Justice Ain’t Cheap Podcast Features CHLP Executive Director S. Mandisa Moore-O’Neal

CHLP Executive Director S. Mandisa Moore-O’Neal joined longtime LGBTQ+ activist and philanthropic leader Richard Burns to explore how decades of queer organizing and community-led responses to the HIV epidemic can inform today's struggles for liberation and the philanthropy that supports them. The conversation is featured in Learnings and Legacies of the HIV/AIDS Movement, the latest episode of the Justice Ain’t Cheap podcast, hosted by Funders for LGBTQ Issues President Saida Agostini-Bostic.

During the conversation, Richard recalls the emergence of HIV/AIDS organizing in the 1980s, from the formation of community-based service organizations to the rise of ACT UP and efforts to mobilize philanthropic support. Mandisa broadens that history by centering the experiences and contributions of Black Southern women and others often overlooked in dominant narratives of the epidemic, asking, “What does it mean to do viable, life-saving work from a place of hyper invisibility?”

Reflecting on Richard’s recollection of a time when gay liberation and HIV activism were effectively inseparable, Mandisa suggests that race played a significant role in why that relationship changed, as growing recognition of HIV's disproportionate impact on Black communities coincided with shifts in the movement's priorities and funding.

The conversation also addresses the responsibilities of philanthropy in the present moment, particularly as funding for HIV advocacy competes with investments in democracy, LGBTQ rights, and other urgent priorities. Rejecting these artificial divisions, Mandisa argues that access to HIV treatment, gender-affirming care, and the resources necessary for people to survive are inseparable from building a multiracial democracy. 

She challenges funders to move beyond invoking intersectionality as a value and instead embrace practical strategies for distributing resources and building community power. “Black feminism is a lens to sharpen and clarify how I've decided to allocate resources,” she stated. “What if we understood that as a funding strategy?”

Listen to the full episode of Justice Ain’t Cheap: Learnings and Legacies of the HIV/AIDS Movement on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And read the accompanying issue brief on HIV/AIDS + LGBTQ Communities produced by Funders for LGBTQ Issues and sponsored by AIDS United.