Local Nonprofit Working to Help Black LGBTQIA+ Impacted by COVID-19

From The Unleashed Voice by Gwen Clemons

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The black LBGTQ+ community in the Mid-South is working to get federal dollars for resources to help people of color who have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

FOX13 spoke with the executive director of the Tri-State Black Pride who said they need money to help save lives. How they plan on getting that money depends on theresults of a survey.

If not for COVID-19, Dr. Davin D. Clemons, DMin says the Tri-State Black Pride nonprofit would be gearing up for its black pride convention in June, which has been canceled. Instead, the focus right now is serving people in the Mid-South affected by COVID-19.

“We are going to ensure that the racial and the ethnic minority communities that are most impacted by covid19 receive some type of funding,” Clemons said.

TSBP is in partnership with the Center for Black Equity in Washington, DC. The organizations are encouraging people to fill out a quick survey online called the Vulnerable Population Community Health Network Survey.

Clemons said when people take the survey, they get an idea of the hardships people are facing in the Mid-South.

“A lot of individuals are unemployed they need help with their monthly bills. They have to survive, and they have to eat,” Clemons said. “People also solicited they wanted masks, gloves and gowns and things of that nature to be safe, so they will feel comfortable going to work in case their employer didn’t provide those things. One that really caught my attention, I had an individual that put down mental health.”

To get people the resources they need, the organization is hoping to get federal dollars from the CARES ACT set aside for communities of color impacted by COVID-19

“The application goes in phases and right now we are collecting data,” Clemons said. ““We can shake up DC when we present this data and they can say, ‘Hey, we have a problem here in Memphis, Tennessee.’”

Clemons said because COVID-19 has exposed deep disparities for people of color and though social distancing has us apart, now is the time to pull together to overcome the pandemic.