CHARITY

Each year, North American Bear Weekend donates all of the proceeds (after expenses) to charities within the LGBT community.  Since the event was founded in 2011, we are very proud to announce we have donated over $300,000 to these charities.  We are excited to be partnering with the following charities in 2025:

TRANS LIFELINE

Trans Lifeline is a grassroots hotline and microgrants 501(c)(3) non-profit organization offering direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis – for the trans community, by the trans community.

The impact of our work extends far beyond the direct services we provide. From our program design to our advocacy efforts, everything we do at Trans Lifeline is in support of broader movements for collective liberation. We are building community-based alternatives to ways trans people have been policed, pathologized, and targeted by oppressive systems at every turn. We are healing justice, mutual aid, and community empowerment in action. Specifically, we work on:

  • Suicide & Trauma
  • Non-Consensual Hospitalization & Medical Discrimination
  • Economic Oppression
  • Racism
  • Xenophobia
  • Isolation
  • Criminalization
  • Ableism

For more information about this organization, visit https://translifeline.org/

 

KENTUCKY HEALTH JUSTICE NETWORK

 

 

 

 

KHJN supports Kentuckians towards achieving autonomy in our lives and justice for our communities. We advocate, educate, and provide direct services to ensure all Kentucky communities and individuals have power, access, and resources to be healthy and have agency over our lives.

DIRECT SERVICES
KHJN provides direct services through the KHJN Support Fund, a practical support abortion fund. The Support Fund is a staff supported network of volunteers who help people seeking abortion with financial assistance, transportation, interpretation, and more. Click here to learn more about the Support Fund or how to access services.

Our Trans Health Advocacy program works to help Trans Kentuckians access the healthcare they need, as well as reaffirm our autonomy and community. We do this through in person advocacy and support, financial assistance for gender affirming care, connecting folks with online and community resources, as well as advice and assistance navigating insurance. Our program aims to put a greater focus on the intersectional barriers Trans Kentuckians face when accessing healthcare such as structural and interpersonal racism, classism, ableism, and sizeism ​.

EDUCATION
KHJN houses Take Root. A Red State Reproductive Justice Conference which continues to create a foundational space for red state connections and organizing. As we enter into Take Root’s twelfth year, we find ourselves in a crucial moment in which to engage activists in red states. Our Trans Health Program hosts regular virtual educational events focused on political education, skills related to healthcare access and organizing, mental health, and other issues effecting trans Kentuckians.

ADVOCACY
KHJN shares information about available supportive services that will help all Kentuckians realize their right to health and self-determination. To get updates, join our mailing list or follow us on social media using the buttons at the top of this page!

KHJN spreads the word and supports positive policy development by backing our ally organizations, such as:

  • ACLU of Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Project
  • Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky
  • A Fund, Inc.
  • Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
  • ​Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
  • Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice
  • National Network of Abortion Funds
  • All* Above All

Follow these organizations (and their allies, too!) to stay in the loop about issues that affect all of us. For more information, check out https://www.kentuckyhealthjusticenetwork.org/.

 

KENTUCKY BLACK PRIDE

Kentucky Black Pride is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization: 82-4176691. Established in December 2016, under the leadership of Shawn Ka’Ron Bumpase. Our mission is to promote unity, pride, self-awareness and positive visibility within Kentucky’s QTPOC community. Our goal is to improve the lives of QTPOC around central Kentucky serving Lexington (surrounding counties), Frankfort, Louisville and Covington. We are proud to provide you with a annual pride festival in Lexington every 3rd weekend of September.

ANNUAL PRIDE ACTIVITIES​

Women & Girls Health Summit

Kentucky Black Pride host our Annual Women & Girls Health Summit every 2nd Saturday of March. This event is for all women and young girls ages 15 -up. Various local panelists share their health stories during lunch, followed by an annual health fair with local healthcare providers and nonprofits.

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​John G. Bentley Feed the Homeless

​John G. Bentley better known as Janel “Queenie” Claiborne was inspired on his 50th birthday to give back to the community. So he reached out to “Open Door Ministry” to help feed the homeless around his birthday in June. John passed away in February 2020. As part of his legacy we assist his family in continuing the legacy of feeding the homeless every Second Tuesday of June each year.

For more information, visit https://www.kentuckyblackpride.com/.