Take Pride in Your Money: Claim the Power of Your LGBTQ+ Dollars

David Treece, MBA, AIF®, CLTC® |
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Take Pride in Your Money

The foreword from my book, Take Pride In Your Money: LGBTQ+ Financial Empowerment Stories & Strategies

Larry Kramer wrote this in a 2011 CNN article that listed ten realities of AIDS …  

“Too many people hate the people that AIDS most affects: gay people and people of color. I do not mean dislike or feel uncomfortable with. I mean hate. Downright hate. Down and dirty hate.”*

Everything old is new again

Nearly 15 years have passed since he wrote this. It has been almost 45 years since AIDS first appeared in the U.S. Unfortunately, that same hatred is returning and growing stronger.

  • Hatred of transgender people.
  • Hatred of people of color.
  • Hatred of the Jewish community.
  • Hatred of immigrants.
  • Hatred of anyone identified as other.

The horrors of Project 2025 are becoming a reality. Trump, Musk, and their minions continue steamrolling the Constitution with their bloodless coup aided by a complicit Congress. Americans’ financial security, freedoms, and democratic institutions and guardrails are being annihilated at lightning speed. 

How much more damage to our economy and freedoms will happen tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Next year?

  • The abandonment of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
  • The forced erasure of transgender people.
  • The callous and inhuman treatment of immigrants and their families.
  • The collapse of government institutions that protect us from fraud, corruption, disease, and abject poverty.

Recent reporting indicates that ending marriage equality is not a question of “if” but of “when”.

I never imagined that after many years of fighting for LGBTQ rights, we would be at this point in our country’s history. I fully expect that the LGBTQ+ community will prevail in the long run, but the question is how much damage can be done in the meantime?

Back to the future

In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, gay men faced strong hatred and rejection. They cared for each other because no one else would. They made sure their friends were treated with dignity. They memorialized those who died too young. 

Yet, also organizing, speaking up, and pushing back against lies, fear, and ignorance through it all. That persistence of resistance is best captured in this quote by Dan Savage …

“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for…” 

We gained power from that fight. The power to claim what’s rightfully ours. The power to be resilient no matter what comes our way. The power to OWN our power. 

As we stand on the precipice of an Orwellian and dystopian U.S. built upon exclusion, greed, and hatred, the LGBTQ+ community must use our hard-earned power to protect our queer money. 

We can’t count on institutions, laws, or corporations to have our backs. LGBTQ+ people have spent too long depending on the so-called goodwill of others. Political parties use us as a bargaining chip. Corporations slap on a rainbow when it’s profitable. The legal system gives us rights one day and yanks them away the next.
 


It’s up to us to demand and secure our own future

This is why I wrote Take Pride in Your Money: LGBTQ+ Financial Empowerment Stories & Strategies. My new book is a call to empower our queer dollars to protect ourselves, each other, and our community. Together, we can navigate these dark times.

There are growing calls to claim our “queer sovereignty” through economic self-determination—fostering LGBTQ+-owned businesses, financial networks, and community wealth-building to reduce reliance on heteronormative power structures. LGBTQ+ people could invest in education, media, healthcare, and financial systems controlled by the community. 

We cannot afford to be passive observers. We’ve seen what happens when we do not take financial and legal precautions in a hostile environment. Discrimination, legal battles, and policy rollbacks can affect where we live, who we love, and how we retire.

“… It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting. Keep dancing.”—Dan Savage

More Resources:

Take Pride in Your Money: Buy Book  |  View Video Lessons

Blog: Take Control in a Time of Change and Uncertainty

Blog: Fast Financial 101: My Proactive Investment Philosophy