WELCOME TO DEBATE FOR CHANGE 2023!

Established in 2020 to support Black Lives Matter, Debate For Change is a completely student-run online tournament created to advocate for marginalized communities. This year, as LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly under attack across the United States, especially the rights of LGBTQ+ youth, we wanted to use our platform as debaters to voice our support for the queer community. Debate is meant as a forum for engaged and educated discussions about current events, and we thought that hosting a tournament dedicated to supporting queer rights is a great way of making our voices heard.

This tournament will cost $20 per person ($40 per team— if you’re a maverick, it’s still $20, though). Judges are expected to donate, too! To judge, you must be a current senior or graduate. To compete, you can be a rising sophomore, junior, or senior.

100% of the proceeds will go to the Hetrick-Martin Institute. Since it was first founded in 1979, HMI has served as a local LGBTQ+ youth advocacy and development group in New York City. The organization works hard to provide queer youth with a vast number of resources and services, such as housing, food, medical care, health and wellness services, academic enrichment, job training, paid internships, arts and culture, and street outreach—all of which can be accessed without a cost barrier. To learn more about the Hetrick-Martin Institute, you can visit https://hmi.org/about/our-impact/.

HOW TO PAY: You should pay the tournament fee through a Gofundme that we have set up for this cause. The proceeds will go directly to the organization!

IMPORTANT: To ensure that we can verify you donated, use your full name when donating, and leave a comment after you donate that says your event and the name that you entered under in Tabroom. You should enter yourself on the tournament FIRST, then pay the Gofundme, but we will not accept your entry until you have paid. This is the link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/debate-for-change-2023

If you can donate more, please feel free to! The point of this tournament is to raise as much money as possible, so if you feel you are able to donate more, we encourage it. However, the tournament fee is also not intended to be a barrier to accessibility; if you are unable to afford the fee but still want to compete, please get in touch with us.

The tournament will run from Friday, 8/19 to Saturday, 8/20 via Zoom.