On several Friday’s a month, The Column will spotlight crowdfunding campaigns that benefit LGBTQ people, causes, or organizations across Minnesota. If you know of a crowdfunding campaign we should consider including, please pass it along.

Jesus Estrada

Queer social justice activist Jesus Estrada died earlier this week, and friends, family, and fellow activists are coming together to raise money for his medical expenses. The fundraiser also provides some information about upcoming celebrations of Jesus’ life:

Saturday: August 8th
2pm4pm Wake Washburn-McReavy Funeral Home 2300 W Old Shakopee Road Bloomington MN 55431 2pm- 4 pm
http://www.washburn-mcreavy.com/contact-us/bloomington-locations

Sunday: August 9th 1pm Jesus Estrada Perez Memorial March (hosted by the Dept of Chicano Studies, U of MN) Northrop: 84 Church St. SE Minneapolis, MN 55455
Always active in the struggle, we will celebrate Jesus’ life by marching from Northrop Plaza to Coffman Student Union (University of Minnesota East Bank). We invite you to make celebratory “protest” signs with relevant slogans and photos of Jesus to carry while we march.

We will congregate at Northrop Plaza directly in front of the building overlooking Northrop Mall. There is construction throughout campus. Please be aware that Pleasant SE directly between Scott Hall and Northrop is closed to traffic. We advise you to park in the lot on Church Street. Here is a link to campus maps and parking:
http://campusmaps.umn.edu/tc/map.php?extent=east
https://www1.umn.edu/pts/park/visitorparking.html

Visit Jesus Estrada Medical expenses fund on GoFundMe to make a contribution.

Parenting legal battle

Help a lesbian mother establish parenting rights and set Minnesota legal precedent. This fundraiser is to raise money for legal costs in a custody dispute. Here’s a little about the fundraiser:

I find myself in a position where no parent wants to be – without legal rights to my three sons. And as a lesbian mother, I am in the precarious position of having to prove I am their parent.

My boys are currently 10, 7, and 7. Over the course of the 5 years since my ex and I have separated, I have paid monthly child support, yet because my partner and I could not legally marry at the time we chose to have children, I was not granted automatic rights with regard to my sons, have no say in their educational, extra-curricular, or medical decisions, and have no say in the parenting schedule. I have been unsuccessful in informal attempts to arrange a more balanced schedule, where neither parent goes a week without seeing the children. My suggestions of mediation have also been unsuccessful, and I am forced now to accept that court is the only option. In many ways this is a good problem – three boys have two parents who love them and want to spend time with them.

The amount I am trying to raise reflects the legal costs I am unable to cover myself. This estimate is based on multiple conversations with lawyers. Any amount raised above what is needed to pay for attorney and court costs will be donated to OutFront.org, an LGBT Minnesota non-profit.

Ugandan asylum

An LGBT advocate from Uganda fled that country to seek asylum, and is now in need of financial support to bring her daughter out of Uganda. David Weiss of Wingspan Ministry in St. Paul, a ministry that supports LGBT activism in Uganda, is conducting a fundraiser to help that family reunite. Here’s a description of the fundraiser:

I met “Sophia” in 2013 while in Uganda on behalf of Wingspan, my church’s LGBT ministry. Several times during my stay Sophia looked after my safety. Last fall you helped me look after her.

But this was the measure of her fear at the time of her flight: I also met Sophia’s daughter, “Toni” in Uganda. At the time she was just a toddler; now she is a bright little girl. Sophia had to leave Toni behind when she fled the country. And for the past nine months Toni has stayed with Sophia’s mother, growing each day in ways Sophia can only imagine—but cannot see, or hear, or hold.

Until now.

Sophia has recently managed to get a passport for Toni. It seems likely that very soon friends and family in Uganda will manage to get Toni a visa so that she can travel to Germany. “Harriet,” (as in Harriet Tubman!) who is friend of Sophia’s, and well known to Toni, will travel with her as an adult companion. Harriet will return to Uganda alone, and Toni will be reunited with Sophia and be included in her asylum process.

Queer tour

Three queer anti-folk songwriters are planning a tour and are requesting donations to make it happen. The tour will take place in the Upper Midwest including Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Here’s a brief bio of them:

LYDIA UNDERWATER is a singer songwriter from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She plays the ukulele, writing comedic, raw anti-folk. It makes you laugh while simultaneously getting you deep inside of your gut.

SAMAFOLK is a singer songwriter from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She writes anti-folk songs about her experiences in life, often politically under-toned. Her sound is very raw, and she draws directly from her experiences in life. She plays a sticker covered acoustic guitar, and has toured several times in the past.

NOLL GRIFFIN is a singer songwriter from San Francisco, California. He makes lo-fi acoustic music about creepy crushes, being a transgender occultist, and his dream to slowly dissolve into some kind of internet ghost. It is all beautifully written, and will follow you around for weeks. He is also in a band called The Stereo Eclipse.

Queer-Mag

Queer-Mag is seeking donors to help the magazine make it to print for September

Welcome to Queer-Mag.
We are a quarterly non-profit publication created and supported by the Minneapolis community.
Queer-Mag is a small magazine that showcases a variety of artists each issue. We have created this to give upcoming and established artists a new platform to show their work.
Our goal is to keep the publication ad free and 100% art. We are asking our community to join in an support our artist with publication printing costs.

Thank you everyone for the support.

“The idea is not to live forever, it is to create something that will.” – Andy Warhol