The important position of Black trans girls within the civil rights motion – The Day by day Free Press

Hundreds of years of systemic injustice, from slavery to the Jim Crow Laws, inspired the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a transgender civil rights advocate. While Griffin-Gracy and other activists played an important role in the civil rights movement, they are not widely recognized for their contributions. Courtesy of QUINN DOMBROWSKI via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

As the United States continues this long struggle for racial equality with the Black Lives Matter movement, a reflection on the past reveals the influential activists who led these struggles. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and many others no doubt had roles in the civil rights movement, but the often forgotten role of black trans women was just as crucial – if not more important.

Adeline Gutierrez Nuñez, the assistant to the director of the BU Center for Antiracial Research, wrote in an email that learning about black trans women and their activism is essential and, unfortunately, is not done often.

“Women like Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy have been homeless and incarcerated, and these adversities have fueled their activism,” she wrote. “Learning about the history and importance of black trans woman leadership in our movement is crucial and just overdue.”

Martha P. Johnson – P for “Pay It No Mind” – became a mother figure for homeless LGBTQ + youth and was an integral part of the ’69 Stonewall riots. Johnson is seen by some as a catalyst for the US gay liberation movement.

Griffin-Gracy, also part of Stonewall, was a strong advocate for the civil rights of transgender people, especially trans women of skin color.

Black trans women were not only excluded from education and platforms, but also from movements themselves.

The Combahee River Collective grew up in Boston in the 1970s out of a need to stand up for black members of the LGBTQ + community and meet their needs. The group members were seen as outcasts left behind by other movements that did not prioritize their needs. So they gathered to be heard.

Although times have changed, this pattern of exclusion has continued in some functions.

Athena Vaughn, president of Trans Resistance MA, said the organization was first formed in June in response to the deaths of George Floyd and black trans women around the world.

According to the Trans Resistance MA website, the organization was created to offer trans people of color a platform separate from the Boston Pride Board and its “trans-exclusion” practices. Vaughn added that Pride also failed to acknowledge Black Lives Matter in their newsletter, which was also a cause for concern.

“We have found that whatever goes on in the church is not for us,” Vaughn said. “The power given to pride was given to pride by colored trans women … and the trans resistance was created to counter all hate.”

The organization comes from the Transgender Emergency Fund in Massachusetts, the only group in Massachusetts that supports unhodged and low-income transgender people.

Vaughn said Trans Resistance MA’s mission is to support colored trans individuals and provide them with safe spaces while responding to and resisting transphobic actions.

The founding of the organization coincided with a high rate of violence – more transgender and gender-abusive people were murdered in 2020 than in any other year since the human rights campaign began in 2013.

Vaughn said black trans women are “ostracized” for ignorance and lack of understanding, and people need to work consciously to educate themselves about what it means to be a true ally.

“Trans people, especially black trans women, are critical to a piece of civil rights,” she said. “We represent and look like what is going on in the world and who the world is.”

Black trans women and black individuals in general are vital to the civil rights movement, Vaughn said, because when King spoke about equality, he meant that we are all created equal no matter who you are.

“You can’t say ‘Black Lives Matter’, you can’t say ‘All Lives Matter’, you can’t say whatever people say when it comes to being the same and not trans people with color”, she said. “You cannot fight for one person and not for everyone.”