BLM Statement: It's Time! Putting The T Back In Black

In case some of you were wondering if #BlackTransLivesMatter to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, based on this statement and a previous comment from BLM co-founder Alicia Garza, the answer would be an emphatic YES!

The 'T' has always been part of the Black community.  It's just taking some people time to let that concept sink into their nappy headed craniums.

But I'll let you TransGriot readers peruse it for yourselves.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2015
It's Time! Putting the T Back in Black

It is time we accept that state sanctioned violence is much more than police brutality. In the wake of 5 beautiful trans women losing their lives, just last week alone, we are full of grief. These terrible happenings are a result of the many factors that place black trans women in so much risk just by leaving our homes, if we even have homes to begin with. It is far past the time to shut shit down for black trans folks the same way we shut shit down for cis black men.

Black trans women have consistently resisted against anti blackness, patriarchy, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and white supremacy by being a model of unapologetic truth. Black resistance doesn’t belong to just one group of black people it belongs to us all. We believe that in order to get free we must all get free. Black trans folks getting free isn’t up for debate.


We ask that you commit to learning the names of your sisters who have been murdered. We ask that you learn the names of your sisters who are fighting for your lives just as much as we are fighting for ours. We need more from our black cis counterparts. We need you to show up for the simple fact that black people are dying at the hands of this violence. When a black trans woman's body is found burned in a field, and there is no outrage from the community, it sends the message to us, and to everyone else that there is no value in our existence. That black trans women are fair game.

#BlackLivesMatter has consistently been supportive and in collaboration with black trans folks and especially with Black trans women. We have spent time developing principles,developing analysis,and creating deep practice that is full of love. There’s no action without practice. The time has come for us to practice what we have created. The time is now to resist in honor of Marsha P. Johnson. Islan Nettles. Cemia Dove. Amber Monroe. Penny Proud. Ashley Sherman and so many others. The time is now to join #BlackLivesMatter in action as we celebrate our sisters who are living- the very sisters who have fought next to us to sustain this declaration that has been heard around the world.


We don't show up and show out for cis black people for accolades, or to insure that they show up for us. We have shown up for cis black folk because we know “that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We show up for cis black folk because as a black person, we know that if they will kill my siblings, they will kill us. We have shown up for black cis people when black cis people are contributing to the violence we face as black trans women. We have shown up for Black cis folk when the face of violence for a black trans woman is often a black cis man. No longer can we move through society ashamed of the trans people who come from us. Before we were trans, before we were queer, before we were anything we were black. Our Black Lives Matter whether you are ashamed or not.


The creation of #SayHerName was not just a hashtag, it is a call to action. It is the demand that we hold space for our most marginalized. We urge that in our time of great collective grief, we take the time to process and feel but also uplift the black trans women who are still living. Reach out to your black trans sisters, remind us that we are loved and sustain that love through service to our empowerment. Be with us in protecting black trans lives. Build community with black trans women. Uplift black trans leadership. Extend humanity and love to black trans women. Be with us and be of service. We might as well stop fighting, if we can't show up for the people in our community who need us the most.

We have all been called to take bold direct action by black trans women. That action is more than a retweet or share of the names of black trans women who have been murdered but to organize with vigor in solidarity. We are calling for support from all #BlackLivesMatter chapters,and all black organizers committed to black liberation to join us in our fight towards liberation this Thursday, August 20th, 2015 at 6pm PST/ 9pm EST for a National Call of Solidarity to take action for our lives. Please register for the call using this link:
https:// myaccount.maestroconference.com/register/6XEVMRMZ0H206MHW

In Black Revolutionary Love,

Elle Hearns, Ahya Simone, Aaryn Lang
Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi
#BlackLivesMatter

#BlackLivesMatter Founder FB Statement On Trans Murders

I had the pleasure of meeting during #CC15 the #BlackLivesMatter founding trio of Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometti .  We had an interesting and substantive conversation about the BLM movement and where trans peeps fit in it.

FYI, meeting people like them is why I want to attend if possible #CC16 in Chicago this coming January. 

