Who we are

C.T.T. — Mission Statement

The mission of C.T.T. is to protect, guide, and uphold the values, culture, and political clarity of the C.O.T.T.O.N. project through community-centered accountability. We ensure that every decision, program, and initiative reflects the needs, leadership, and lived experiences of Black queer and trans people. Through transparency, truth-telling, and a commitment to the long-term thriving of our community, C.T.T. serves as the guardian of integrity, safety, and alignment across all aspects of C.O.T.T.O.N.

C.T.T. — Vision Statement

We envision a future where Black LGBT people are positioned at the center of decisions that shape our communities, movements, and collective futures. A future where accountability is not punitive, but liberatory — rooted in transparency, care, community wisdom, and shared power. C.T.T. seeks to build a model of governance where Black queer and trans voices guide the structures that hold us, ensuring that every part of C.O.T.T.O.N. contributes to our collective thriving, cultural preservation, political empowerment, and freedom.

C.T.T. — The Community Accountability Board

C.T.T. serves as the guiding body that oversees and safeguards the principles, integrity, and community impact of the C.O.T.T.O.N. project.
 It centers Black LGBT leadership, community protection, and transparent decision-making.

C — Community

We root all decisions in the needs, leadership, and lived experiences of Black queer and trans people. Community determines direction.

T — Transparency

We operate with honesty, clarity, and truth-telling. We hold ourselves and our partners accountable to our values, our people, and our purpose.

T — Thriving

We ensure every part of C.O.T.T.O.N. is designed to help Black LGBT people not just survive systems, but thrive — emotionally, politically, culturally, and economically.

Role of C.T.T.:

  • Oversees all programs under C.O.T.T.O.N.

  • Ensures accountability to Black LGBT community needs

  • Protects the mission, political alignment, culture, and safety of the work

  • Makes sure nothing we do is extractive, harmful, or disconnected from the people we serve

C.T.T. is the ethics, values, and culture keeper of the entire project.


C.O.T.T.O.N. - Mission Statement 

Our mission is to build and protect a powerful Black LGBT community in the Bay Area through community care, transparency, truth-telling, and the creation of intentional third spaces that are truly ours. We honor the origins of Black movement work on the West Coast and connect it to national Black queer and trans liberation. We confront anti-Blackness and anti-LGBT rhetoric head-on, preserve our stories, and cultivate spaces where Black LGBT people can gather, heal, organize, and thrive socially, politically, and economically.

C.O.T.T.O.N. - Vision Statement 

We envision a Bay Area where Black queer and trans people live freely, visibly, and unapologetically—anchored by community power, cultural legacy, and vibrant third spaces created for and by us. A region where our histories are centered, our safety is non-negotiable, and our communities are no longer displaced, overlooked, or silenced. We strive for a future where Black LGBT people shape the landscape of liberation, joy, innovation, and belonging across the West Coast and the nation.

C.O.T.T.O.N. — Full Acronym for the Project

C.O.T.T.O.N. represents the full ecosystem of programs, organizing, and third-space creation. It is the work. C.T.T. is what guides it.

C — Community

Centering Black queer and trans community power, chosen family, and collective care.

O — Origin

Honoring the history of Black movement work on the West Coast and the national roots of Black LGBT liberation.

T — Transparency

Practicing truth-telling about anti-Blackness, anti-LGBT language, erasure, and systemic harm — and naming what must change.

T — Thriving

Building pathways where Black LGBT people thrive in health, housing, safety, culture, economics, wellness, and leadership.

O — Organizing

Developing local and national strategies to push back against anti-Black and anti-LGBT rhetoric and create structural change.

N — Nexus

Connecting the Bay Area’s Black LGBT movement to the larger national ecosystem — linking community care, history, activism, and future-building.



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