Julia Duranti-Martinez, Senior Program Officer for Community Research and Impact

LISC’s senior program officer for Community Research and Impact, Julia Duranti-Martinez, reflects on the intersection of LGBTQIA+ liberation, land ownership and community building, and highlights forthcoming LISC research on people and groups across the country working to realize those intersections through community ownership.

This year, the Coramino Fund, a nationwide partnership between LISC, Gran Coramino Tequila, and Kevin Hart to help entrepreneurs serving Black and Latino communities, awarded $10,000 grants to 50 businesses. For Pride Month, Coramino Fund grant recipients Thrive Cakery and Officiant NYC shared how cookie sales and personalized ceremonies support the LGBTQ+ community year-round.

By Julia Duranti-Martinez

In recognition and celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, LISC’s Institute for Community Power delves into the intersections between the work of community development and that of queer and trans communities across the country around housing, land use, economic mobility and much more. In the piece that follows, Julia Duranti-Martinez, senior program officer for Community Research and Impact and a member of LISC's LGBTQ+ affinity group, highlights some of the struggles and triumphs of LGBTQ+ people and communities in the context of our sector, and of our society as a whole—and points to the paths leading to progress.

As Pride Month comes to a close, we check in with LISC community partner LYRIC—the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center—in San Francisco, where LGBTQ+ young people are building community, autonomy and fulfilling, empowered lives.

By Dan McConvey

In honor of Pride Month, Dan McConvey, a member of LISC’s development team, reflects on the actions we must take to center and celebrate the lives and needs of LGBTQ+ people in our work with communities, and within our organization.

One n ten, a Phoenix non-profit and LISC partner, serves a wide range of LGBTQ+ young people, many of them homeless, with food, hygiene supplies, resource navigation and a sympathetic ear. And during the darkest days of the pandemic, they helped clients understand that social distance doesn’t have to mean social isolation.

In honor of an LGBTQ Pride Month that is largely being celebrated remotely this year, we are pleased to highlight two queer- and minority-owned small businesses that have received a grant, and a big shout out, from Renaissance woman Janelle Monáe via LISC's Rapid Relief and Resiliency Fund. In true Monáe style, these Harlem-based enterprises are, in very different ways, creating spaces where people can be who they are.

As our country celebrates LGBTQ pride, we're focusing on some of the challenges for LGBTQ people living in rural America. Community developers are in a key position to support LGBTQ rural residents as part of our work helping build flourishing and inclusive communities.