Black Facts

Did you know there has been growth in Black LGBTQ+ representation; however, the support we receive has not kept pace.

Consider the following: 

• For the first time, more than half a dozen national organizations are led by Black Queer leaders. It is important to note this shift in power as, historically, progressive LGBTQ+ public policy and advocacy organizations have been led by mostly white gay men, and Black civil rights leaders rarely publicly disclosed their queer sexual orientation identities. 
• In addition to being Black and queer, we’re required to lead in a world that thinks that queerness is adjacent to whiteness instead of universal. 
• While Black Americans make up 12 % of the country’s LGBTQ+ population, we receive only 5 % of grant dollars. (ABFE) 
• The top ten funders of Black LGBTQ communities accounted for 65 % of all support between 2017-2018. 
• The two largest funders are both pharmaceutical companies, and most of their grantmaking is focused on HIV/AIDS.
• Black trans women face incredible violence, yet Black trans and gender-nonconforming people collectively received <1% of all funding for LGBTQ issues. 

Knowing how important it is for us to turn down the white noise and reclaim African ways of being, we commissioned groundbreaking research to ensure we’re talking about Black people, their feelings about and support for Black LGBTQ+ people, and the policy issues that most impact us all. 

Among the things that make this study both essential and unique are:

1. This survey is composed solely of Black people. 
2. This survey oversampled Black LGBTQ+ people. 
3. To our knowledge, this survey is one of the first to seek explicitly to gauge attitudes among Black people on Black LGBTQ+ people and issues, making this both a groundbreaking study in that regard and also an introduction into fertile ground for more research.

NBJC commissioned this groundbreaking research study on behalf of NBJC, HRC, the National LGBTQ Task Force, NCLR, Family Equality, and GLSEN.