July birthdays and more!

Dear community,

Join us in sending cards to our incarcerated LGBTQ+ and HIV+ community members in California who have birthdays in July, to remind them that they are loved and that we are together in this fight for our collective liberation.

If you can sign up to send a card or two from home, please fill out this form. We will send you the address(es) - and some tips if it’s your first time.

You will need to provide your own stamps and supplies, but we have plenty of both and can absolutely coordinate to get you some, if needed. 


***COMMUNITY NEWS & RESOURCES***

• From our comrades at Prison Radio: "Leonard Peltier is a 76-year-old Indigenous prisoner and member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who’s been unjustly held in detention for over 45 years...'Peltier is in need of IMMEDIATE medical attention and has been waiting for his request to get approved for months. We must continue to fight for him by pushing President Joe Biden to FREE LEONARD PELTIER!'...Despite the crushing reality of imprisonment, Leonard has flourished in his talents as an artist. Art has given him a purpose during internment, and his paintings are even available for sale online on a site hosted by the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. Sales of his art go to fund his legal defense. You can also donate directly to Peltier's commissary funds, his inmate number is #89637-132."
  
• A community member, Morion Jones, has been serving time for the last seven years, unjustly. Morion is a Black Trans Woman born and raised in New Orleans.  For the past seven years, due to the deeply racist and transphobic prison industrial complex, Morion has been serving time at the Ellen Hunt facility, and is finally getting ready to come home! The barriers to re-entry, and barriers in general for Black Trans people are immense, let alone entrepreneurs and creatives . We are asking for funds to help bring Morion's dreams and suitability to fruition. Now is the time, invest in Black Trans Futures!  Go Fund me link : gf.me/u/zk8ugz 
• Donate to Critical Resistance Summer 2021 Fundraiser here, and
• Check out their organizers' toolkit  on developing campaigns to abolish policing.
• Our partner collective, A.B.O. Comix, publishes the work of incarcerated queer and trans people with profits going back to them and their families. They have comic anthologies written and drawn by LGBTQ+ prisoners, including Confined Before COVID-19, as well as zines, artwork and merch. You can support the artists and buy copies for yourself or your penpals here.
• Sign up for the Prisoner Advocacy Network's bi-monthly announcement of ​CDCr news & resources, community events and ways to get involved.

***BECOME A PENPAL***

It is always a great time to become a penpal. If you want to start a penpal relationship, you can learn more and sign-up here anytime. Or if you want us to match you with a penpal, just reach out to us! Or check out our instagram page where we highlight potential penpals (@FlyingOverWalls). Once you become a penpal, you can join this fb group to stay connected to other outside penpals for support and resources.