Southerners On New Ground

Southerners on New Ground (commonly referred to as SONG) is a social justice, advocacy and capacity building organization serving and supporting queer and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, uniquely focusing its work in the southern United States through community organizing for economic and racial justice.

[2] Their focus is on a dream of a movement that brings people of different identities, including age, race, gender, ability, and sexuality, together.

[4] SONG was founded at the National LGBTQ Task Force's 1993 Creating Change conference with the goal of building progressive movements across the American South by six women, including Mandy Carter and Mab Segrest.

[4] The organization was asked by the 40th Anniversary Steering Committee for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to mobilize LGBT participation at the rally.

They have made such leeway in their original goals that they have now expanded to aid many different programs and contributed to different organizations since their founding 29 years ago.

[1] Southerners on New Ground's programs include community trainings and policy advocacy at the intersection of race, class, culture, gender and sexual identity across the south.

One program Lorde’s Werq is a regional cohort composed of Black, queer, trans, and gender non-conforming leaders.

[16] "Igniting the Kindred," SONG's project and motto, refers to gathering people who have similar experiences in the context of racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, sexism, nationalism, and exploitation in the American South.

SONG includes these organizations as their Kindred Spirit Organizations: All of Us or None, BYP100, Compañeros Inmigrantes De Las Montañas En Acción (CIMA), Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement, Free Hearts, Georgia Latino Alliance For Human Rights, Highlander Researcher and Education Center, House of GG, Ice Out of RVA, Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network (JASMYN), Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective, Law For Black Lives, Media Justice, National Network Immigrant & Refugee Rights (NNIRR), National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), Project South, Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP), Reframe Mentorship, Resource Generation, Sanctuary Collective, Silicon Valley De-Bug, Sister Song, Southern Movement Alliance, Southwest Workers Union, Spark, Student Action with Farmworkers, The Audre Lorde Project, The Ordinary People’s Society (TOPS), The Southern Center for Human Rights, The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex (TGI) Justice Project, and Virginia Anti-Violence Project.