As a collective that is committed to gender inclusion and social justice, Queer Odyssey stands in solidarity with the Black community who has this week and throughout history experienced great loss due to systemic racism.
We honor all the lives lost recently as well as over time, including the recent killing of Tony McDade, a black transgender man who was killed by Tallahassee Police on Wednesday, May 27, 2020. As we fight for a gender inclusive world in which all young people feel seen, safe, and supported, we cannot ignore the impact of racism and transphobia in our society.
We join other LGBTQ2IA+ organizations in uniting to combat racial violence.
We encourage all of you to take action, in whatever way you can. It is the responsibility of us all.
Many organizations have made progress in adopting intersectionality as a core value and have committed to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. But this moment requires that we go further — that we make explicit commitments to embrace anti-racism and end white supremacy, not as necessary corollaries to our mission, but as integral to the objective of full equality for LGBTQ2IA+ people.
We recognize we cannot remain neutral, nor will awareness substitute for action. The LGBTQ2IA+ community knows about the work of resisting police brutality and violence. We celebrate June as Pride Month, because it commemorates, in part, our resisting police harassment and brutality at Stonewall in 1969 New York City, and Compton's Cafeteria Riot August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California, when such violence was common and expected. We remember it as a breakthrough moment when we refused to accept humiliation and fear as the price of living fully, freely, and authentically.
We understand what it means to rise up and push back against a culture that tells us we are less than, that our lives don't matter. Today, we join together again to say #BlackLivesMatter and commit ourselves to the action those words require.
We thank Gender Spectrum & @equalityflorida for language to support our statement.
Follow @queerodyssey instagram & check https://linktr.ee/queerodyssey for current anti-racism resources and reading. More at queer odyssey.org
ACTION STEPS
Lastly, we offer a list of action steps for our white supporters to take, guiding you toward how to get more involved in this movement. Thank you for reading, and for getting involved!
READ
White Supremacy Culture https://www.cacgrants.org/assets/ce/Documents/2019/WhiteDominantCulture.pdf
DONATE
Black Visions Collective: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
Movement for Black Lives (M4BL): https://m4bl.org/
JOIN
Your local SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) chapter: https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/
CALL
White voters and urge them to support racial justice and hold elected leaders accountable:
SHOW UP
To local actions that are organized and led by BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) organizers and community members.
LETTER FROM YOUTH PASSAGEWAYS
Our prayer at Youth Passageways is a world where all young people are supported on the path to adulthood. Right now, today, young people are in the streets and on their devices. We see you taking your courage, and you are truly making the world a better place with your bold action. Thank you for continuing the struggles of our ancestors.
Our work as a network is to “lovingly add young people to the hearth of community,” to paraphrase an African proverb. We know that this is impossible when siblings, parents, friends, relatives are being killed by police, and when the threat of violence, from the state and from those initiated into hate, looms daily. We call on our partners in emboldened and sustained action in defense of Black Lives. In equal measure, we call on our partners as sources of refuge, healing, and meaning-making as we move into an unknown future.
As a network, we uplift the policy demands of the Movement for Black Lives. We commit to strengthening our work around divesting from law enforcement and the criminal injustice system and toward youth development, and further amplifying and centering our partners hard at work in communities deeply impacted by police violence. We remain vigilant toward the true threats to our unity.
The current systems of power are not built for cultures rooted in trust, reciprocity, and care. As we call forth the world we want to live in, we must rely on each other, and the power we share in connection with one another, our ancestors, and the Earth we share with all Life.
In love and rage,
the Youth Passageways Leadership Circle (Marisa, Kruti, Dane, and Darcy)
P.S. We are a network of care. Those of us holding the center of Youth Passageways are here to share resources, build connections and do our part to respond to the calls of our partners. We know this is what strengthens and uplifts us all. Please ask for what you need and offer what you can, whether that is through our survey, social media, or via phone call.