Transphobia At The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Love my sis Daroneshia Duncan, who as the founding executive director of the Birmingham based TAKE Resource Center,  has been doing some wonderful things getting the Birmingham and Alabama trans community the services they need and organizing them to own their power.

This weekend they hosted in Birmingham their first ever Alabama Trans Persons of Color caucus, and after the two days of empowering seminars and events, they took the attendees to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute on Sunday for a tour. 

Unfortunately Duncan posted an account of the visit on her Facebook page in which she stated that several of the attendees were constantly misgendered and harassed throughout their tour of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and a male employee took pics of them on his personal camera without their consent. 

When he was asked why, he tried to use his alleged status as a godchild of the late civil rights warrior Rosa Parks as a human shield for his problematic behavior.

Sinseriti Starr asked to see a BCRI manager to express her dissatisfaction with how their group was treated, and she and the TAKE group was approached by an all cis male security staff, disrespectfully told no manager was on duty and to immediately leave the Birmingham Civil  Rights Institute building.

And nope, Moni ain't happy hearing about that.

One thing they are going to learn at BCRI is to not piss off and disrespect my Magic City family

It seems as though the BCRI has embedded transphobia in their midst they need to address with their staff.   When Duncan posted about their less than pleasant experience at the BCRI, another person responded that the same thing happend to a youth group she was chaperoning several years ago .

One thing they also need to learn is that Black trans people are Black people.   We didn't forfeit our Black Cards or Blackness when we transitioned, and that Civil Rights Movement history is history we are immensely proud of.

We are also perusing that history in order to replicate the success of the African American Civil Rights movement into the trans rights one.

Another lesson they will get taught and hopefully learn is that you will treat Black trans people with the same dignity and respect you would demand for yourself,

And you will learn that lesson starting today.