lgbtq

Daylight, the LGBTQ+ neobank, raises cash to launch subscription plan for family planning • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 18, 2022Posted in Anthemis Group, Apps, Bank, citi ventures, daylight, Fintech, funding, Gaingels, Kapor Capital, lgbtq, neobank, queer, startup, StartupsNo Comments

A day after a bill that would codify same-sex marriage in the U.S. cleared a key hurdle in the Senate, Daylight, a digital bank that pitches itself as LGBTQIA+-friendly, closed a $15 million Series A round led by Anthemis Group with participation from CMFG Ventures, Kapor Capital, Citi Ventures and Gaingels. Daylight Co-founder and CEO Rob Curtis says that the new capital will be used to, in his words, “build the financial products and services to help queer people live their best lives” — starting with a subscription plan called Daylight Grow designed to help prospective queer families with financial planning. “There are over 30 million LGBTQ+ Americans with a spending power of around $1 trillion and yet the community lacks access to the suite of products and services they need to live their best lives,” Curtis told ZebethMedia in an email interview. “Daylight was created with a single mission: to build the financial products and services to help queer people live their best lives.” Curtis co-launched Daylight with Billie Simmons, a trans woman, and Paul Barnes-Hoggett in early 2020. Prior to starting Daylight, Curtis worked for several organizations supporting the LGBTQ+ lifestyle and causes, including Gaydar, a dating site for gay and bisexual men. He also co-founded Squad Social and Helsa Helps, startups aiming to improve access to mental health for members in the LGBTQ+ community. Daylight is a part of wave of recent neobanks — bank-like fintech companies that operate online, without physical branch networks — organized around aspirational causes and missions. Rapper Killer Mike’s Greenwood aims to help Black and Latinx communities build generational wealth. Majority, which launched the same year as Greenwood (2020), seeks to build banking tools and resources for immigrants. Purpose Banking, Aspiration and One all promise to never let deposits fund fossil fuels. Image Credits: Daylight With the wealth of ethics-forward fintechs out there, why found a neobank for LGBTQ+ people? According to Curtis, most mainstream banking products simply weren’t designed with U.S.-based queer folks in mind. (Pride Bank, a neobank with similarly queer-forward branding, is based in Brazil.) For example, Daylight provides debit cards with customers’ chosen names, which aren’t always the same as what’s on their ID. It offers members 10% cash back every time they spend with a queer and allied business that Daylight has partnered with. And it offers guided goals for gender-affirming procedures like top surgery and facial feminization. Beyond cash management features like a checking account, free ATMs and the ability for members to get paid two days early, Daylight hosts communities where customers can ask questions around “queer financial literacy,” such as family planning, in what Curtis claims is a safe and supportive environment. “At Daylight, our mission has always been to break down the financial barriers that hold LGBTQ+ people back … In this post-Dobbs world, Daylight’s commitment to supporting queer families has never been more necessary,” Curtis said, referring to the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion bans in the U.S. and opened the door to legal challenges of marriage equality. Certainly, members of the LGBTQ+ community face fiscal challenges that many cisgender, straight adults never do. Some suffer the consequences of being kicked out of their homes by unaccepting parents. Others find themselves on the hook for HIV/AIDS treatment, hormone therapy and fertility procedures. Most queer people gravitate toward pricey metro areas because they’re more accepting and progressive, and many queer people lack a safety net — whether because they lack family support or don’t have children who can take care of them. For those reasons and others, LGBTQ+ people frequently earn less, live in poverty and have less in pension savings than their cisgender counterparts. The situation for transgender people is particularly dire, with the poverty rate for the transgender community in the U.S. averaging around 30% — close to double the rate of cisgender adults — according to a 2019 study from the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute. Transgender people are also twice as likely to be unemployed and four times as likely to have a household income below $10,000; the 2021 U.S. federal poverty was $12,880. The aforementioned Daylight Grow isn’t a cure-all, but targets the major hurdles many queer couples encounter in starting a family. This is a significant portion of Daylight’s customers. A recent poll by the Family Equality Council found that nearly two-thirds of LGBTQ millennials — 63% — are considering becoming parents for the first time or expanding their family. Image Credits: Daylight When the product launches in early 2023, Simmons says that Daylight Grow will offer a personalized “family creation plan” covering financial, legal and logistical milestones tailored to individual states and needs, “family planning concierges” to provide financial advice and logistical support, a “family-building marketplace” with vetted family attorney networks and recommendations for IVF and surrogacy clinics, and in-person financial and fertility education events. “Family creation is a major life event for queer people and the challenges we face are increasingly more complex than those for non-LGBTQ people,” Simmons told ZebethMedia via email. “The launch of Daylight Grow will help queer people navigate through the complex legal and financial challenges involved with starting a family, making it faster and easier to start a family, and unlocking critical intergenerational wealth for our community.” Daylight Grow will also offer access to family-building loans, a potential game-changer for queer customers who’ve dealt with discrimination from traditional banks. According to a 2019 study, same-sex borrowers were 73% more likely to be denied a mortgage or be approved for a mortgage at a higher-than-average interest rate. Daylight plans to offer hundreds of free Grow subscriptions to low-income, marginalized families in states where LGBTQ+ rights are under significant legal attack, Curtis said. Which states — and Grow’s pricing — are still being decided. Daylight has raised $20 million in capital to date. Curtis wouldn’t answer questions about revenue and hiring plans, preferring, at least for now, to keep the focus on the company’s core mission.