In the wake of this unprecedented bloody week for US trans people.(I'd need another post to tell you what's going on in Brazil), and being asked what is BLM's stance concerning what is on pace to be the worst year ever since we started tracking them for trans murders in the US, Alicia Garza put out a statement on her Facebook page concerning this problem that is at state of emergency status.

And enough chatter from me, here's Alica's statement.

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Shade Schuler. Papi Edwards. Lamia Beard. Ty Underwood. Yasmine Payne. Taja Gabrielle de Jesus. Penny Proud. Kristina Gomez Reinwald. London Chanel. Mercedes Williamson. India Clarke. K.C. Haggard. Amber Monroe. Kandis Capri.

These are the names of the trans women *reported* murdered since the beginning of the year. So many more go unreported. I call on all of us to say their names. Each one of these women should still be alive--but they are not because the lives of trans women are seen as disposable.

The average life expectancy of a trans woman of color is 35 years old. And yet even still, no state of emergency has been declared. Black communities are in crisis, and we declare that more than 13 murders of trans women, 5 of whom were murdered just this week, 11 of whom are of color and most of whom are Black, is indeed, a state of emergency.

State sanctioned violence is about much more than police violence. State sanctioned violence is the multiple forms of violence enacted against trans women of color, including exclusion from the economy, from services, from democracy. The murders of trans women alongside the multiple other forms of violence that trans women experience must be elevated to the level of conversation that the murders of cis Black men now occupy.

What that means is that it cannot constantly be the job of trans women to constantly remind us that their lives matter too. The liberation of Black people as a whole depends on the liberation of Black trans folks. None of us are free until all of us are free.

And Kandis Makes 15

This is getting out of control now.   This is the third Black trans woman killed or has had her death announced this week

This is 35 year old Kandis Capri of Phoenix, AZ.   She was shot to death on Tuesday and pronounced dead from the four gunshot wound she received at a Phoenix hospital.   Her purse and phone is missing, and her mother was notified by tight lipped Phoenix PD t 5:30 AM local time on Wednesday.

I say tight lipped because they haven't said anything about this case, the Phoenix media has been mute about it, and what I know about it I had to read an article in The Guardian with Kandis' mother Andria Gaines just to get the basics.that I've written here.

As of this writing Phoenix PD hasn't even published a number so that people with potential leads to solve this case an call either Crimestoppers or the detectives working the case.   But with Phoenix having some amazing activists in the area, hope that will change soon..

Kandis Capri makes number 15 in a year that is rapidly becoming a deadly one for US based trans women, and we still have 4r months to go.  far too many of those deaths have been overwhelmingly of Black and Latina trans women, and far too many of them this year have been under 30.

If #BlackTransLivesMatter Black America, prove it to me and your trans kin.  Sign the Fran Watson created White House We The People petition (that I have already signed) that seeks to begin a federal investigation into the anti-trans violence that is snuffing out far too many young Black trans people.

We have talents as trans people we can contribute to the greater African-American community and society.  But we can't do that if we're lying dead in a grave.

Rest in power and peace Kandis.

Missing NC Trans Woman Angel Elisha Walker's Remains Found

As if we trans peeps didn't have enough grief to deal with right now with two murders this week while awaiting confirmation from Phoenix about still another Black transwoman being killed, been advised courtesy of a QNotes story by Matt Comer that the remains of 20 year old trans woman Angel Elisha Walker were found Thursday after a search of a property in Johnston County, NC by law enforcement officials.

She disappeared October 30, 2014 while driving her 2000 silver Pontiac Sunfire westward from Salisbury, NC and was reported missing by her mother on November 11.  Walker's burned out car was found two weeks after the investigation began in Sampson County, NC.

Walker's remains were found by law enforcement officials at 7:30 PM EDT on a property outside Smithfield, NC in the woods behind a house there.

23 year old Angel Arias, a known member of the Latin Kings street gang, was arrested and charged with murder and felony larceny of a motor vehicle.   He is being held without bond in the Johnston County jail on unrelated drug charges pending a return to Rowan County.

Will be keeping an eye on his case as well to see if justice is served in it.   Rest in power and in peace Elisha.

H/T QNotes

We Mourn A 13th Trans Woman's Murder This Year

Another trans person has been murdered, and this time the scene shifts to my home state of Texas.

