The Audre Lorde Health Program advocates on behalf of LGBTQ+ women and their families, including efforts to expand access to reproductive and sexual health care and promote legislation and policies that protect queer-identified parents and children. Our program recognizes the way that misogyny, sexism, and anti-LGBT bias has conspired, both within and outside the medical system, to deny women care and that this inequity has disproportionately affected Black, Indigenous, and women of color. 

For this reason we have successfully advocated for $17.5 million to create the unprecedented Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer (LBQ) Women’s Health Equity Fund under the California Department of Public Health. The new fund supports LBQ women’s access to health and mental health care, domestic violence programs, and treatment referrals for smoking, alcohol, and substance abuse. It also will pay for training to health care providers to provide culturally appropriate care, community education and outreach efforts, and research into LBQ women’s health needs. We will continue to advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ women and recognize intersectional identities.