Our Mission
who we are, what we do, & how we do it
SLAY Loans exists to expand access to essential resources, build collective power and wealth, and create opportunities for LGBTQ+ adults, youth, and families.
Through a queer-led, zero-interest lending model rooted in mutual aid, reciprocity, and abundance, we’re creating a community-powered system of care that supports long-term wellbeing and economic liberation.
Our Vision
the world we’re building
We believe in a future where LGBTQ+ adults, youth, and families have the financial freedom, resources, and infrastructure to thrive — a future where every queer person is equipped to live fully, love freely, and support one another with trust and collective power.
Our VALUES
the guiding principles that will help us get there
Reciprocity
We operate in cycles—not hierarchies. Giving and receiving are both acts of care. Every donation or loan fuels a system where we uplift each other and move resources with purpose.
Accessibility
We design with real life in mind. Our systems are simple, clear, and made for those most often shut out of traditional finance, health care, and support structures.
Community
We are not alone. We’re building a web of queer connection that spans generations, identities, and geographies — where we lift each other up and move together with power.
Liberation
Our work is about shifting power, not just meeting needs. We move with a vision of economic freedom, rooted in justice and queer futurism.
Rebalancing
Money is energy, and energy wants to move. We work to rebalance what’s been hoarded, withheld, or denied—restoring flow, trust, and collective power to our communities.meet the board
Cati Brown Johnson (she/her)
Founding Board Member, Board DirectorCati wants economic liberation for everyone (yes, all y’all!)—and believes it’s possible if we stick together. She’s part of a multi-generational queer family, a PhD linguist, and a health services researcher focused on patient-clinician connection. In response to COVID’s isolation, she helped launch PPE Portraits—a nationally recognized project blending art and medicine—featured in Smithsonian Magazine and on The Rachel Maddow Show. A true synthetic thinker, Cati loves pairing unexpected ideas, like magic + finance.
Janani Balasubramanian (he/they)
Founding Board Member, Treasurer Janani is a conceptually driven artist, director, and key innovator in the fields of art-science collaboration and accessible immersive design. Their multidisciplinary work fosters connection with more-than-human worlds and reimagines social care through inclusion, imagination, and play. Janani’s work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, NEA, and others, and presented at venues like the Met, Lincoln Center, and the Exploratorium. They also serve as the founding executive director of Forever Lab.
Bláz Bush (bláz/he)
Founding Board Member, SecretaryBláz is a leader in LGBTQ+ affirming healthcare and restorative justice, with over a decade of experience creating transformative programs across healthcare, education, and behavioral health. With 8+ years of financial oversight, he’s helped launch impactful initiatives like Trans Surgery Support Services, Rapid HIV Initiation, and affirming care trainings. At SLAY Loans, he’s passionate about building community-rooted systems that center care for underserved communities.
What’s in a Name?
The Story Behind Slay
To SLAY means to fearlessly show up with passion, power, and presence. In queer culture — especially Black and brown LGBTQ+ communities— it celebrates excellence, abundance, and radical realness.
“Slay” rose from the 1980s ballroom scene, where Black and brown trans women, drag queens, femmes, and queer folks created art and kinship through trials and transcendence, rebellion and resilience, ferocity and flair — all at once.
We honor that legacy with deep gratitude. We walk in the footsteps of icons like Marsha P. Johnson, Pepper LaBeija, and Willi Ninja — visionaries who turned resistance into art, and art into movement. This work is part of a long arc: honoring the legacy of those who built queer liberation and redistributing wealth, care, and power in ways that uplift all LGBTQ+ people — with deep roots in Black and brown queer resistance.
And while the original meaning of slay was to kill, we’re reclaiming it — slaying the systems that hold queer people back and clearing space for new worlds to bloom.
And “AF”? Yes, it’s a nod to “as f*ck” — as in: all the way, endlessly, without hesitation. For us, it also means And Families. Because queer liberation is communal, not individual.
SLAY Loans supports LGBTQ+ adults, youth, and families — fully, fiercely, and forever.
Marsha P. Johnson
A founding mother of the LGBTQ+ liberation movement.Marsha P. Johnson was a Black trans activist, drag queen, and fearless organizer whose joy and resistance helped spark the Stonewall Uprising. She embodied radical care and queer revolution.
Gun Roze, Marsha P. Johnson, Christopher Street, Manhattan, 1982.
Pepper LaBeija
Legendary house mother and icon of ballroom brilliance.As the longtime matriarch of the House of LaBeija, Pepper brought glamour, wisdom, and fierce leadership to the ballroom world—shaping generations of chosen family and queer resilience.
Pepper LaBeija, “Paris is Burning” (1990)
Willi Ninja
The godfather of voguing.Willi Ninja revolutionized dance, bringing voguing from ballroom floors to international runways. His grace, innovation, and artistry helped bridge Black queer culture and the fashion world.
Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images, Willi Ninja, Bryant Park, Manhattan, 2004