Elon Musk’s Twitter already looks grim for the LGBTQ community • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, lgbtq, Social, TwitterNo Comments

He’s only owned Twitter for a couple of days, but Elon Musk has already undermined his credibility on some of social media’s most vexing problems, all while displaying a disturbing inclination toward anti-LGBTQ views. The world’s most credulous billionaire couldn’t help but respond to a tweet over the weekend from Hillary Clinton denouncing Republican support for extremist conspiracies that inspire real-world violence. “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories,” Clinton wrote. “It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result.” Last week, a man broke into the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her husband with a hammer. The assailant, 42-year-old David DePape, shared antisemitic conspiracy theories, election denialism, screeds against transgender people and violent threats to journalists in the months leading up to the break in. Musk, who now owns the platform, quickly waded in with a conspiracy of his own, pointing Clinton to a website with a track record of publishing outlandish and easily-debunked misinformation. The story Musk shared was headlined “The Awful Truth: Paul Pelosi Was Drunk Again, And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Early Friday Morning.” The story’s supporting evidence is that DePape has connections to the nudist community and “Castro Nudists are a group of really radical gay male prostitutes that parade around naked with c–k rings.” The conspiracy hinges on a since-corrected early KTVU report that DePape was in his underwear when arrested. “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk tweeted alongside the link to the Santa Monica Observer, which once claimed Hillary Clinton had died and been replaced by a body double. By Monday, Musk had deleted the tweet and the Santa Monica Observer topped its story with an update noting police reports that Pelosi did not know DePape. Musk’s ongoing embrace of far-right conspiracies is alarming considering that he now owns the company. Just last week, he sought to reassure advertisers that his version of Twitter wouldn’t become a “free-for-all hellscape,” a promise that quickly rang untrue given Musk’s bizarre impulse to share obvious political misinformation. It’s not just his interest in homophobic conspiracies about Paul Pelosi’s fictional gay lover. Last week, Musk took time out of his day to reply to the daughter of academic and self-help author Jordan Peterson, who was suspended from the platform for deadnaming trans actor Elliott Page and calling Page’s surgeon a “criminal physician” over the summer. Anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022 In the reply to Peterson’s daughter, Musk said that “anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail,” dismissing the seriousness of Peterson’s inexplicable attacks on Page and inviting more transphobia on the platform in the process. Twitter’s current rules on hateful conduct prohibit “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals,” a policy that was added in 2018 to protect trans people from harassment. It’s hard to imagine that policy sticking around for long under Musk. Peterson’s Twitter account was frozen until he deletes the offending tweet, but that’s not likely to happen — Peterson dramatically said he would “rather die” than take it down. YouTube demonetized some of Peterson’s videos back in August for deadnaming Page and declaring that gender-affirming medical care for trans people is “Auschwitz and Gulag-level wrong,” likening the often life-saving interventions to a “Nazi medical experiment.” Prior to acquiring Twitter, Musk also made it clear that his Twitter would be a safe home for antisemitism. After Instagram restricted Kanye West’s account for invoking antisemitic tropes and accusing Sean “Diddy” Combs of being controlled by “the Jewish people,” Musk warmly welcomed West back to Twitter. West hopped over to the platform, promising a fresh antisemitic rant that would go “death [sic] con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” a tweet that violated Twitter’s rules. In the 12 hours after Elon Musk closed the deal, instances of anti-Black racial slurs on the platform also shot up by 500%, according to an organization that studies social media activity. The flood of racism was notable enough that Twitter’s head of Safety and Integrity weighed in, though Musk’s recent behavior undermined his hopeful message that the team would continue working “to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone.” Over the last 48 hours, we’ve seen a small number of accounts post a ton of Tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms. To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts. — Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) October 30, 2022 Musk’s superficial grasp of content moderation’s complexities and his apparent eagerness to enable homophobia, transphobia and antisemitism on Twitter do not bode well for a platform that’s long been a nexus of harassment for many of its users. Potential cuts to Twitter’s workforce, including its trust and safety teams, could set back recent product and policy changes designed to make Twitter a safer place. Based on the tone he’s setting, it looks unlikely that Musk’s Twitter will be very interested in protecting the communities that bear the brunt of targeted abuse on the platform. Musk’s own history of amplifying misinformation and even directing his own harassment campaign at a now-former Twitter policy executive speak volumes about what’s in store. “We are very concerned about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter,” the Human Rights Campaign wrote in a statement Friday. “This isn’t about censorship or discrimination of ideas – it is about what kind of company they want to be and what kind of world they want to shape.”

