Rainbows are not enough

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While many have joined the bandwagon of pride and rainbows, for many LGBTQ+ people, fear and violence continue to threaten their wellbeing.

It wasn’t until June 2020 that SCOTUS ruled that US workers cannot be fired for being homosexual or transgender. Police still regularly target queer spaces and discriminate against and criminalize LGBTQ+ people. And LGBTQ+ people face significant barriers within the healthcare system including harmful discrimination by insurers and providers.

Allyship is a verb. And when we understand that our wellbeing is bound, we know that there is “no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us”.

Rainbows are not enough. Do the work of dismantling the systems that made a riot necessary in the first place (actions below).

Kerri (she/her)

Art by @micahbizant

1. The defiant group of AIDS activists was itself riven by discord. What can the movement’s legacy, of both ferocity and fragility, teach us? How ACT UP changed America. [click to tweet]

2. In the same way that whitewashing absorbs historical struggles, rainbow capitalism exploits marginalized communities by turning them into markets and commodifying pretty much everything about every part of their lives. [click to tweet]

3. What if it’s not enough to be anti-racist? Why coalition, not ally-ship, is the necessary next step in the racial justice movement. [click to tweet]

4. Organizers are fighting for a world where policing won't tear families apart and steal the lives of Black parents' children. Why there’s no reproductive justice without an end to police violence. [click to tweet]

5. Two-Spirit traditions and their recent resurgence pack valuable lessons concerning gender, sexuality, and community. What it really means to identify as Two-Spirit in Indigenous culture. [click to tweet]

It’s not enough to post rainbows and celebrate pride. Cisgender and heteronormative folks need to show up and throw down 365 days a year. Here are some things to contemplate…:

• How are you advocating for the queer community beyond June?

• Do you buy from queer owned businesses? 

• Are you advocating in the workplace for policy changes?

• Are you educating yourself (and not asking for free labor as you get “woke)?

• Do you demand inclusive language, respect pronouns and support gender neutral bathrooms?  

….and do:

•  If you’re cis-gender or heteronormative, examine the privilege that comes with that

• Look up orgs that have supported anti-LGBTQ+ legislation 

• Hold corporations engaging in rainbow capitalism accountable

• Call your stage legislatures and representatives and tell them what you expect when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights. Here’s a helpful guide.

• Support to Black trans organizations

• Vote for people that represent the queer community and who have demonstrated bold action in support of LGBTQ+ rights like Rep Sharice Davids

• Support The Equality Act which provides federal legal protection against state led discrimination against LGBTQ+

Art by @graphicsandgrain

As of May 2021, at lease 30 anti-trans sports bills have been proposed or enacted in states around the country. If transgender girls playing girls sports makes you uncomfortable, here’s what you need to know:

1. These bills are not about professional sports, they’re about children. Legislatures have not jurisdiction over the NCAA, the Olympics or any professional sports. Rather, this is about controlling young bodies and reinforcing social constructs.

2. Trans women have not dominated sports. In fact, trans women have competed in sports for decades and there has been (quite literally) no domination. Trans people make up 1% of the population and are massively underrepresented in sports.

3. These bills threaten ALL girls. In order to exclude trans women you have to know which ones are trans, which means you must test them. That means any girl can e accused of being transgendered and then examined (which in some cases includes genital exams). The exclusion of trans girls leads to the destruction of girls sports in general through the enforcement of misogynistic and racist standards of girls bodies.

4. Trans people do not need our own division. Creating a separate division is othering and excluding of people based on their gender identity, which is by definition discriminatory. trans kids are kids and deserve to play and belong with other kids.

5. Most people (largely cis, straight men) don’t care about women’s sports. They don’t watch them, they don’t value them and they don’t advocate for them. If people really care about fairness in sports, then they would fight against the things that actually threaten fairness in sports - like equal pay, equal access, racism, sexism, ableism and misogyny.

Art and education by @pinkmantaray

In 2017, “WERK for Peace” activists staged a dance party at the home of US Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell in protest of proposed changes to US healthcare. Make joy is a revolutionary force.

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