Media Contact:
Ts Candii, (347) 654-0462 blacktransnewsllc.com, Uchechukwu Onwa, 646-281-2904, uchechukwu@qdep.org
Starting point: Stonewall Inn 54 Christopher St. New York, 10014
Ending point: Jackson Square Park 8 Avenue & Greenwich New York, NY 10014
NEW YORK— We are organizing this March because BLACK LGBT people face two forms of violence on our bodies. We face violence from the state through white supremacist institutions like jails, prisons, and policing as well as interpersonal violence from community members. Tony McDade was a Black trans man killed by police in Tallahassee on May 27th. His murder took place after six cis men robbed him. Nina Pop was a Black trans woman stabbed to death in Missouri on May 3rd. Her story has been ignored, although it happened right after Ahmaud Arbery was killed by vigilantes a few weeks ago. Tony’s and Nina’s stories have been ignored, even as mass protests and uprisings explode throughout the nation to acclaim the value of George Floyd’s life, who was killed by the cops. Today, we lift up the names of Tony McDade, Nina Pop, and other Black trans and queer people who have been lost to hate and state violence.
Because their lives matter, because our lives matter, we affirm that none of these protests and actions and conversations can continue to think of Black struggle only in terms of demands like ‘prosecute the cop’ that center cis/het men who have been victimized by police. The institution of policing is as much a threat to Black trans and queer lives as are both the fascists and the transmisogynists and homophobes in our community.
Without the safety of us all, none of us can get safe.
We are peacefully protesting in the memory of Nina Pop and Tony McDade. Demanding that we corral support around all Black trans and queer lives is about reclaiming that history and seeing the Uprising as a touchstone for how we reframe the unrest today. We are highlighting Black trans and queer struggle with policing, and with other forms of violence such as transphobia, misogyny, and poverty that the police as an institution cannot and does not solve.
Though we can’t control what the police will do, this is a nonviolent action to center the safety of Black trans people. We are here to reclaim, to remember, to redefine, and rally toward a fuller vision of safety for Black trans and Black queer lives.
Call-to-Action
On Tuesday, June 2nd at 5pm, organizers and community members, led by Black trans people with the support of queer and trans allies, will converge on the Stonewall Inn to demand justice for Tony McDade, Nina Pop, and all our Black trans siblings killed by police, ICE, jails and prisons, and transphobic violence in our communities. We demand the right to self-determination and collective self-defense for Black trans people. We demand the right to determine what justice means for us outside carceral solutions. And we demand the immediate defunding of the NYPD, ICE, and the prison industrial complex, and the redirection of resources to our communities.
