Cathy's fundraising page

Dear friends and community,

It’s Give Out Month, which is an annual month of giving for LGBTQ+ causes. I’m asking for your help to get 50 (!) donors who can support my work at GSA Network (Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network), which unites trans and queer youth for racial and gender justice. This year, I’m super excited that we are raising money for the Youth Freedom Fund, which will give mini-grants directly to GSA clubs to carry out projects!

I’ve come to deeply appreciate this annual opportunity to share my work with extended family, friends, acquaintances, old classmates, and broader community connections. Not everyone may have a personal experience with GSA clubs (LGBTQ+ student groups sometimes called Gender & Sexuality Alliances, or what used to be called Gay-Straight Alliances), so I’d like to share mine. 

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I spent my first year of high school coming out to myself. For the next three years, I was a member of the GSA club and participated religiously and mostly secretly, even though I couldn’t articulate why it meant so much to me. I was shy in class; no one would have pegged me as an activist or a leader. But through the GSA club, I came “out” at school for the first time about what I believed in and cared about; I learned what students could do on our own. We planned days of action, organized teach-ins, wrote op-eds, conducted outreach, fundraised, and facilitated meetings. I still remember how nervous I felt telling teachers and friends I was participating in the day of silence or inviting classmates to our events. It was only the very beginning of finding my voice and myself.

This March, I started a new position as director of our national team, and it has been overwhelming and heartbreaking to hear from students, teachers, and partner organizations about the challenges they face with the 500+ anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this legislative cycle. Today’s young people have to make decisions that I was lucky enough never to have to make. I hear from students and teachers who must choose between being who they are and risking their mental health, safety, careers, and futures. GSA advisors and members are facing threats and harassment, including in “progressive” areas. GSA clubs are going underground, off campus, or have stopped meeting. School districts are rolling back LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts.

I also hear from trans and queer youth who are fired up and ready to fight back despite being sad, scared, and angry. Youth, teachers, parents, and community members are showing up to hold the line and say, “Not in our district.” Today’s GSAs are leading walkouts, planning demonstrations, plugging into nationwide actions, holding know your rights sessions, testifying at school board meetings, and mobilizing their communities. 

GSAs cultivate youth leadership skills in self-advocacy, organizing, and building support for one another. Our youth members named learning to run campaigns as a top priority, and the Youth Freedom Fund will give them the funding they need to kick-start organizing projects on their campuses. Young people are not letting anti-LGBTQ attacks stop them; this school year alone we’ve registered close to 2000 GSA clubs. A new generation of trans, queer, and two-spirit youth are finding their voice.  

With your help, we will make this GSA brilliance happen! Join me in supporting our work with a donation this month. Any donation over $10 in June also helps us to move up the Give Out Day leaderboards and increases our chances of winning $10,000!

Sending you lots of love and care in these times. I would love to hear from you if it’s been a while. If nothing else, thanks for reading and learning about what's going on for trans and queer youth. Thanks for all your support!

Love
Cathy

That's me opening a workshop at a youth conference (Oct 2022) 

Me and the national team deciding we're gonna do some exciting projects this summer!