FROM FEAR

to FIERCE

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A National Campaign to Create Mini Libraries of Queer Triumph Nationwide

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Two decades of research. Seven decades of courage. One moment to place thousands of roadmaps for belonging, resilience, and hope into communities across the country.

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"We are at a turning point, a moment where we cannot let others,

as they did in the past, define our reality for us."

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— Jim Obergefell

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"Each of us can make a difference. Together, we can make change happen even in dark times.

And it begins with an act of love."

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— Evan Wolfson

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Dear Foundations,

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At a moment when LGBTQ+ history is being challenged, removed, and rewritten, we are doing something simple—and urgent:

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We are restoring an inheritance that was withheld from generations of LGBTQ+ people, placing our courageous and triumphant stories where they have always belonged: into people's hands.

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Our campaign is being amplified by participants featured in the project, national influencers, and community leaders. Our distribution network is ready to go through Family Equality, Free Mom Hugs, SAGE, Lambda Legal, and CenterLink—home to hundreds of LGBTQ+ community centers and affiliated organizations nationwide.

 

And now, we need your foundation's help.

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The JustMarried Project, a multimedia effort rooted in more than two decades of research and built from over seventy years of lived experience—stories of couples, families, advocates, and allies who transformed love into lasting rights.

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That work became LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality (Rizzoli, 2025).

Not just a book—but a record of courage. A reminder of what it took to live openly, to be seen, and to be protected under the law. Over time, however, the project revealed itself to be something even larger.

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What began as a collection of stories about marriage equality became a story about belonging.

A story of millions of people who were taught they were alone. People once hidden from one another who, through courage, visibility, and the simple act of telling the truth about their lives, found one another across towns, countries, cultures, and continents.

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Through LOVE, a once-silenced people became an unstoppable community.

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Together, they transformed hearts, reshaped laws, expanded freedom, and created a more just

 

and compassionate world—not only for themselves, but for everyone who came after them.

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Through visibility, storytelling, and lived experience, millions of people came to understand that queer lives were not something to be feared, but something to be celebrated.

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The movement didn’t just win in court. It won in living rooms.

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For far too long, our history and our heroes were hidden.

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Yet it was their courage—their willingness to be seen, to tell the truth about their lives, and to share their stories—that changed hearts, transformed laws, and expanded freedom.

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There is a reason Oprah Daily says LOVE  "illuminates a path forward."

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Every story in this collection is someone else's roadmap for tomorrow.​ 

 

LOVE is a living record of everything diversity, equity, and inclusion was designed to achieve.

 

The stories span races, faiths, ages, genders, gender identities, geographies, and economic backgrounds. They tell the story of people who were excluded, marginalized, misunderstood, and criminalized, yet found the courage to live and love openly—and, in doing so, helped create one of the most extraordinary movements for human dignity in modern history.

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Through our From Fear to Fierce campaign, we are intentionally placing these stories, at no cost, into the spaces where conversations happen and belonging is built: community centers, youth shelters, queer clubs, libraries, family homes, coffee shops and coffee tables across America. 

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AN URGENT FUNDING NEED

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We will place 10,000+ copies of LOVE into communities across America, in a time when we need them most.​​

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Those funds are needed to fully support our national distribution effort and cover thousands of books that have already been pre-ordered, printed, and are scheduled to ship in late summer.

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Each copy becomes a mini-library of queer courage and triumph—a resource that can be opened, shared, displayed, revisited, and passed from one person to another for years to come, with the potential to reach millions.

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Through this project, that LOVE becomes a roadmap for generations to come, ensuring no one it reaches has to find belonging alone.

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And millions of reminders that our community has faced difficult moments before—and will continue to turn fear into fierce—for LOVE.

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WHERE YOU COME IN

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Every dollar directly translates into books placed into communities.

• $1,500 ——30 books placed

• $2,500 ——50 books placed

• $5,000 ——100 books placed

• $10,000 —-200+ books placed

• $25,000 —-500+ books placed

 

All support includes:

• Recognition on the cover of the Special Edition copies of LOVE sent out in the program

• Tax-deductible contribution 

 

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

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Today, these stories carry a new generational power.

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They are no longer helping us simply imagine a more just future.

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They are helping ensure that the next generation inherits the stories, heroes, and courage that showed us how to survive, persevere, and win.

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And they remain one of the most powerful tools we have to move people from fear to understanding, from division to compassion, and from silence to belonging.

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We are living in a moment where:

• Rights secured are being questioned once again.

• Moral disapproval for our families is rapidly increasing. 

• Federal funding is across the board is threatened for institutions willing to tell LGBTQ+ stories.

• And the stories that helped create change and can inspire the next Edie Windsor or Malcolm Kenyatta, are disappearing from formal education at exactly the moment they are needed most.

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The stories are written. The books are printed. The partners are waiting.

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What remains is getting them into the hands of the people who need them now.

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We would be honored to partner with you to ensure these stories reach the people who need them most—at a moment when communities across the country are searching not simply for celebration, but for connection, truth, belonging...and LOVE.

 

With gratitude,

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Frankie Frankeny

Creator, The JustMarried Project

Author, LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality

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Jim Obergefell

Executive Producer, The JustMarried Project

Lead Plaintiff, Obergefell v. Hodges 

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