People of color initiate Trans Day of Action
By
LeiLani Dowell
New York
Published Jun 22, 2005 10:27 PM
Trans and gender
non-conforming (TGNC) people of color and their allies will march here on Friday, June
24, in an historic event to protest the injustices that trans and gender
non-conforming people face on a daily basis, and demand social and economic
justice for all people.
People of color are pioneering this effort. In the
fighting spirit of Stonewall, the first annual Trans Day of Action for Social
and Economic Justice has been initiated by TransJustice, the first and only
trans and gender non-conforming people of color project in New York City, to
call attention to the needs of TGNC and working people.
TransJustice is
an outgrowth of the Audre Lorde Project, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit,
and trans people of color center for community organizing. Coincidentally, its
march is being held on the same day as the second annual Trans March in San
Francisco. Organizers plan to issue a joint solidarity statement linking both
events.
The need for such an action is great. The National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force’s Transgender Civil Rights Project reports that only
six states have anti-discrimination laws that explicitly include the trans
community. And the Trans Day of Remem brance website reports that this year
alone, 10 murders of trans people have been reported—more than one a
month.(www. gender.org/remember/day/who.html)
Yet the organizers of the
march are quick to note that the issues facing all working people are of concern
to TGNC communities as well, including poverty, war and racism.
The call
for the Trans Day of Action has garnered widespread support, including
endorsements from New York City Council person Charles Barron; Al-Fatiha, NYC
Chapter; Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, San Francisco; Brazilian
Rainbow Group, Inc.; Center for Consti tutional Rights; FIERCE! Fabulous Inde
pendent Educated Radicals for Commu nity Empowerment; Gay & Lesbian Domin
ican Empowerment Organization; INCITE! Women of Color Against Vio lence;
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission; Jews for Racial and
Economic Justice; San Francisco Pride; San Romero de las Américas Church,
NYC; Southerners On New Ground; Florida Gender Equality Project; Indigenous
Peoples Solidarity Movement, Montreal, Quebec; Internation al Action Center;
Network/La Red: Ending abuse in lesbian, bisexual women’s and transgender
communities, Boston; Troops Out Now! Coalition; Workers’ Rights Law Center
of New York; Youth Enrichment Services of the LGBT Community Center; and
others.
Reasons for Day of Action
Following are excerpts from
the call:
“Communities of color have histories that are rich with
multiple gender identities, experiences, and expressions, but today the
two-gender system is enforced against us everywhere: in health care,
immigration, bathrooms, clothing, shelters, prisons, schools, government forms,
job applications, and identity documents.
“Gender policing has
always been part of America’s bloody history. State-sanctioned gender
policing targets Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) people first by
dehumanizing our identities. It denies our basic right to gender
self-determination, and considers our bodies to be property of the
state.
“Gender policing isolates TGNC people from our communities,
many of which have been socialized with these oppressive definitions of gender.
As a result, we all too often fall victim to verbal and physical violence. This
transphobic violence is justified using medical theories and religious beliefs,
and is perpetuated in order to preserve America’s heterosexist values.
Gender policing and violence denies our existence and is used to maintain
control over us and keep our communities divided.
“The specific
issues that TGNC people of color face mirror those faced by the broader
communities of color in NYC: police brutality and harassment; racist and
xenophobic immigration policies; lack of access to living wage employment,
adequate affordable housing, quality education, and basic healthcare; and the
impacts of U.S. imperialism and the so-called U.S. “war on
terrorism” being waged against people at home and abroad.
“These issues are compounded for TGNC people of color by the fact
that homophobia and transphobia are so pervasive in society. As a result, our
community is disproportionately represented in homeless shelters, in foster care
agencies, in jails and prisons.
“On April 2002, the city of New York
passed a non-discrimination law that included gender identity as a protected
category under the city’s human rights law, yet it took the Bloomberg
administration two years to create and release an inadequate set of guidelines
to define what this meant. Meanwhile, TGNC people continue to experience high
levels of violence and harassment everywhere we go.
“Across the
country, people of color communities face high levels of unemployment. For
example, it is widely known that in 2005 the unemployment rate for Black men in
NYC is now at 50 percent. We can only deduce that the percentage of unemployment
for TGNC people of color is likely to be much higher, since there is hardly any
New York State employment data for our community. Due to the lack of employment
opportunities, many of us are forced to accept work that is criminalized by the
government, stigmatized by society and offers very little
safety.
“The anti-immigrant REAL ID act not only blatantly violates
the rights of immigrants, but also has a direct impact in the lives of all TGNC
people. This is especially relevant for people of color, who since 9/11 have
experienced rising levels of policing and scrutiny from state agencies such as
the Department of Motor Vehicles and Social Security. TGNC people are portrayed
as frauds and potential so-called “terrorists,” then targeted or
denied rights.
“The police, as agents of the government, have
brutalized and murdered multitudes of people in our communities in the past few
years. Many of them are people of trans experience, who have had no recourse
because the violence perpetrated against them was, and still is,
state-sanctioned.
“As Trans and Gender Non-Conforming people of
color, we see that our struggle today is directly linked to many struggles here
and around the world. We view the June 24 Trans Day of Action for Social and
Economic Justice as a day to stand in solidarity with all peoples and movements
fighting against oppression and inequality.
“We also view this
action as following the legacy of our Trans People of Color warriors, such as
Sylvia Rivera and others who with extreme determination fought not only for the
rights of all trans and gender-nonconforming people, but also were on the front
lines for the liberation of all oppressed peoples.
“In this spirit,
we as Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Peoples of Color call on all social
justice activists from communities of color, lesbian, gay, bi and trans
movements, immigrant rights organizations, youth and student groups, trade
unions and workers organizations, religious communities and HIV/AIDS and social
service agencies to endorse this call to action and to build contingents to
march in solidarity together on June 24. With this march we commemorate the
lives of those who came before us, and honor the courage of all communities that
continue to struggle and fight for liberation and self-determination every
day.”
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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