Protect Black LGBTQ Lives
I wrote through the draft of this post like 8 times because I noticed how my language changed to from me just laying all the facts out to you, to me angrily typing out how mad I am that these stats even exist because we’ve not only failed the LGBTQ community, but we’ve especially failed the Black LGBTQ community. And it’s heartbreaking.
Firstly, before I just inundate you with stats and historical facts about why it’s important to AMPLIFY and RECOGNIZE Black LGBTQ lives, I want to do a little storytime on an incredible leader involved in the LGBTQ Movement in America. Her name is Marsha P. Johnson.
Marsha P. Johnson was an American Gay Liberation Activist and Drag Queen, and it’s because of voices like hers that the Stonewall movement of 1969 advanced to its success. Also, ok, before I talk about her awesome activism work, I really want to point out how fkng cool it is that she said the P. in her name stood for “Pay No Mind”. I love it. But yes, okay, so Marsha’s activism work was incredible because she moved so many people both before and after her death in 1992. Her name first came into the spotlight for her role in the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, where she and other Gay Rights Activists where on the vanguard against the police resistance throughout the riots.
After Stonewall, Johnson continued her activism work through her leading role in Gay Liberation Front, and she was also active in the GLD Drag Queen Caucus. Yeah, she was arrested a few times, but each time she stood up and spoke out against the injustices she faced in the LGBTQ community.
She’s got movies and books and other graphics dedicated to her, so I definitely encourage you to read more about her story~
And next up, I’ll drop all the facts you need to know on why it’s so important that we Protect Black LGBTQ lives:
Below is from the Human Rights Campaign:
Since 2013, 89% of the victims of Anti-Transgender violence were People of Color
Also since 2013, 71% of the victims from the above statistic, where Black Trans Women
The estimated life expectancy of a Black Trans Woman is only 35 years old
Out of all the transgender or gender non-conforming people who were fatally shot or killed by violent means in 2019, 91% of them were Black Women.
From the National LGBTQ Task Force study on the Black LGBTQ Community:
Half of Black respondents who attended school expressing a transgender identity or gender non-conformity reported facing harassment.
Nearly half (49 percent) of Black respondents reported having attempted suicide.
On a positive note, many Black transgender people who were out to their families reported that their families were as strong as before they came out. Black respondents reported this experience at a higher rate than the overall sample of transgender respondents.
Black transgender people had an extremely high unemployment rate at 26 percent, two times the rate of the overall transgender sample and four times the rate of the general population.
A startling 41 percent of Black respondents said they had experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, more than five times the rate of the general U.S. population.
Black transgender people lived in extreme poverty with 34 percent reporting a household income of less than $10,000 per year. This is more than twice the rate for transgender people of all races (15 percent), four times the general Black population rate (9 percent), and eight times the general U.S. population rate (4 percent).
Black transgender people were affected by HIV in devastating numbers. More than one-fifth of respondents were living with HIV (20.23 percent), compared to a rate of 2.64 percent for transgender respondents of all races, 2.4 percent for the general Black population, and 0.60 percent of the general U.S. population.
From The Trevor Project, an amazing org dedicated to mental health in the LGBTQ community:
Black LGBTQ youth experience rates of depressed mood and suicidality similar to all LGBTQ youth.
Among Black LGBTQ youth in this sample, 66% reported depressed mood in the past 12 months, 35% reported seriously considering suicide in the past 12 months, and 19% reported a past year suicide attempt.
These rates are comparable those reported in the overall sample of LGBTQ youth.9 The significantly higher rates of suicidality among transgender and/or non-binary youth in the overall sample are also found among Black transgender and/or non-binary youth.
Black transgender and/or non-binary youth reported double the rate of seriously considering (27% vs 59%) and attempting suicide (15% vs 32%) in the past 12 months compared to cisgender Black LGBQ youth.
The proportion of transgender and/or non-binary youth seriously considering suicide in the past year was above 50% for each sub-group including transgender women, transgender men, non-binary youth assigned male at birth, and non-binary youth assigned female at birth.
Alright, so I’ve laid out all the stats for you— now what? Now, you give more of a shit than you gave coming into this post. You amplify Black LGBTQ voices. You create safe spaces for the LGBTQ community, and celebrate queerness. You vote for public officials who will advocate for this community. You do everything you can to make sure that you didn’t just do nothing after you were presented with harrowing statistics that showed you how in need this community is of your allyship.
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As with every post on here, I wanted to say that if you have any more resources that you would like to share with other readers, please comment them below, and I’ll make sure that they’re updated on this post with your credit.
Thank you.
