A Letter to the Black Community Regarding our Trans and Queer Black People

Audre Lorde. Langston Hughes. James Baldwin. Barbara Jordan. Bayard Rustin. Willi Ninja. Marsha P. Johnson. Alvin Ailey. Richard Bruce Nugent. If you don’t know by now, these are all Black LGBTQIA+ historical figures who have paved the way for the culture and freedoms we all enjoy today. Ironically, the Black Community is hugely anti-LGBTQIA+, and for reasons too deep to dive into today -- ranging from the Black Community’s internalized misogyny, to slave masters using ‘buck-breaking’ as a way to control and dehumanize their enslaved men -- I’m just going to say that, despite those reasons, the Black Community needs to get it the fuck together.

There were over 20 deaths in 2019 in the Black Trans Community alone, and countless more in the other communities umbrella’d under the LGBTQIA+ acronym. None of them made national news, or even support from Black Twitter. Yet, as soon as a black man is unjustly murdered by the cops, everyone in the Black Community, including the Black LGBTQIA+ Community, rallies behind, and supports that black man. This is a gross inconsistency I’m tired of seeing.

The Black Community does the same thing to Black Women who are unjustly murdered, but, because cishet Black Women contribute to the dehumanization and exclusion of our Black Trans/Queer people, you all are equally at fault. Especially since Black Women are the chief organizers of these protests. And don’t act like there aren’t accounts of our Black Trans/Queer people talking about how horrible their mothers were to them, or even how their mothers let their significant others sexually and physically abuse them simply because they were Trans/Queer. You all should be ashamed.

Now back to the names I listed at the beginning. If it weren’t for the people listed, a lot of the freedoms we enjoy today would be nonexistent. Bayard Rustin was one of the chief organizers in you all’s beloved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s team. They organized the March on Washington. Barbara Jordan was the first person elected to the Texas Senate, then became the first woman and Black Person elected to Congress from Texas. Reading is fundamental; go read about your Black History, especially if you claim to be ‘Pro-Black’. How can you be ‘Pro-Black’ if your ‘Pro-Blackness’ is limited to cishet black men? Especially when Black Trans/Queer people paved the way for your Black ass to enjoy what you do?

This is peak stupidity, and I hate it. It is counter-productive and simply ignorant. It is the most uneducated and one of the most anti-black sentiments the Black Community harbors against itself. Do you really think you're going to win the war for your humanity against white supremacy while denying that humanity to your own people? If so, please go seek help from a licensed professional; you clearly have unresolved trauma that’s not allowing you to think and comprehend reality in a healthy way.

It’s simply not going to work and it doesn’t make sense. Black People being anti-LGBTQIA+ is as productive as a general of an army killing off their own soldiers, then, after reducing their soldiers to a quarter of what was originally there, continuing to wage war against an army four times their size. Unless that army has the glory of God and Heaven’s Angels behind it, which it does not, that army is committing suicide. It will not and does not work, and it doesn’t make sense because why are you so concerned about who is in whose bed, or what genitals a person has underneath their clothes? Any person who can’t help but express their disdain for people regarding such matters are creeps and perverted, and should also seek help from a licensed professional. It’s also undeniable self-entitlement to believe you have a say in how other people choose to identify or who they have sex with. Mind your fucking business, bitch. It’s as simple as that.

This is not the last letter to the Black Community pertaining to such matters. I anticipate so many more of our Black Trans/Queer people being treated poorly by the Black Community, and I anticipate having to write more letters to address the issue.

The Black Community needs to do better.

Azé