LGBTQ Organizations
Use the filters below to find organizations that support and serve the LGBTQ community.
Category: Regional
Alliance For Full Acceptance (AFFA)
1801 Reynolds Avenue
North Charleston, South Carolina 29405
(843) 883-0343
The Alliance For Full Acceptance (AFFA) is a Charleston-based nonprofit organization. Founded in 1998, AFFA is working to achieve, nurture, and defend equality and full acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people throughout South Carolina. To achieve our mission, we work to build partnerships with municipal and civic leaders, legislators, medical and mental health care providers, policy makers and business leaders to advocate for awareness, protections and equality for the LGBTQ community. AFFA Action is the 501(c)(4) arm of the organization designated to promote social welfare through education, legislative advocacy and political action.
Campaign for Southern Equality
The Campaign for Southern Equality is working to build a South where LGBTQ people are equal in every part of life. Founded in 2011, they launched their work from a church basement in the mountains of North Carolina. Based in Asheville, NC, in the first chapter of their work, CSE was on the frontlines of efforts to win marriage equality in the South. They led the WE DO Campaign, which involved LGBTQ couples requesting – and being denied – marriage licenses in their Southern hometowns. More than 200 couples took action, with thousands of friends, family members and neighbors standing in support of them.
Today, CSE’s work includes the Legal Equality Project, focused on achieving legal equality by striking down anti-LGBTQ laws, passing pro-LGBTQ policies across the South; the Southern Equality Fund, which empowers local LGBTQ leaders across the South; and their Community Health Program, which responds to the acute and widespread need for direct services and resources for LGBTQ Southerners.
Gender Benders
Gender Benders is a grassroots organization for transgender and gender diverse folks in the Southeastern US. They are based in Upstate, SC and we have chapters and partner organizations in Hattiesburg, MS, Clemson, SC, and Hendersonville, NC. Gender Benders started as a group of 3 folks talking about what needs they had as trans and gender diverse people living in an area with no existing resources or support networks – and what they could realistically do to meet those needs with no money. Today, Gender Benders serves over 550 people from across the Southeast.
Grand Strand Pride
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area Pride Festival, business guild and educational programming.
Harriet Hancock LGBTQ Center
The Harriet Hancock LGBT Center is a safe and inclusive home that supports, educates, and empowers the LGBT community, our allies, and our neighbors. They have a vision for South Carolina where all people are accepted and affirmed, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, and LGBT people are able to live happy and healthy lives. The Harriet Hancock LGBT Center works to realize this vision in South Carolina, starting in the Greater Columbia community and Midlands region.
Lowcountry Pride
Lowcountry Pride is a 501(c)(3) serving Beaufort County, South Carolina. Our co-chair is a licensed therapist who runs support groups through Pride for parents of LGBTQ+ children and young adults in transition. We have a book club, monthly social events, and an annual Pride celebration. We also run educational panels within our community and offer various forms of support to members of the LGBTQ+ community in Beaufort County.
Pride Link
Pride Link is here because many LGBTQ+ people in the Upstate are still not able to live the happy, safe, and successful lives they deserve. Pride Link provides health and wellness services, social support spaces, and connection to critical resources for the LGBTQ+ community.
Rainbow Support Group
To be a positive resource for support within the LGBTQ+ community, to promote tolerance and empowerment for LGBTQ+ individuals, and to aid in the fight to stop LGBTQ+ Bullying
SC Black Pride (SCBP)
The mission of the South Carolina Black Pride Inc. (SCBP), is to unify and celebrate the diversity, creativity, And beauty Of South Carolina’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, and non-gender conforming (LGBTQ) communities of color and their supporters, in order to empower and promote the human rights of all families and communities.
SC Pride
South Carolina Pride Movement, located in Columbia, SC, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the needs of the LGBTQ+ community and its partners through educational events, entertainment, community outreach, and celebrations of diversity throughout the year. SC Pride produces each year Famously Hot SC Pride Festival, Get Lit Nighttime Parade & Concert, OutFest Columbia, and more. The Pride Festival, held in October each year on Main Street, Columbia, SC is one of the largest outdoor festivals in the city and the largest LGBT event in the state.
South Carolina Equality
SC Equality was incorporated in 2002 in Columbia, South Carolina as South Carolina Equality Coalition (SCEC). Its goal was to improve the conditions of LGBTQ people in South Carolina through promoting tolerance, politically organizing LGBTQ people and allies and changing discriminatory laws.
Southerners On New Ground (SONG)
SONG is a home for LGBTQ liberation across all lines of race, class, abilities, age, culture, gender, and sexuality in the South. They build, sustain, and connect a southern regional base of LBGTQ people in order to transform the region through strategic projects and campaigns developed in response to the current conditions in our communities. SONG builds this movement through leadership development, intersectional analysis, and organizing.
Trans Love Fund
The Trans Love Fund is a program of the Alliance For Full Acceptance (AFFA) and We Are Family. The Trans Love Fund is dedicated to supporting the trans community of South Carolina by providing microgrants to trans-identified individuals throughout the state.
Transgender Awareness Alliance (TAA)
1830 S Lake Drive, 84383
Lexington, SC 29073
TAA exists to supply emergency assistance to the transgender community of SC and partners with other organizations to create an affirming network of legal, health and consumer resources.
T-Time Myrtle Beach
(843) 424-6782
T-Time Myrtle Beach is an open Transgender support group and discussion forum in Myrtle Beach, SC. They also aim to promote a safe environment within which everyone can reside.
Uplift Outreach Center
(864) 381-7234
Uplift Outreach Center’s mission is to provide a much-needed safe space for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults/adults in Spartanburg, SC, and surrounding areas.
Upstate Pride SC
Upstate Pride SC empowers people of all gender expressions and sexual identities in the Upstate of South Carolina by promoting acceptance through education, advocacy, and networking.