With all that being said, we are halfway through 2020, and it has been a very frightening year but let us celebrate through all the adversity.
However, even more disheartening is the fact that this is only the children that are brave enough to mention they are queer. Below is a chart that states that nearly half of the LGBTQ youth is not accepted in their communities. Not UncommonĬhapter 6 of Blueprint for Equality states “Trans people who have done street economy work are more than twice as likely to report physical assaults by police officers and four times as likely to report sexual assault by police.”Īll the fear that people believe they have of LGBTQ community is misplaced and on the flipside is a very real fear for queer people everywhere because their lives are the ones at stake on a grand scale. Occurrences of sexual assault, police brutality, and murder of queer people have been written in our history, and we have a responsibility to educate ourselves so that maybe we can change even one person’s perspective. An absolutely tragic death of a beautiful young black and trans activist, with a strong social media following, who was willing to do anything she could for her communities. In Tallahassee, Florida, they found her body several days ago on June 13, 2020.
Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salaudead was abducted just after tweeting that she had been sexually assaulted on June 6, 2020. We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.”Įver so recently, we lost a young, 19 year old, transgender, black woman and Black Lives Matter activist. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise). We need not forget that Black Lives Matter also means every black life, including queer lives: Again, these are not uncommon occurrences in oppressed groups. The new rush of Black Lives Matter demonstrations began due to the loss of George Floyd, a man who was pinned down at the neck by a police officer who didn’t let go until it was too late and George ultimately passed away. And along with other oppressed communities are still fighting against police brutality. Now, 51 years later in 2020, even though lots of progress has been made, many queer people are still fighting for their right to express themselves without fear. This issue wasn’t uncommon, in fact police raids were happening very frequently in gay bars all over the country, but that night at Stonewall Inn in 1969 became a catalyst for major changes in the fight for human rights. These demonstrations were initiated due to a police raid in the early hours of the morning at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York.
On June 28, 1969, a series of turbulent demonstrations called the Stonewall Riots, or Uprising, began. June is a very significant month in the LGBTQ community.