The 13th trans woman murdered this year is 22 year old Shade (pronounced like the singer Sade) Schuler, whose badly decomposed body was found in an open field July 29 near Dallas' medical district.

It took Dallas PD detectives nearly two weeks to positively identify her, and as you probably guessed  as per the pattern with murdered Black trans women, Shade was promptly misgendered in the local media.

FYI, the violator of the AP Stylebook standards for reporting on trans people this time was The Dallas Morning News.   The Dallas Police Department has also been guilty of misgendered Shade as well in their press releases.

With this now 13th murder, we have surpassed all the trans people killed in 2014, and once again, still have four months to go in this year.

Anyone with information on this Shade Schuler case is asked to call Dallas PD Detective Chaney in the Homicide Unit at 214-671-3650, and refer to case number 174511-2015. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 214-373-TIPS (8477).

And as usual, as I receive information concerning this latest murder of an under 30 trans woman of color we are now just finding out about, I`ll pass it on to you.

And the question I asked in the last post is still relevant today.  When will #BlackTransLivesMatter to you Black America?

Rest in power and peace, Shade.  We will not rest until justice has been served in your case.

Arrest Made In India Clarke Case

There has been an arrest made in the India Clarke case.

18 year old Tampa resident Keith Gaillard turned himself in to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office on July 28.  He has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, and one count of possession of a firearm.

Police investigators have declined to cite a motive in the case (transphobic hate) but believe that he knew the 25 year old Clarke, who was found dead on July 21 from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Detectives found a fingerprint on a cigar wrapper inside Clarke's car, and Gaillard's public Facebook profile allegedly showed him showing off a small-caliber revolver, the sheriff's office said. .

Will keep y'all updated as to whether justice is served in this case.

Another Black Trans Woman Killed In Florida

It is my sad duty to inform you once again that another Black trans woman has been murdered, this time in Tampa, FL.

25 year old India Clarke's body was found after the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department received a phone call at 9 AM EDT this morning from an employee at the University Area Community Center located at 14013 N. 22nd Street.   The employee reported that a deceased body was lying next to the basketball courts.

Clarke was last seen alive by her parents at their home on Sunday and as usual, the local media violated the AP standards for respectfully covering trans people by misgendered her.   Eric Glasser of WTSP-TV took his disrespectful reporting a step further by not only misgendering India, but putting  her chosen name in quotation marks, and aggravatingly injecting an old arrest.into this story.

Do you media peeps do that crap to white women and white people in general who are murdered?  I doubt it.  So why do you media peeps continue to racistly disrespect the lives of Black trans people by doing that BS?

If you live in the Tampa area, please pass along any updates concerning this case, arrest of suspects or pending funeral arrangements so I can post them on the blog.

India is now the tenth trans woman murdered in 2015, and what is pissing me off is that once again, the murdered trans person in question not only shares my ethnic background, but is under 30..

Once again I ask the question of my African-American cis brothers and sisters?  When will #BlackTransLivesMatter?   When will your trans brothers and sisters see ministers and politicians decry the loss of these lives as loudly as you do for cisgender Black people?

Detectives are asking for anyone with any information to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office at 813-247-8200.

My condolences to your family and friends who loved you.  Rest in power and peace, India.

TransGriot Update: A candlelight vigil in Clarke's memory is planned for Friday, 8 PM EDT at Lykes Gaslight Square in Tampa.

The Confederate Flag Represents A Heritage Of Hate

Been keeping up with the terrorist attack in Charleston, SC that led to the deaths of nine people at Mother Emanuel AME Church by white supremacist Dylann Roof.

It has been interesting to see how fast the conservafool media has been quick to revoke his white male card and try to disassociate themselves from the fact he was one of theirs, weaned on FOX Noise and other anti-Black hate speech.

First they tried to avoid even calling it a terrorist attack, but had to drop that attempted talking point when his anti-Black manifesto came out.  

Then it was the conservafool media trying to paint Roof as a `lone wolf`, `disturbed`,`mentally ill`, et cetera.

