snap, solutions not punishment, trans women, trans lives matter, black trans women, atlanta, georgia

SNaP: MARCH 4 The Gurlz

Yesterday I conducted a short interview with the awesome ladies of Solutions Not Punishment Coalition (SNaP Co) in Atlanta, Georgia about the upcoming “March 4 the Gurlz” march and rally. Starting on Sunday, March 26 at North Avenue MARTA Station in Atlanta, the march will start at 3pm and will give way to the rally that starts at 4:30pm. [pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]March: NORTH AVE. @ 3pm | Rally: 4:30pm[/pullquote]

We all know that Black trans women are among the most marginalized demographics in the population, and  SNaP Co got started some years ago through an initiative to address that in Atlanta. As Kamau Walton, SNaP’s media director, describes it: the goal of SNaP is to discover and rally for actual solutions to problems facing Black and Brown trans women without punishment and criminalization. Another leader of the organization, Jamie Freya, said about the goals of the march and rally: “it’s gonna be a space to heal, to be celebrated, to be affirmed, to be uplifted. That’s what it’s really gonna give immediately.”

It’s extremely important to put your money where your mouth is and walk the talk. We need to stand by our Black trans sisters and listen to their concerns and proposed solutions. If we’re going to be a whole inclusive community, we can’t be dismissive of our most vulnerable. With as much as they contribute to–hell, jumpstart–the life of our queer culture (and mainstream culture if we’re being honest–“slay” being a word your grandma uses?) we must protect them at all costs. Not just because of the cultural and emotional labor they provide, but because we love them and care about them.

If you plan on attending the march and rally, check out SNaP’s Facebook page. If you can’t make it, go donate to their initiatives and work!

Whitewashing Stonewall: Why I’m Not Optimistic

If you’ve taken our Basic Stonewall Quiz, you’ll know all there is to know about the Stonewall riots that are regularly cited as the catalyst of all the progress we’ve made today. You’ll also know about the predominantly poor gender non-conforming majority of color being at the center of that. You’ll also know that leadership came in the form of Marhsa P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. That being said…

Why is #Stonewall being portrayed as having been led and sparked by a white cis man? Click To Tweet

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Volumes in Colour

We as black women are blessed with an adorning of power. We are strong, because by being black we are forced everyday to go to war with the ideas that introduce themselves and proclaim who we are as black women before a word or formality ever slips out of our lips. Our skin speaks. We ask it to let our lips do the talking, but it cannot, its position coated in histories of melanin- is firm. Read More

On Lowering “Misogynoiristic Expectancy” from a Gay Black Man’s Standpoint

In light of his phenomenal piece on Model View Culture, in which he broke down the ways in which online interactions almost always ends badly for the Black women and femmes involved due to the realities of hypervisibility and a plain ole “Open Season” that never seems to truly end (among other factors), I sit in awe of Riley H. and wonder what I can do to chill the f**k out and back the f**k up with regards to my online interactions with Black femme folk. Read More