The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (WDEP) is an advocacy group focused on incarcerated LGBT immigrants in the tri-state area of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. ¹ QDEP is fiscally sponsored by the Center for Transformative Action, a left-of-center activist, grantmaking, and education organization affiliated with Cornell University that operates throughout New York. ²

History and Activities

The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project is an advocacy organization that supports “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Two Spirit, Trans, Intersex, Gender Non-Conforming, and HIV + (LGBTQIA* GNC TS) immigrant prisoners” in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. ³

QDEP primarily supports incarcerated LGBT immigrants through its members services program and community activism. Its members services program offers LGBT immigrants legal service referrals, hotline support, “commissary funding,” letters of support, and pen pal programs. The program also offers recently released LGBT immigrants referrals to medical and mental health services, housing, transportation services, legal services, and English classes, as well as asylum application support. Newly arrived LGBT immigrants also receive a welcome package from QDEP with one month of phone service and a one-month metro card. ⁴

As of January 2024, QDEP had offered its support services to LGBT individuals from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Jamaica, Tunisia, India, Pakistan, Malawi, St. Vincent, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Trinidad, Burkina Faso, Georgia, Russia, and Iraq. ⁵

QDEP’s community activism focuses on three priorities: abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), blocking the construction of new jails in New York City, and promoting LGBT immigrant leadership in community organizing. ⁶

QDEP also hosts a Leadership Development Program to train “trans, queer cis-women, and gender non-conforming immigrants” to organize communities. The program runs for six months and meets on the third Saturday of each month. As of January 2024, WDEP had trained four cohorts in its Leadership Development Program. ⁷

In the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, QDEP advocated against Israel by promoting rallies in New York for Palestine ⁸ and posting on social media in favor of “Palestinian Liberation,” as well as making posts claiming that Israel participates in “genocide and apartheid.” ⁹

Additionally, QDEP has an online store featuring T-shirts and bags created to protest Vice President Kamala Harris’s June 2021 statement in Guatemala telling immigrants to “not come to the USA.” The t-shirt depicts immigrants arriving at a border wall, jumping over the wall, and breaking the wall down. ¹⁰

People

The Queer Defense Empowerment Project is managed by a six-member board of directors including Markia Dias, Anneiry Zapata, Edinson Calderon, Samah Sisay, Orlando Marlon Charles, and “JJ.” ¹¹

Marika Dias is a public interest attorney focused on housing, immigration, and LGBT issues, who also trains lawyers through the Movement Law Lab, a left-of-center minority advocacy group, and the Shriver Center. ¹²

Anneiry Zapata is a self-described trans Afro-Feminist from Honduras who has claimed that Black women in particular must lead the abolition of gender, and supports the idea that “sexuality is free to be lived.” ¹³

Edinson Calderon is a Venezuelan native who was aided through the U.S. asylum process by QDEP. ¹⁴

Samah Sisay is a fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, a left-of-center legal advocacy group, and works with Survived and Punished New York, which advocates for prison abolition. ¹⁵

Orlando Marlon Charles works at the Restaurant Opportunities Center, a labor-union-like organization focused on restaurant workers, and advocates for Christian acceptance of same-sex relations. ¹⁶

“JJ” is an anonymous board member who works at Unite Oregon and founded the Cosmic Pollinators Wellness Collective. ¹⁷

Funding

The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project is fiscally sponsored by the Center for Transformative Action, a left-of-center activist, grantmaking, and education organization affiliated with Cornell University that has activities throughout the state of New York. ¹⁸ The Center for Transformative Action is funded in part by the Ford Foundation ¹⁹ and is staffed by individuals who have worked for and donated to left-leaning causes like the Democratic Socialists of America and the presidential campaigns of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). ^{20 21}

QDEP also received grants from the Trans Justice Funding Project, a left-wing LGBT group focused on promoting transgender acceptance in the United States, from 2014 through 2018. ²²

Affiliations

The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project is a member of the Detention Watch Network, a center-left immigration policy advocacy group; Freedom for Immigrants (previously known as CIVIC), a left-of-center organization with close ties to advocacy networks for illegal immigrants; the International Detention Coalition, a network of people and organizations that represent and support migrants who have been detained; the Hate-Free Zones Campaign; and the National Prison Divestment Campaign Steering Committee. ²³

1. “About.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/about/.
2. ^[1] “About.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/about/.
3. “About.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/about/.
4. “Our Work.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/our-work/.
5. “About.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/about/.
6. “Our Work.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/our-work/.
7. “The Leadership Development Program – LDP.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/the-leadership-development-program-ldp/.
8. @queerdep. “Instagram Post on January 26, 2024.” Instagram. Accessed January 31, 2024.  https://www.instagram.com/p/C2iGNmYOjMH/.
9. @queerdep. “Instagram Post on October 26, 2023.” Instagram. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy3gc-buymJ/.
10. “Queer Detainee Empowerment Project – Official Merchandise.” Bonfire. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.bonfire.com/store/qdep/.
11. “Team.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/team/.
12. “Team.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/team/.
13. “Team.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/team/.
14. “Team.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/team/.
15. “Team.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/team/.
16. “Team.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/team/.
17. “Team.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/team/.
18.  “About.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/about/.
19. “Grants Database.” Ford Foundation. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/?q=%22Center+for+Transformative+Action%22&p=1
20. ^[1] “Browse Individual Contributions.” FEC.gov. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Dominick%2BRecckio.
21. Williams, Martha D. “Resume.” Martha D. Williams. Accessed January 24, 2024. https://www.marthadwilliams.com/resume.
22. ^[1] “Queer Detainee Empowerment Project.” Trans Justice Funding Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.transjusticefundingproject.org/grantees/queer-detainee-empowerment-project/.
23. “About.” Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.qdep.org/about/.