At the beginning of this year, June meant one thing for LGBT+ people in the US and UK: Pride 2020.
Millions of LGBT+ individuals and allies would have been gearing up for a month of recognition, remembrance, and festivities to celebrate and acknowledge the developments in the Western world since the Stonewall Riots of 1969.
This time last year, World Pride took place in New York City and marked 50 years since a group of trans women and gay men (largely led by a Black trans activist called Marsha P. Johnson) fought back against years of persecution at the hands of police outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in Manhattan.
The 2019 march and celebrations drew a reported 5 million people to the city of New York.
As recent as the 1960s, homosexuality was still illegal in the US, and LGBT+ people faced routine and consistent violence and raids in bars.
The six days of riots in the Summer of 1969 against police brutality sparked a movement in New York that saw two LGBT+ rights organizations - the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance - set up within a few months.
Both organizations were supported by white gay men using their privilege to fight for their rights and the rights of other more marginalized and often more brutally persecuted) members of the LGBT+ community (such as trans people, black people, and Latinx people). They called for the community to unite in the fight against LGBT+ persecution.
They also supported many other groups fighting marginalization and persecution, such as the Black Panthers, and they marched against the Women's House of Detention.
Within two years, there were pride marches all over the world, and these riots and protests are largely viewed as the catalyst that gave LGBT+ people the rights we have today.
This year, LGBT+ people around the world are rethinking how to celebrate Pride.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, Pride 2020 was always going to be different. But with the current protests against racism in both US and UK continuing to build in strength, Pride this year is a chance for LGBT+ people and allies to reflect and help fight racist and unjust treatment many members of the LGBT+ community still face.
Take the current lived experience of trans people - particularly black trans people - in the US and the UK in 2020.
Aside from certain extremely high profile members of society questioning their existence and experiences, below are some other statistics related to trans people - it is tough to compare what these statistics would be for cisgender white people:
- It is reported that the average life expectancy of a Black trans woman is 35. This is a disputed statistic (primarily because not enough data has been collected), but as a widely discussed stat it is hard to ignore (source 1, source 2).
- Nearly HALF (48%) of trans people in Britain have attempted suicide (source).
- In the US last year, there were 26 reports of trans people killed by violent means, of these, 91% of them were black trans women and 81% of those women were under 30 (source).
- In the UK, 70% of trans people avoid certain places and situations for fear of being assaulted, threatened, or harassed (source).
It is also worth drawing attention to some of the black people whose lives have been drawn short already this year. Some of these men and women have been killed since the BLM protests erupted at the end of May.
These are just a few of the people that the news and social media are reporting:
This year, Pride in the UK is probably the most similar it's ever been to the nation's very first Pride march back in 1970, which was organized as a response to the Stonewall riots of the previous year.
Like then, the civil unrest that demanded change began in the US and the rest of the world stood in solidarity and eventually enacted that change.
Queer culture and Pride nowadays is full of vibrancy and joy and color, but one should be reminded that a large part of that culture and language has been appropriated from black LGBT+ people and QTIPOC (Drag Race, "Yas Kween", slay, vogueing, shade, sassy, bae etc).
Is it right that people enjoy this culture whilst those people from whom it originated aren't given the same opportunities and protection as those who enjoy it?
It is likely that in the past few weeks you will have seen ways in which you can help the Black Lives Matter movement, however many of those resources totally ignore the struggles faced by many black trans lives that are still heavily persecuted both in the US and UK.
Their names are not shouted as loud at protests and you do not see as many petitions calling for justice or fundraisers for their legal battles.
Below are some links to some documentaries, articles, and fundraising websites to educate and support those people whose lived experience is not only of being black and not only being queer but also being trans and female.
Their identities exist at the intersectionality of the most persecuted groups in many societies around the globe.
As LGBT+ people and allies, we must be supporting and using our privilege and space to educate ourselves and bolster, protect, and celebrate the Black trans community.
Pride started as a riot because people were angry.
Pride brought about change that means many queer people can live their lives in the way they want to.
We need to be supporting those who are angry and protesting the constant and systemic oppression now -so that they can also live their lives the way they deserve to.
Please find additional information and material below:Documentaries, movies, and series:
- Disclosure
- Happy Birthday Marsha!
- Life & Death of Marsha P Johnson
- Tangerine
- Paris Is Burning
- Pose
- Transparent
- The Trans List
- Free Cece
People I follow and value:
Charities and GoFundMe pages:
- Mermaids - A Charity that works with families with children who are gender variant and non conforming
- UK Black Pride
- Homeless Black Trans women Donation Fund
- All About Trans
- Black Visions Collective
- G.L.I.T.S
- Trans Women of Color Collective
- The Okra Project
- Snap4Freedom
- Black Aids
- LGBTQ Fund
- House of GG
- Trans Justice Funding Project
- Youth Breakout
Links to further reading and attachments:
- Yes! Magazine: Black Trans Women Are Being Killed. Could Paying Them Help Stop This?
- Stonewall: Trans Key Statistics
- Human Rights Campaign: A National Epidemic: Fatal Anti-Transgender Violence in the United States in 2019
- Wikipedia: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom
