TW: violence, murder
Today is the start of pride month. The first pride was a riot in 1969, started by Marsha P. Johnson and other poor trans and queer BIPOC. Marsha was a sexworker and homeless for years. Despite that she co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) to give homeless trans and queer youth a home, food, clothes and emotional support.
In 1992, shortly after the pride parade, Marshas body was discovered floating in the Hudson River with a massive wound in the back of her head. The police stated it was suicide, but Marshas friends and other LGBTQ+ community members were sure she wouldn’t have killed herself. She had also been seen shortly before getting harassed by a group of men and one person had seen her fighting with a man who called out homophobic slurs. Later that night he bragged about killing a drag queen named Marsha in a bar. According to locals, the police didn’t seem interested in investigating Marshas death and labeled her as a “gay black man”.
All of this happened almost 30 years ago, but it’s still relevant today because black people and trans people are still getting killed, the police doesn’t protect them like they protect white cis people or they even kill them themselves. They choked George Floyd over 5 minutes on the street and shot Breonna Taylor 8 times in the middle of the night in her own home, both were unarmed. They also shot Tony McDade and then refused to use his correct pronouns, causing the press to misgender him in most articles. People are rioting right now to end this violence, one protestor has been shot by the police already, and the news are mostly about how looting and burning stuff is bad. Killing people outweighs it by far, in my opinion. Just like the Stonewall Riots were necessary to get queer and trans people a voice and basic human rights, the riots right now are justified and necessary. Years of peaceful protests and campaigns and memorials changed nothing. Anger and frustration and desperation are all valid when people are not valued as people and killed, ignored and exploited because of it. They literally fight for their lives. #blacklivesmatter
de.construct 