Good Morning & thank you for waking up with the Feminist Bubble. This is the maiden voyage of the Sunday Edition, a weekend newsletter saying hello to friends, feminist comrades, compadres, and familia. I want to take the time to give thanks for all the people who bring joy and happiness to my life, celebrate the present moment, and take note of the unique opportunities we encounter that inspire creativity and hope. Let us never take anything for granted, certainly nothing as so precious as the breathe of life.
This past week was an incredibly exciting and progressive week in the movement for full Women’s equality and Transgender rights. In California, across the United States, and dare I say, around the world, the People continue to mark Women’s history month by making Herstory. In Los Angeles, Feminists are coming out to inhabit and occupy the streets, marching and organizing for Women’s, Transgender, and Human rights. On the auspicious evening of March 15th, 2017, National Trans Day of Action, Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement (TQLM) organized a truly empowering event through the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Its quite the slightly surreal and thrilling sight to take up space with young Feminist activists and artists, chalking up the LA street intersections, stopping traffic, taking up space, and blocking metro line crossing. On black granite pavement, People scratched social media hashtags #ProtectTransWomen #BlackTransLivesMatter to generate conversation around the Trans Rights movement, create an online dialogue, and chart of course of action through cultural empowerment. Within a moment of time & space, we shut down the transportation system. And this wasn't no, oh we crashed the server, broke the internet kinda’ disruption. This was Action! This was We, the People, invoke our Constitutional Rights’ to shut it down. Literally. Sure once we made our mark on the concrete asphalt & messed with the city’s time table, the system was up & running easily with very little indifference. But perhaps a lasting impression.
Meeting on the Grand Park lawn in front of LA City Hall, Familia outlined the struggle that Women, their allies & accomplices, have been called to — the Liberation of Transgender & Gender Nonconforming People and recognition of their full humanity. To raise awareness & increase visibility of the Trans community, Familia: TQLM engaged in direct action at the intersections of community organization, political engagement, and performance art. Addressing a growing Sangha of engaged social warriors, Activists spoke of the discrimination & violence Trans People experience on their bodies, in their homes, on the streets, and within their communities. Already this year, the murders of at least 8 Trans Women of Color have been documented across the United States, targeted for violence by the state and those who fear their own masculinity threatened by the presence of an individual who chooses to express themselves outside of the labels that have been assigned to them at birth.
It takes a very brave, courageous, and altogether unique person (and growing number of children), to break out of the gender binary, and even more so when there are barriers at every corner attempting to repress, police, and censor sex & sexuality. It is imperative that on the outset of this revival of the continuous Women’s movement, that we collectively shift our paradigm from the left of feminist light center, to the radical margins of intersectional feminism. This means that the stories Women of Color — Black, Pink, Brown, Xicana, Afrikana, and Native Daughters — will take center stage. Their Voices, their needs, and their narratives will lead in the critical and cultural dialogues we need to be engaging with to progress into a fundamentally equal and just society.
Commencing our walk from the steps of iconic city hall & a hops distance from the historic LA Times building, we set out to stop traffic in its place & sing out our collective voices for liberty. Say Her Names call and response is a continuous thread that weaves the names of those stolen into a revelatory hymn.
Mesha Caldwell — Say Her Name!
Devin Diamond — Say Her Name!
Jaquarrius Holland — Say Her Name!
Tiara Lashay ‘the Boss’ Richmond — Say Her Name!
JoJo Striker — Say Her Name!
Jaime Lee Wounded Arrow — Say Her Name!
Chyna Doll Dupree — Say Her Name!
Ciara McElveen — Say Her Name!
Tragically, they, among so many others, have been disappeared, erased, and destroyed by intersecting systems of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. If their lives are not stolen in state violence, then they’re incarcerated within the inhuman machinery of the prison industrial complex. Mic Network reports that the average annual murder rate for young Black Trans Women is 1 in 2,600 compared to the risks of the general population at 19,000. Its a hard line to walk just for presenting & performing one’s most authentic self. Admitted, I am not a Transgender Woman, and my skin reflects the privilege of whiteness, so therefore the stakes are not as high in my danger & risk assessments. Yet, the fire for social justice enables me to hear, heed, read, and respond to the passionate calls to abolish all forms of social, systemic, and historical constructions of oppression. This is the work I believe we are called to, the only difference being the nature of our unique talents & gifts we bring to the space for healing & transformational work.
As we go about our days & in the upcoming weeks, I’d like to ask that we all make more space for people to be whoever they want to be. Make space for people to be able to most fully express themselves in their authentic truth of identity. Listen as they work to resolve their flaws & contradictions. Humanity is not a creature that was meant to be boxed, labeled, packaged, and sold on the shelves for the consumption of another. No. We are the Creators of our own identity, we define the nature of our own reality, and chart the direction of our future. We the People are engaged in a continuous act of self actualization in the revolution of our Truth. Create that space within Ü. Be that space for another to be safe in the comfort and protection of friendship & community.
To those out there, struggling to make it day to day in the skin you were born in, may healing transformation find a home in your miraculous body, bringing calm, clarity & abundance to your life. As Prince once reassured us all, We are Beautiful, Loved, and Blessed. Much Love & may the Greatest Peace know Ü. Happy Sunday.