FOLX powers LGBTQ+ telehealth support groups with $30M round • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 13, 2022Posted in 7wireVentures, Biotech & Health, Folx Health, healthcare, lgbtq, StartupsNo Comments

FOLX Health, a telehealth company catering to the LGBTQIA+ community, closed a fresh $30 million round of funding, which it will use to expand its new support groups feature. The company provides affirming and inclusive care through services such as hormone replacement therapy, PrEP prescriptions, general and sexual health services. FOLX also recently began offering support groups, led by either a clinician or expert over multiple weeks, followed by one-on-one consultations to create individualized programs for users. The new funding will be used to support existing programs, but also to launch and expand these expert-led groups. With the addition of the groups, “we’re able to really move folks from fear of accessing healthcare to a place where they are actively engaged in their wellness,” said Liana Douillet Guzmán, CEO of FOLX Health. “I would add that part of our model is really this idea of holistic care. So rather than being a point solution that’s focused on one niche area, we believe that we can provide this expert care across a full spectrum of needs.” Currently, the company is providing care to 10,000 individuals across 42 states, and is looking to expand to all 50 in the near future. Although FOLX has been pushing for affirmative care, Republican lawmakers have pushed for bills denying or limiting access to this and other LGBTQ+-centered services. Many bills have specifically targeted transgender individuals and youth. According to the ACLU, over 20 states have introduced bills that would deny care, and some go as far as making it a Class C felony to provide gender-affirming care. In a survey conducted by FOLX, 78% of its members did not have access to affirming care before finding FOLX, and 71% actively avoided seeking healthcare out of fear of discrimination. Though the company is pushing to provide all-inclusive care for LGBTQ+ individuals, Guzmán told ZebethMedia their biggest challenge is “in a sea of opportunity, how do we focus?” “We are still a lean team,” Guzmán said. “And so I think it’s the classic, making sure we don’t do the shiny toy thing that a lot of startups do, and really focus in on thoughtful product expansion.” Image of FOLX packaging for its HRT. FOLX raised the $30 million in a Series B round led by 7wireVentures, with participation from Foresite Capital as a new investor, as well as existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Define Ventures and Polaris Partners. The company has raised close to $60 million to date, including a $25 million Series A last year. Lee Shapiro, a managing partner of 7wireVentures, said in a news release: “Now more than ever, there is a clear need to expand access to inclusive health services for the millions of Americans who identify as LGBTQIA+. By combining a network of clinicians highly attuned to the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community with convenient access to affirming content and peer connections, FOLX Health has established a new standard of queer and trans care for its members” Shapiro will also be joining FOLX’s board of directors.