June 30, 2016

The 12th annual Trans Day of Action was held in New York City’s Washington Square Park on June 24. The major theme of this action, sponsored by the Audre Lorde Project, was “Uplifting the resilient legacy of TGNC [transgender, non-conforming] community power!” An estimated 2,000 people, mainly queer youth of all nationalities and their allies, took to streets in Greenwich Village following a short rally.

At this Trans Day of Action, less than two weeks since the tragic June 12 Orlando shootings, many carried signs with a strong Orlando theme. The ALP issued a statement on June 15 with these opening paragraphs: “We at the Audre Lorde Project are devastated by the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando which resulted in the murder of 49 queer and trans people (the majority of whom are Black, Latinx, and/or Afrolatinx), including Enrique Rios from Brooklyn. We send our deepest condolences to all of the families, lovers, and friends of the victims and all of the Southern queer and trans organizers who continue to fight for liberation in their name. We are with you in solidarity. We are constantly reminded that there is no separation from our need to heal and our need to organize for our continued survival. We need each other now more than ever.

“Our community in New York City is struggling today as we reconcile with the constant reality that we are considered disposable by a racist, transmisogynist, Islamophobic, and xenophobic country. From our experiences on the ground as an organizing center for and by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two Spirit, and Gender Non Conforming People of Color (LGBTSTGNC POC) we know that this massacre is not the exception, it is part of the economy of violence against LGBTSTGNC, Black people & People of Color, Indigenous people, and immigrants. It makes explicit what the institutions of war, prisons, detention centers, and the police teach our communities every day: that we were never meant to survive.”

Go to the ALP website at tinyurl.com/h3w4zy8 to read the entire statement.

(photo: Toni Arenstein)

(photo: G. Dunkel)