Donation Pledge: Black Trans Lives Matter

This week, as part of our Eight Weeks of Giving pledge, we are donating $1,500 in support of Black trans lives. June is LGBTQ+ Pride month, and Pride exists because of queer people of color. Pride is celebrated on the anniversary of a homophobic police raid on the gay bar the Stonewall Inn in New York the summer of 1969. The resulting riots, which were led by Black and brown transgender women including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, are often cited as the spark that ignited the modern LGTBQ+ civil rights movement. Despite the pivotal role Black trans people have played in this movement, they continue to suffer the often lethal consequences of racism, sexism, and transphobia, including disproportionate police violence. Their deaths are largely ignored by the criminal justice system and mainstream media.

Tony McDade and Nina Pop are just two of the names in the devastatingly long list of Black trans people who were victims of anti-Black, anti-trans violence. At least twenty-six transgender or gender non-conforming people were violently killed in 2019, and at least fourteen trans individuals have been murdered so far in 2020, most of whom are Black—including Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells and Riah Milton just this past week. The American Medical Association has deemed violence against trans people an epidemic, with trans women of color being the most vulnerable.

We are donating $1,500 to The Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI). The MPJI protects, defends, and promotes the collective power of Black transgender people through organizing and advocacy. A recent initiative includes the Marsha P. Johnson Safety and Wellness Act, which provides Black trans women with a platform to design a national model for policies and legislation that prioritize the safety and wellness of their communities.

For more ways to donate, take action, and self-educate, visit ActForBlackTransLives.org.

"You never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights." – Marsha P. Johnson.

Trans rights are human rights. #BlackTransLivesMatter