by Andrea Gonzales BC ’22
#ActionFridays #BlackHistoryMonth
Queerness has always been ingrained into the history and wisdom of people internationally; Gender and sexuality have always been more expansive than the words we create to describe and label them. Yet, our communities today are corrupted with the idea of a gender binary and heteronormativity to the point where Queer folks cannot be guaranteed safety in any environment, not even in the communities that raised them or that look like them. This is especially true for Black Trans and gender non-conforming individuals.
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Black Trans folks and gender-non-conforming folks have always been on the front lines for our collective liberations. Even in the face of racist, and transphobic rage, our Black Trans leaders and ancestors have continued to organize around issues of police brutality, discrimination in the workplace, homelessness, and healthcare. In San Francisco, we see the first militant uprising against the police at Compton’s Cafeteria. The staff at Compton Cafeteria regularly called the police on the Trans folks who used this location as a safe-haven; they hoped to deter them from coming to the restaurant. The police regularly harassed and arrested Trans women for the “crime” of “female impersonation.” However, one night in the summer of 1966, one woman resisted arrest and the community fought alongside her.
After the Compton protests, the revolution happening within the LGBTQ+ community could not be ignored. In 1967, another series of protests occurred at the Black Cat Tavern in Los Angeles. And in 1969, there was infamous Stonewall uprisings in New York City. In the early morning of June 28, 1969, the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in the Greenwich Village. They forced the patrons of the bar ‘to verify their sex’ to the officers, and many people reported being assaulted and harassed by them. However, this night was different. After Stormé DeLarverie asked the crowd “Why don’t you guys do something?” The people fought back.
WATCH: Raquel Willis, “I BELIEVE IN BLACK TRANS POWER”. (2020)
History often limits our understanding of this revolutionary time; it often restricts our the record to focus on the mostly white Gay Liberation Front (GLF) as the era’s leading LGBTQ+ rights organization. But Black and Brown Trans folks Have been creating rights organizations and liberatory projects since the very beginning. In California, following the uprisings, Trans women of color like Felicia “Flames” Elizondo and Tamara Ching continued the movement to advocated for sex worker’s rights and HIV prevention. In New York City, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) was founded in New York City by Marsha P. Johnson, a Black Trans woman and Sylvia Rivera, a Latinx Trans woman. The development of this organization was key to the work we see today that fights for sex-workers and Queer young people we see today. S.T.A.R. was created in order to provide for the needs of Queer and Trans youth; their organization taught young people how to read and write while also providing them housing. The S.T.A.R. House was the first LGBT youth shelter in North America, the first Trans women of Color led organization in the United States, and the first trans sex worker organization. In recent history, three Black Trans women founded the Transgender District; one of its leaders is Honey Mahogany, the drag performer and member of the Stud Collective.
In 2020, 44 Trans or gender non-conforming people were fatally shot or killed by other violent means. It was the most violent anti-Trans year on record. However, this number does not accurately reflect the depth of Trans folks experience with violence since their murders are often unreported, or they are misnamed and misgendered in the reporting. Davarea Alexander was the first known Trans person to be murdered in 2021, only 6 days into the new year. She died at the age of 28. The average life expectancy of Black Trans women is 35 years old. It is all of our responsibility to protect and honor those most vulnerable in our communities.
GET INVOLVED: SUPPORT BLACK TRANS LIVES
The fight for Trans lives was first documented in the 1960, but the work is far from over. Black and Indigenous folks do not exist as a monolith, and we must recognize the heteronormative privileges and oppressions within communities of color. In order to honor all Black Lives, we must acknowledge and dismantle the ways that we share responsibility for violence against Black Trans women. We can only move forward by including Black Trans folks in the movement for Black lives.