From Minneapolis to Stonewall: It is no exaggeration to describe it as an epidemic of racist violence
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From Minneapolis to Stonewall: “It is no exaggeration to describe it as an epidemic of racist violence”
Demonstrators representing New York’s Black and Brown, Transgender community protested racial injustice after the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. A crowd shouting “Black Trans Lives Matter" marched and blocked traffic on the major traffic artery of Greenwich Village and then rallied in front of the historic Stonewall Inn. Demonstrators carried signs showing faces of transgender people who have been killed by police or were murdered by white supremacist bigots — each activist spoke to the harm of erasing transgender voices.
The signs pointed out the unending rash of violence against trans individuals, particularly transgender women of color, citing the names of the dozen of trans people who have been murdered already this year — Dustin Parker, Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, Yampi Méndez Arocho, Monika Diamond, Lexi, Johanna Metzger, Serena Angelique Velázquez Ramos, Layla Sánchez, Penélope Díaz Ramírez, Nina Pop, Helle Jae O’Regan and Tony McDade.
The protestors rallied at Stonewall to commemorate June as Pride Month, and because it was there they resisted police harassment and brutality, when such violence was common and expected. The Stonewall rebellion was a breakthrough moment when as now protestors refused to accept humiliation and fear as the price of living fully, freely, and authentically.
