February News from Elevated Access
Love is Love Edition
A Message from Mike
Happy Valentine’s Day! Today I want to share the love I have for each of you as pilots, donors, and supporters. Helping people travel to access abortion and gender-affirming care doesn’t happen without you. In the best Ted Lasso way possible, I appreciate you.
Recently I finished reading bell hooks’ “The Will to Change” as I travel through my own journey of masculinity. Our society doesn’t raise boys very well to learn that they are worthy of love and how to express an emotion like love in ways that do not attempt to dominate or control other people. All people - yes, all people - play at least an unconscious role in maintaining the systems of oppression whether imperialism, unfettered capitalism, white supremacy, and the patriarchy.
So if toxic masculinity is about control and domination, what should masculinity be? Hooks describes that instead of domination, masculinity should be seeking and building justice. Her writings have given me the words to capture what I find to be the driver behind much of my adult life, to use the resources and skills I have to resist injustice.
So today, I share my love that so many people like you have joined me in this effort, rallying my fellow aviators and aviatrixes to help people overcome oppression. I see the mother trying to protect her limited resources for the children she already has. I see the father taking his child across multiple states because doctors can’t help his child be their true selves in the place they live.
Thank you!
-Mike B
Executive Director
SHARE THE LOVE!
Our movement has a lot of work to do,and we need every person who will join us. We ask you to forward this month’s newsletter to three people, so they, too, might come along. And if you’d like to also send a virtual box of chocolates, please consider donating today.
WHY AREN'T WE RANKED ON SITES LIKE CHARITY NAVIGATOR?
Folks have been asking, and we have an answer. Sites like Charity Navigator require at least three years of IRS 990 forms to rank their financials. Those are usually submitted in late fall for the previous year meaning we’re still 2.5 years away from being rated.
HONORING BLACK AVIATORS
Bessie Coleman gets a lot of well-deserved love for being the first Black woman pilot in the United States. We’d also like to highlight another pair of Black pilots this month. Willa Brown and her husband Cornelius Coffey started the Coffey School of Aeronautics in Chicago. Their efforts laid the groundwork for the Tuskegee Airmen while training hundreds of pilots in the Civilian Pilot Training Program during World War 2. Besides that, she famously got the attention of Chicago media by taking a reporter for a ride in a Piper Cub, the same model used to train 80% of American pilots during WW2.
(A young Willa Brown with a pair of Piper Cubs.)
Keep an eye out for emails this month from us. We’re expecting something big - in a good way. You’ll be one of the first people we tell.