Nope, he`s a ` Real American` and all yours.  Deal with the consequences of pushing nonstop anti-Black hatred for fun and political advantage combined with lax gun laws leading to dead Black people.

Now that it has also resulted in renewed attention on the Confederate flag as a symbol of hate that needed to die 150 years ago, we hear the whining coming from groups like like the Sons of Confederate Veterans trying to pimp that `Heritage Not Hate` BS.

Don't even try it.  The Confederate flag not only represented a group of traitorous states that fomented an armed rebellion against the US government, they did so for the sole purpose of keeping my people perpetually enslaved.

You are still bitter you lost 'The War To Perpetuate Slavery`and have been taking your Civil War defeat out on Black people ever since.

And when my people began to march against unjust Jim Crow laws in the 1950s and 1960s, you unfurled that flag across the South as a big middle finger to us and the country.  You rallied around that racist flag in order to don pointed white hoods and conduct terrorist attacks aimed at Black people an intimidate righteous white people into silence.

That flag has a 150 year heritage of hate, and it is past time that it be consigned to the dustbin of history.  It is also past time we tell the truth about that flag being anything but honorable.

And Now There Are Eight...RIP London Chanel Allen

After the initial flurry of trans women that were killed in the first two months of 2015, things had gotten quiet on that front in the United States until today.

News stations in Philadelphia are reporting that 21 year old London Chanel Allen was stabbed tin the back and neck after a fight between her and her 31 year old attacker that occurred in an abandoned rowhouse on North Philadelphia at 12:40 AM EDT in the 2200 block of Ingersoll Street

She was rushed to Hahnemann University Hospital where she was pronounced dead just after 1 AM., police said.

"My heart goes out to her family, friends and the community as we mourn her death," said Nellie Fitzpatrick, Director of LGBT Affairs for the City of Philadelphia. “I know that the police department will work tirelessly to fully investigate the case."

Allen had a Texas connection.  She was born in Victoria, just 127 miles southwest of Houston and moved to Philadelphia several years ago.   She'd reconciled with her mother Veronica Allen, was in the process of getting her name change done and moving back to Texas when she was murdered

“She was going to go to court to change her name and then she was going to come home," Veronica Allen said. “That’s what we were working towards, but that man took it away from me."

A candlelight vigil is set to be held this Friday at that location, and a bank account has been set up to collect funds to pay to return  London's body back to Texas for burial

But once again, we sadly have another young trans woman of color dead before her 25th birthday.

RIP London

TransGriot Update:  31 year old Raheam Felton has been arrested and charged with London's murder.

Third Anniversary Of Trayvon Martin's Death

Today is the third anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman.

February 5 would have been his 20th birthday, and I would hazard a guess that today is just as hard on his parents as his birth date is.  It's even harder when less than a day ago the Department of Justice announced that they wouldn't be pressing charges against Zimmerman for Trayvon's murder.

Zimmerman may have gotten away with murder, but for all intents and purposes he's earned a life sentence in which he'll have to constantly look over  his shoulder to see if someone's going to do unto him what he did to Trayvon.

Rest  in power Trayvon.

Happy 20th Birthday Trayvon!

As I was getting prepared to leave my hotel room and get ready for the NBJC The Black Institute here at #CC15,  it hit me that today would have been the 20th birthday for Trayvon Martin if his life hadn't been cut short by that waste of DNA George Zimmerman.

So what would Trayvon be doing to celebrate his 20th birthday today?   Would he have been doing so in his college dorm room?   Would he have spent a quiet day surrounded by his parents and close friends?

We'll never know the answer to that question because a racist bully with a fetishistic attachment to guns ended his life.  

And since that racist jury set Zimmerman free, the massive mistake they made not throwing his ass in jail has become apparent to the entire world.

We do know the pain that Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin feel over their son's loss will be magnified today along with all the people who knew and loved Trayvon.

Rest in power, Trayvon.  Your people are doing everything we can to help ensure that no more mothers like yours are mourning the untimely deaths of their children.  

We're also working hard to eradicate the odious Stand Your Ground Kill A Black Person With Impunity laws and remind America that #BlackLivesMatter..

We still have a lot of work to do to get to that point, but get there we will.