Dear friends,
In this week’s email I can share breaking news with all of you. Today, the Human Rights Campaign announced that we are suing the Trump administration over a new rule that would effectively sanction discrimination against LGBTQ people in their health care. This is the Human Rights Campaign’s first lawsuit as part of our new litigation practice.
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides critical civil rights protections, protections the administration has now eliminated through rulemaking. We cannot and will not allow Donald Trump to continue attacking us. LGBTQ people get sick. LGBTQ people need health care. LGBTQ people should not live in fear that they cannot get the care they need simply because of who they are. It is clear that this administration does not believe that LGBTQ people, or other marginalized communities, deserve equality under the law. But we have a reality check for the Trump-Pence team: we will not let this attack on our basic right to be free from discrimination in health care go unchallenged. We will see them in court.
But this is not all that I have to share with you today.
At this moment of great grief and transformation, our path forward is clear: the pursuit of justice. The pursuit of justice requires the dismantling of white supremacy and its unholy grip on the soul of our democracy. The pursuit of justice demands that we commit ourselves to the defense of Black lives and the declaration of the fundamental truth that Black Lives Matter.
As I shared in The Root, no person going forward can be indifferent to the cost of our racist systems on the Black minds and bodies that are brutalized or the Black lives that are shattered every day. And this challenge to confront indifference includes, by necessity, our Black transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming siblings. When we say Black Lives Matter, we must also mean Black Trans Lives Matter.
It is a shameful fact that for too long the LGBTQ movement has not done enough to protect, empower and listen to the transgender community — particularly those who are Black and Brown. This heartbreaking reality is compounded by the fact that our movement simply would not exist as we know it without transgender women of color and gender non-conforming people of color. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and countless others refused to bow before police brutality and oppression at Stonewall and changed our nation forever in the process.
What they were fighting for is the great struggle that we are still engaged in today. And we are fighting for a country that respects our dignity and fulfills the freedom that our Constitution professes to provide — liberty and justice for all. We are fighting for an end to an unjust system that was built with the goal of continued and perpetual oppression.
On Wednesday, I submitted a testimony to the House Judiciary Committee ahead of their hearing on the pressing issue of policing practices and law enforcement accountability -- calling on Congress to take rapid action to address the role of law enforcement in perpetuating systems of oppression against our most vulnerable people. It’s not enough that we reform the system. We must also dismantle the systemic and structural racism that lingers throughout our society.
It is a fight that necessitates showing up for the most marginalized and demanding an end to white supremacy. It is a fight that does not end this week, or this month or this November. But it starts with all of us taking action today in whatever ways we can. And it requires that all of us vote in November for a president who shares this commitment to action. Thank you for fighting alongside us, and thank you to all who have been leading us in this work. This is the work of justice and healing. And by working together, we will finally bring equality to the world.
Remembering and Honoring Pulse. Today, we come together to remember the lives of the 49 people — most of them young, LGBTQ and Latinx — killed in the attack at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016. In honoring their memory, we can never stop demanding action to address our nation’s epidemic of gun violence. That is why today, in partnership with Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, Giffords Law Center and Equality Florida, we released a new report highlighting the impact of gun violence on the LGBTQ community.
The report, entitled "Remembering and Honoring Pulse: Anti-LGBTQ Bias and Guns are Taking Lives of Countless LGBTQ People," notes that over 10,000 hate crimes in the U.S. involve a firearm each year, which equates to more than 28 each day. The report also notes a marked increase in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes, especially against transgender and gender non-conforming people.
From the tragedy at Pulse Nightclub four years ago, to the dozens of transgender and gender non-conforming people killed by firearms over the last decade, our community is under attack and needs reform to improve our well-being. This report outlines the problem at hand and provides strong recommendations for helping build a better, safer future for our community, one that is free from gun violence.
Black Trans Lives Matter. This week, two Black transgender women were killed -- Dominique “Rem'mie” Fells in Pennsylvania and Riah Milton in Ohio. This horrifying news comes the same week that we remember the 49 people gunned down at Pulse in Orlando, as millions continue to take to the streets to declare “Black Lives Matter,” and as a billionaire author with a gigantic megaphone continues to spout off transphobic propaganda to her millions of followers. Tragedy does not happen in a vacuum, and each of these events show how much work we still must do to ensure dignity and justice for all. These two women deserve to have their names known. As our country faces a long-overdue reckoning with the violence and indignities that Black people have dealt with for centuries, we must affirm that Black Trans Lives Matter. And we must do everything we can to ensure that we create policies and laws that lift up our transgender siblings, and communities where transgender people are not targeted for who they are. Today, we mourn alongside Dominique's and Riah's loved ones and call for all of us to confront transphobia.
J.K. Rowling. This week, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling doubled down in using her massive platform to spread anti-trans propaganda while refusing to respond to outreach by LGBTQ groups like the Human Rights Campaign. As one of the most famous women in the world and one whose work has inspired countless LGBTQ young people to imagine a world of acceptance and inclusivity, she bears an extra responsibility to ensure that her words do not do damage.
Trans women are women, and Rowling’s attempt to hide behind the mantle of trans-exclusive feminism hurts the trans, non-binary and feminist communities. Rowling’s words are inflicting harm on the transgender and non-binary communities, who are already among the world’s most marginalized and endangered populations. If she won’t listen to advocates about the harm she is causing, she does not deserve her platform. We join with millions around the world in condemning these remarks while upholding the truths these books have taught us: Love, compassion and bravery will always rise above hatred, bigotry and fear.
In Unity,
