Black Trans* Women’s Lives Matter's Vigil and ‘Call for Peace’ @ Congressional Black Caucus Conference
Black Trans* Women’s Lives Matter
Vigil and ‘Call for Peace’
@
Congressional
Black Caucus Conference
WHAT: Black
Trans* Women’s Lives Matter is holding a vigil and ‘call for peace’ outside
the Congressional Black Caucus Conference to honor the Black and Latina women
murdered in 2014 and to draw attention to this ongoing epidemic.
WHEN: Saturday, September 27th
from 4:00pm to 5:30pm
WHERE: Outside the Walter E. Washington
Convention Center, Washington D.C.
ABOUT: Black
Trans* Women’s Lives Matter, a national call for peace, is a social justice
campaign drawing attention to America’s epidemic of male violence and hate crime
murders targeting African American young girls and women in the transsexual and
transgender communities. We aim to defend our sisters from the misogynistic, transphobic
and racist forces that fuel our oppression and to challenge the discriminatory laws
and unjust courts that often fail us. We seek solidarity and authentic support
from the mainstream Black social justice movement, our elected officials and the
progressive media in addressing and then resolving this crisis.
Black
Trans* Women’s Lives Matter organizer and journalist Ashley Love explains why they chose to hold their vigil outside the
CBC conference,
“All too often the media ignores or
belittles the epidemic of violence against Black women in the United States, even
more so when the victims are women of transsexual or transgender experience. Most
elected officials are reluctant to publically join the trans* community’s plea
for justice. Does the newly popular slogan ‘#BlackLivesMatter’ mean ALL Black
lives, or just some? Are the murders of our trans* sisters less worthy of
tears, of outrage - their humanity ‘less than’? We hold this vigil outside the
CBC Conference not to be confrontational, but so that those who we elected to
serve and protect us may feel more comfortable, and inclined, to join us in honoring
our fallen and in a Prayer for Peace to end the hate crimes against Black and
Latina women in the trans* communities.”
TGI Justice Project’s Executive Director, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, is a community
icon who was inside the famed Stonewall Inn the night the historical Riots of
1969 erupted, which launched a global revolution for human rights. In expressing her support of BTWLM's campaign
she says,
“As an elder in the Black trans
community I have befriended, loved and then buried too many of my trans sisters
over the decades due to hate based violence. Half of us are unjustly gone and yet
we still can’t get the powers that be to call out this terrorism for what it is. In
reality, Stonewall was a revolutionary riot in response to extreme brutality,
not a whitewashed basket of happy rainbows or vanilla flavored wedding cake. Jim Crow is not dead; it just has a new mask.”
Veronika Fimbres is a Black trans* woman who was the
first ever trans* person to hold office in the City and County of San
Francisco, and is currently a San
Francisco Pride board member. In voicing her support for BTWLM she says,
“Elected officials have an ethical responsibility to work in the best interests of all their constituents, even those who have less social acceptance and privilege than others. After the Trayvon Martin tragedy, and now with Ferguson, many Black politicians and activists spoke out and rallied for justice. Yet why do we generally hear silence from them when it’s Black trans women who are murdered? #AllBlackLivesMatter!”
“Elected officials have an ethical responsibility to work in the best interests of all their constituents, even those who have less social acceptance and privilege than others. After the Trayvon Martin tragedy, and now with Ferguson, many Black politicians and activists spoke out and rallied for justice. Yet why do we generally hear silence from them when it’s Black trans women who are murdered? #AllBlackLivesMatter!”
Yes, #BlackLivesMatter, and we humbly
pray that also includes #BlackTransWomensLivesMatter
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