Hello readers I hope you feel so happy as equality has prevailed in the USA! Now not all equality just marriage equality meaning LGBTQIA or two spirit as they would say in many Indigenous tribes, folks can get married in all 50 states so they choose. Now of course this new ruling is a celebratory time but not all LGBTQIA people are included into this vote.
Take LGBTQIA of color. First off take the fact that you’re black and all the crazy things going on in your life right now from police brutality to church shootings to the confederate flag coming down and then being put back up. Crazy women trying to be black and cultural appropriation. Then take being Latino in these times. They have to deal with police brutality and stop and frisk too as well as the immigration issue and being undocumented which means they might not even get to marry legally gay or straight. Then both have to deal with the high incarceration rate and the brutality and sexual harassment in the prison system. Plus as a person of color we are predominantly left out of the conversations when it comes to LGBTQIA issues as if they don’t pertain to us. Oh and take the black community as a whole which defiantly has some work to do in this realm just take Empire as a good example. So when it is hard enough for people of color to deal with these issues, to be LGBTQIA on top of it is just icing on the cake of injustice.
Religion. Now I don’t wanna go bashing people’s religion believe what you want but I will say that outside of a persons home or school their place of worship is the next place that will pass judgment on your way of life. Now that LGBTQIA people can marry some religious folk are like well time to move to another country and oh now I have to set myself on fire like the nuts you guys are. Oh and then there is Westboro Baptist Church but there kind of self explanatory. And in most religions its frowned upon to be anything but straight which is just stupid.
Homeless/Suicidal & Bullied LGBTQIA youth. Take coming from a home where you come out to your parents or family and they through you out just for being you. So you end up on the streets with nowhere to go no safe haven which can lead some youth to do some crazy scary things to get by like selling themselves, selling drugs or killing themselves. Speaking of killing themselves all over the country and world for that matter homosexual youth attempt to kill themselves and even sadder is that a lot of them succeed by hanging, shooting, taking pills etc. The fact that these youth feel so uncomfortable in their own skin by the people who are supposed to love them or the mean people at their schools that they would take their own life is so messed up. Just for being a boy who likes boys or a girl who likes girls or identify with a different gender then you were born with or are non-gender conforming. It’s all so wrong but it does get better.
Transgender-Inequality. Ok so yes marriage equality was passed into law but what does that do for transgender folks. Most transgender people don’t have the same rights as there LGB sister and brothers especially those of color. With police brutality running ramped in this country among black and brown people and a lot of them are transgender. Oh and take transgender folk in general they already can’t walk down the street at night especially in big cities without being accused of being prostitutes. For more on these issues please watch the documentary the T-Word done by the lovely human Laverne Cox and MTV where she goes into the life and struggles of some transgender youth. One poor girl was an in foster care then ended up homeless for a little while before getting the money for a place. Then she was walking down the street in New Orleans at night and a guy raped her and beat her. When she went to the doctor to get checked once they found out she was transgender she was automatically seen as a prostitute and not treated the same way. Cases like this happen all the time for transgender womyn as they are raped, beaten and killed just for exiting and will end up in jail for fighting back.
Food. Featured on the website ThinkProgress.org an analysis from the Williams Institute, shows that LGBTQIA people are more likely to struggle with hunger then the general population. They suffer from “food insecurity” contrary to stereotypes, where 29 percent of LGBTQIA adults experienced a time when they could not feed themselves or their families. Also homosexuals are 1.3 times more likely to use food stamps, if they have children are 1.8 and if they are under the age 18 are 2.1 times more likely to receive food stamps. LGBTQIA of color experience a similar inequity with 37% of black people, 55% of Native Americans, 78% of Native Hawaiians experience food insecurity compared with 23% of white males. I came across this article written by a Queer Person of Color (QPOC) Toi Scott about the need for black and brown people of color having a say in the food movement. They say that although they’re making policies with what they think is helping the communities of color it’s widely done without the input of those people who live there. Toi says that POC need to start going back to the old ways as a community and cooking with each other, getting payed to grow food and starting black and brown owned co-ops. They say it may seem like a hard thing to do when most of this people are struggling but can be done as there are many people and organizations already doing it. Toi Scott says we already have the answers to our problems.
In many Indigenous communities all over the world the homosexual community has been considered to be very special in their history. In many First Nations in Turtle Island (USA) gays, lesbians and transgender where considered two-spirits meaning they loved a same gender person or identified with both female and male gender roles so two-spirit was like a third gender identity. They have a very similar gender identifier in the Hawaiian culture called the Middle person meaning they are in the middle of womyn and man and are the keepers of the culture.
Also gender pronouns and how we call an LGBTQIA person is important too. I was recently at a permaculture retreat where there where a lot of gender neutral folks or folks who wanted to be called by a certain pronoun like “they or them instead of womyn or man.” We had a circle where we all went around and told what we wanted to called during our time there. It took a little bit of getting used to as I am very used to calling people “she or he or her or him” but gave me a great perspective on gender pronouns.
Not too harsh on yawls buzz but you know me I’m a realist and so as happy as I am for this community, it’s pretty sad when you think of all the work that still needs to happen but it can get done I know it. There are amazing celebrates, tv shows, music, organizations and everyday people making these issues come to light as they are important to help fight these injustices and help truly have equality for all LGBTQIA in the world!
So I close with on this last day of National Pride Month, Happy Pride Month and Congratulations to those in this country who can now legally marry and have all the rights as some of us! #LoveWon
Videos:
Music:
http://m.mic.com/articles/107488/16-lgbt-musicians-who-are-shattering-stereotypes-and-making-it-big
http://www.out.com/entertainment/music/2013/06/18/38-queer-black-musicians
Organizations:
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
http://unitedwedream.org/about/projects/quip/
Articles:
http://www.npr.org/2015/06/28/418327652/after-marriage-equality-whats-next-for-the-lgbt-movement
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/26/same-sex-marriage-is-legal-now-what.html
http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/02/02/op-ed-why-black-lives-should-matter-all-lgbt-people
http://planettransgender.com/trans-people-ban-together-and-ask-can-you-stop-killing-us-for-one-week/
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/06/25/exclusive-i-interrupted-obama-because-we-need-to-be-heard/
http://drmactioncoalition.org/how-lgbt-and-immigrant-rights-progress-together-undocuqueers/
https://www.au.org/resources/publications/the-religious-rights-war-on-lgbt-americans
http://www.advocate.com/politics/2015/05/26/why-cant-we-talk-about-homophobia-black-community
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/02/21/3317421/lgbt-food-insecurity/
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/top-5-lgbt-issues-2015 (well 4 now)
Click to access GLAAD-2014-WWAT.pdf
http://blogs.indiewire.com/bent/readers-poll-the-25-most-important-lgbt-television-series-20140610
https://atomic-temporary-67213700.wpcomstaging.com/2014/06/01/happy-national-pride-month-%f0%9f%92/
The Life & Times of Ice 