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Madonna Supports the National LGBTQ Task Force

(Washington, DC) – Gun violence is a deadly epidemic in our communities and our country. LGBTQ people no longer feel safe entering our schools, attending Pride parades, or even hitting the dance floor on a summer night. Gun violence is robbing us of the health and safety we all deserve. 

Today, the National LGBTQ Task Force announces a new partnership with Madonna’s Ray of Light Foundation to grow its violence prevention work, especially as it affects transgender women of color.

“We see Madonna’s dedication to a Revolution of Love as synchronistic with the National LGBTQ Task Force’s #BeYou campaign,” says Rea Carey, Executive Director. “The National LGBTQ Task Force creates the spaces and conditions for LGBTQ people to live free, to be you! In order for us to move towards a day when we can be all of ourselves, all of the time, we must eradicate violence, including gun violence. The Task Force centers the most vulnerable in our communities to create safety and develop solutions.”

Madonna says, “I want to draw attention through my platform as an artist to a problem in America that is out of control and is taking the lives of innocent people. This crisis can end if our legislators act to change the laws that fail to protect us all.”

LGBTQ people, particularly Black transgender women, have a higher risk of violent death, which is related to anti-LGBTQ stigma and discrimination. The Pulse shooting in 2016 focused attention on violent bigotry against LGBTQ people, and the Task Force was one of the first national LGBTQ groups on the ground to respond. At the same time, there is so much more to the epidemic than mass murders. There are murders by the police, there are murders related to domestic violence, and the murders of sex workers. Violence against trans women of color is devastating our community.

“Madonna’s generous donation brings the national spotlight to communities who need our support to end this epidemic of violence,” says Carey. “Her poetry in ‘God Control’ points to the undermining of democracy and its negative impacts. We agree. Democracy is one of three pillars supporting our mission of realizing full freedom, equality, and justice for LGBTQ people. Thank you, Madonna, and all of those committed to supporting one another regardless of race, religion, or gender.”

Contact: Sarah Massey, Director of Communications
[email protected]
202 639-6308