In 1999, Zuna Institute was born at the kitchen table of sistahs who believe that the black lesbian community can benefit from a national presence. The discussion focused on creating an organization that would advocate on behalf of black lesbian's on a national level. While it is apparent that Black Lesbians across the country are doing the grassroots work to improve the quality of our lives, Zuna wants to build on this work by creating an organization that would advocate our position on issues on a national level. The founders also want to bridge the gap between geographically dispersed organizations and communities to provide a vehicle where we can join forces to become a more visible national community.

The idea for a national Black lesbian conference was conceived in California when a group of women active in the Nia Collective (NIA) and attended the United Lesbians of African Heritage (ULOAH) realized that, although they organized in the same state (California) and that both served the needs of Black lesbians, they knew almost nothing about each other’s programs. Both NIA, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and ULOAH, based in Southern California, hold annual retreats that theoretically, should draw from the same population. However, they found that was not the case. There was almost no overlap between the women who attended (Sistahfest) the ULOAH retreat and the annual NIA retreat. They reasoned that if these two Black lesbian groups knew so little about each other, then, that was likely the case with other Black lesbian organizations across the country. They decided to do something to bridge the gap between geographically dispersed Black lesbian organizations and communities and to provide a vehicle where they could join forces to become a more visible national community.

The idea of a national conference for Black lesbians was born. With the idea of a national conference came the need for an organization to convene it, and the need for an organization to collect data from the conference, and to put the data to use in advocating for the needs of Black lesbians. There was no organization that kept track of the many grassroots efforts taking place across the United States. The need for an organization like Zuna Institute emerged.

Through a national effort, we can advocate for Black lesbian position on national issues and bring a collective Black lesbian community into a national presence. Through community organizing, training, and networking.  Zuna will focus on eliminating barriers to a better quality of life for Black lesbians. These barriers may be based on, but not limited to, sexual orientation within Black communities, race within the LGBT communities, and the impact of being Black, lesbian, and female within the larger society.