SOURCE: New York Public Library Digital Collections
Marsha P. Johnson, outspoken advocate for gay rights and prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969 hands out flyers for support of gay students at N.Y.U., 1970.
The First Pride Was A Riot
On June 27, 1969 a violent police raid targeted transgender people, drag queens, and gay people at the Stonewall Inn, the majority of whom were Black and Brown. For many of us, the following six days of protest on Christopher Street marks the beginning of the modern gay rights movement and a new future. Crucially, Black trans and queer people, before Stonewall and since, have been at the center of the fight for liberation.
Barbara Smith, iconic Black lesbian feminist scholar and activist put it best, “Gaining rights for some while ignoring the violation and suffering of others does not lead to justice. At best it results in privilege. Unless we eradicate the systemic oppressions that undermine the lives of the majority of L.G.B.T.Q. people, we will never achieve queer liberation.”
Right now, we’re experiencing long overdue attention and commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement. Breonna Taylor. Riah Milton. George Floyd. Oluwatoyin Salau. We say their names because their lives matter.
And as we recognize this month’s truly historic victory in the Title VII Bostock case, where the Supreme Court ruled that “An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law,” we have so much further to go. As Fannie Lou Hamer reminds us, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
BLM is rooted in Black queer activism. And as Pride month comes to a close, we still recognize that we’re just getting started.
In this issue, we’ve highlighted some of what we’re reading, listening to, watching, and learning as we honor the important intersection of Black Lives Matter and Pride. As we think about those who fought on the road before us, and who are fighting now, onwards.
SOURCE Christina House/Los Angeles Times
A protester’s flag carries the message “Black Trans Lives Matter” in a demonstration in Hollywood organized by Black LGBTQ+ leaders.
READING
Unapologetic: A Black, Queer,
and Feminist Mandate
for Radical Movements
by Charlene Carruthers
Explore
The Free Black Women’s Library
LISTENING
WATCHING
Disclosure on Netflix