Aboriginal LGBTQIA+ NGO, BlaQ, to receive 100k from Calvin Klein.

Calvin Klein announces their partnership and donation of $100,000 to First Nations’ organisation, BlaQ. The donation will be paid across three years to fund BlaQ’s work in elevating the Aboriginal LGBTQIA+ community.

With offices based out of historical Redfern, BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation was founded upon “the identified need for strengthened visibility of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQI+ community.”

“Indigenous LGBTQI+ young people living in Indigenous communities have experienced violence, discrimination, and fear once their gender diversity and/or sexual preferences became known,” says BlaQ.

“Some communities start to deny, suppress, marginalize, discriminate, and commit acts of violence against them which in turn exacerbates poor mental health outcomes.”

“BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation is committed to empowering the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQI+ community through innovation, inclusion, understanding and advocacy.”

Illustrations of BlaQ’s work include their ongoing Dalarinji (Your Story) Project, inviting young LGBTQIA+ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to ‘yarning circles’ to help design a national survey. Research for First Nations, by First Nations.

However, research projects like these can’t happen without major funding. Calvin Klein’s donation gives BlaQ “the ability to really support the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQ+ Elders, young people and community,” says BlaQ CEO and Founding Director, William Trewlynn.

Trewlynn says, “the alignment with such a globally credible brand will help immensely to bring awareness to the injustices our community face on a daily basis, and help promote positive change.”

Join Calvin Klein in supporting the wonderful work of BlaQ by making a donation through BlaQ’s or Calvin Klein Australia’s website. Items purchased from Calvin Klein’s Pride collection also goes towards BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation.

With words from its founder, Trewlynn tells us to “Watch this space!”

This article was made in partnership between to Be Magazine and Calvin Klein Australia. It is written from the subject position of a non-Indigenous woman on the unceded lands of the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.