About FIERCE!

Mission

FIERCE! is a community organization for Transgender, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Queer, and questioning (TLGBTSQQ) youth of color in New York City. We are dedicated to exploring and building power in our communities through a mix of leadership development, artistic and cultural activism, political education, and campaign development while taking care of ourselves and each other. We take on the institutions that perpetuate transphobia, homophobia, racism, ethnic conflict, gender bias, economic injustice, ageism, and the spread of HIV, STIs, STDs, and other mental and physical health crises — that make daily survival a terrifying challenge for many TLGBTSQQ youth. FIERCE organizes against the injustices of the criminal "justice" system, housing, employment, education, and healthcare systems.

We believe in ethic of organizing by us, for us.Now that's FIERCE!

History

FIERCE! was founded in March of 2000 by a group of TLGBTSQQ youth, mostly of color, filling a citywide gap and becoming NYC's only community organizing project specifically by and for TLGBTSQQ youth. We founded FIERCE! out of a sense of urgency that the collective voices of LGBTSTQ youth be heard in New York City. Fueled by direct experiences of racial, economic, sexual, gender and age oppression, members of FIERCE have been working to build bridges between movements for justice. Already, FIERCE has worked to turn police violence against TLGBTSQQ youth into a public issue and we have advocated for alternatives to incarceration that don't subject TLGBTSQQ youth of color to the homophobia, transphobia and racism of prisons and juvenile detention centers.

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