About the Network

On May 1, 2018, the LGBTQ Poverty Collaborative, which was a small network of LGBTQ organizations, advocates, and researchers, released the first national LGBTQ anti-poverty agenda, Intersecting Injustice: A National Call to Action, Addressing LGBTQ Poverty and Economic Justice for All. The LGBTQ Poverty Collaborative included Center for American Progress, Family Equality Council, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National LGBTQ Task Force, Trans Women of Color Collective, The Vaid Group, Whitman-Walker Health and The Williams Institute.

The Collaborative produced the report following a series of roundtable discussions with representatives of organizations engaged in anti-poverty work around the United States. Using information gathered in those convenings and collating existing data, the Collaborative set out to create an agenda detailing the distinct issues facing low-income LGBTQ communities.

Following the release of the agenda, a group of local and national advocates from LGBTQ, anti-poverty, and anti-hunger organizations convened in Washington, DC in October of 2018 to establish The National LGBTQ Anti-Poverty Action Network (The Network), a member-based coalition of organizations and individuals working in the LGBTQ, anti-poverty, and anti-hunger movements, and is coordinated by National Center for Lesbian Rights. Members advocate, organize, and educate to address LGBTQ poverty and provide mutual support.

Since its founding, the Network has developed a fact sheet on LGBTQ poverty, a COVID-19 LGBTQ resource guide, a federal anti-poverty policy priority memo for the Biden Administration, coordinated an LGBTQ+ delegation for the 2022 Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington, and hosted a congressional briefing to advance priorities in President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.