Black transgender women deserve credit for the state of LGBTQ progress today. usatodayopinion contributors RashaFierce and doliver8 take a look at why we owe Pride month to them. Pride2019
USA TODAYBlack transgender women are murdered at alarming rates. They have a bleak life expectancy between 35 and 37 years old, according to Julian K. Glover, an African American Studies doctoral student at Northwestern University and receive an average annual income of $10,000 — well below the poverty line. According to the Human Rights Campaign at the time of press, at least ten of them have been murdered already this year, and many more fear for their lives.
Many in the LGBT community credit transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson for throwing the first brick or shot glass that sparked the riots, though Johnson said she didn’t arrive at the bar until rioting was underway. Nevertheless, her role is hailed.
Molly Merryman, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at Kent State University, told USA TODAY that there's a host of other people often erased from the conversation too, like butch lesbians and young homeless men.According to the HRC, there were at least 26 murders of transgender people in the U.S. in 2018. Most were black transgender women.
“I’m afraid that one day there could be a victim and that victim could be me," Karleigh Chardonnay Merlot, a transgender activist and operator at the suicide prevention organization, Trans Lifeline, told USA TODAY."These murderers are committing these atrocities and then they're getting away with it," Peppermint said."The public is not rallying behind these trans women the way that we rally behind other folks, and it's really tough.
Representation in media has also helped elevate awareness of transgender people, from Olympian Caitlyn Jenner to author Janet Mock to FX's drag ball drama"Pose." According to the American Civil Liberties Union, at least 22 anti-trans bills have been introduced this year alone, including restricting health care access to laws that"prohibit certain gender dysphoria instruction in public schools."Peppermint says that we must work harder to uplift black transgender women not just during Pride, but all year long.
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