Technica2020

This bot retweets tweets that use a specific hashtag in order to promote crowd funding efforts by Black and LGBT youth. It utilizes the a Python wrapper for the Twitter API called, Tweepy, and searches through our hashtag, RosesBot, every thirty minutes to look for campaigns to retweet. We felt that it was important to prioritize Black LGBT youth because they are a vulnerable but majorly overlooked and underserved demographic for philanthropic aid. Black LGBT+ youth are much more likely to be homeless than their several other demographics, in the San Francisco Bay Area “49% of the Bay Area is made up of people of color” but “80% of our homeless youth are people of color” according to a report on how to end youth homelessness by Larkin Street Youth Services. (Stiemle) Similarly, Black LGBT+ youth often report higher rates of discrimination in school and at home, with over ¾ of them reporting their family disproving of them and 63% report in-school bathroom discrimination. (Kozuch) Additionally, Black LGBT+ youth experience a disparity of professional mental health care, with only 39% being able to access care for the unique experience of Blackness and queerness. (Trevor Project)

Sharing these crowdfunding campaigns increases the likelihood that these young people will be able to access the means needed to take care of themselves and live their lives without sacrificing themselves. The name of our Twitter bot and the art in the profile picture comes from the protest chant, “Give Us Our Roses While We’re Still Here”, and this is the spirit of what our bot is meant to do. By providing an easy way to signal-boost your own campaign, we are giving them the power to receive their roses and survive another day.

Kozuch, Elliott. “Black LGBTQ Youth At Heightened Risk for Discrimination.” HRC, Human Rights Campaign, 15 Feb. 2019, www.hrc.org/news/hrc-and-uconn-survey-reveals-black-lgbtq-youth-are-at-heightened-risk-for-d.

“Research Brief: Black LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.” The Trevor Project, The Trevor Project, 13 Feb. 2020, www.thetrevorproject.org/2020/02/13/research-brief-black-lgbtq-youth-mental-health/.

Steimle, Susie. “Expert: Homelessness Disproportionately Impacts Black And LGBTQ Youth.” CBS San Francisco, CBS San Francisco, 6 Jan. 2020, sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/01/06/street-kids-homelessness-disproportionately-impacts-black-and-lgbtq-youth-expert-says/.