What does Juneteenth Mean to the Most Marginalized Black Folk?
Happy Juneteenth!
June 19, 1865 is the day that slaves were actually told that they had been freed, a full two and a half years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Black folks ever since have celebrated this day as our own Independence Day. For those of you who want to learn more, Dr. Henry Louis Gates of Harvard fame expertly treats the topic here via his once-heralded PBS series. And although this day is marked as the day that many slaves were freed, many black folks remained in bondage for many years thereafter, or were otherwise hunted, killed and hung on trees like strange fruit for their audacious claims to freedom.
Kind of like how black folks today are being hung from trees . . . in 2020 . . . for demanding freedom from state-sanctioned police brutality.
Or . . . kind of like how black folks are just being hung or killed for no good reason other than the fact that they are trans.
To wit, I would like to call your attention to one of our fallen angels, “Titi Gulley” who was found dead hanging from a tree this time last year in Portland. The police, at the time, ruled it a suicide and her family had to gather evidence on their own and present it to the police so that they would reopen the case. Because a suicide by tree hanging didn’t make sense. To anyone. Black.
I want to be crystal clear: Black. People. Do. Not. Hang. Themselves. From. Trees.
According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC):
Black Americans are being lynched in America,” said Tori Cooper, HRC director of community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative. “The details of Titi Gulley’s death must be thoroughly investigated and handled with the utmost care. It is disgusting that local authorities were so quick to rule this case a suicide -- forcing a grieving family to do their own work to convince police to care about a Black, transgender woman who was experiencing homelessness. Black Transgender Lives Matter. We must do more to end this epidemic of violence that is killing more and more beautiful lives. To every Black trans person reading this: You matter. You have value and you make the world a better place by being here. These disgusting crimes are terrifying -- I’m terrified too. But never believe that your existence is less than any other person.”
In November 2019, ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance, HRC Foundation released “A National Epidemic: Fatal Anti-Transgender Violence in America in 2019,” a heartbreaking report honoring the trans people killed and detailing the contributing and motivating factors that lead to this tragic violence -- a toxic mix of transphobia, racism and misogyny. Sadly, 2019 saw at least 28 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means. We say at least because too often these stories go unreported -- or misreported.
It is pride month and Black Lives Matter is the mantra du jour . . . so it should be a double win for black queer folks, right? The Supreme Court even defended the LGBTQIA+ community by stating unequivocally that “the language of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination, applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
But in practice, none of this applies to trans folks. While the rest of us (us = cis-gendered POCs) are experiencing sweeping changes to the way society is interacting with our struggles, trans folks are once again left with virtually nothing. The Supreme Court decision is cute, but how many trans folks can even get hired in this first place if they are not passable? Sex work, the only job many trans folks can get in America, is criminalized, stigmatized and replete with dangers that often lead to the murder of our trans brothers and sisters. So what the hell does this supreme court decision mean to them? Do their black trans lives matter?
Where is their freedom? Where is their justice? Where is their Juneteenth? Black folk are quick to talk about how the white man is keeping them down and then turn around and use their cis-gender privilege to treat trans men and women like trash. I am sick and I am tired. I am not trans, but I will fight and write and write checks for the cause because we, as Americans, MUST be advocates for the marginalized. We must be advocates for Black Trans Lives because they do matter, even if virtually every facet of society tells them that they do not.
I want to celebrate today . . . but I can’t. I can’t be happy and cant’ feel free until we are all free.
Trans Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter.
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Have you listened to the latest episode of “The Family We Choose?”
