Phoenix Rising Fund
Providing a financial safety net for the historically marginalized
Suggested Donation: $25-$500
The Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center Phoenix Rising Fund provides a financial safety net for the historically marginalized. Your donation will help ensure that the most vulnerable in our community have everything they need in times of extreme and/or unanticipated hardship. What started as a fund for one of our amazing organizers, Phoenix Gayle, transformed into a Fund for our most vulnerable community members in need.
Who is Phoenix Gayle?
Phoenix Gayle is a Black trans womxn (inclusive variation of the word woman), born and raised, living, working, and organizing in the mid-Hudson Valley. She has organized to increase awareness regarding gun violence in the city of Newburgh, performed as a spoken word poet, and is a damn good make-up artist. She started organizing for the Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center in 2018 and has been a vital team member since.
When released from her rehabilitation facility in the middle of February, the only plan that Phoenix had was to head to a shelter. As an organization we understood the setbacks Phoenix would have to navigate to get stable while also still healing; managing type 1 diabetes while eating at soup kitchens and food pantries which typically serve food that is high in sugar, and navigating a new disability which renders her dominant hand nearly useless.
With the COVID-19 health crisis, Phoenix is now more vulnerable as someone living with type-1 diabetes and asthma. We must keep her housed to ensure that she is safe from covid and does not develop any worsened respiratory conditions.
Please help us by making a donation to the Phoenix Rising Fund today so that we can meet our goal of $17,000 in order to keep Phoenix housed for at least a year.
If you can’t make a donation at this time, please help us by sharing this campaign.
First, we want to thank you!
Thank you to everyone who has made a donation or helped us to share the Phoenix Rising Fundraiser in 2020. Every dollar that was raised during our efforts helped us to pay for Phoenix’s rent, debt, and personal costs while she was in a rehabilitation facility during her recovery. It was a hard year for us collectively as a group and individually for Phoenix Gayle. Your donation went a long way.
Queers like us.
Like many trans or queer community members, Phoenix has relied on the relationships within her community for support. LGBTQ+ people make up a small percentage of our population, yet experience higher rates of homelessness, poverty, and abuse because of our gender or sexual identity, than the general population. The intersections of race, class, gender performance, and sexual identity put LGTBQ+ people of color at a greater risk for the aforementioned issues. Not everyone is supported by their families because of who they are. It is through a chosen family that we are able to survive. We chose Phoenix as family and Phoenix chose us.
The Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center was there for her: doctors’ visits and documentation, providing advocacy, tending to personal business, and working with social service organizations to support her transition from the rehabilitation center into a suitable living situation. We provided this support because we know how easily LGBTQ+ community members, especially people of color, slip through the cracks.
Why we need to change the system.
We learned a few things during Phoenix’s ordeal. What happened to Phoenix can happen to anyone and does happen to countless people in our community. We are not a direct service provision organization, yet we knew that Phoenix was going to face some factors heading into the healthcare system that could determine her health outcome:
The average life expectancy of Black trans womxn in America is between the ages of 30-35, impacted by systemic racism, interpersonal, and state-sanctioned violence.
Black trans people are three times more likely to experience poverty with higher rates of unemployment.
While accessing healthcare, the social determinants of health coupled with systemic and interpersonal discrimination impact the care trans people receive. Systemic racism is the underlying factor to these statistics for Black trans womxn.
As a group of queer people of color who have experience navigating healthcare systems in our professional and personal lives, we understood that when Phoenix fell ill, she was going to need a community pulling for her. She was going to need a medical proxy, general advocacy, case management, mental health support, and financial support.
So we thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read this and thank you for those of you who donated. Your donation literally will save lives now and in the future.