui, Program Officer, LGBT Rights, Ford Foundation

transformativemedia.cc