How Black Trans Leaders are Paving the Way in Atlanta

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Oct 25

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“Give us space in order to grow. Give us space in order to transform. Give us space to be butterflies, so that we all can fly together.”

This quote from Toni-Michelle Williams, the Director of SolutionsNotPunishment Collaborative, illustrates the struggle trans and gender non-conforming people go through as a result of living within the confines of a heteronormative society. Williams is among the Black trans women in Atlanta organizing calls for policy change, and the decriminalization of gender. Her organization has successfully challenged anti-trans legislation, which she says has led to greater victories for the Atlanta trans community.

“We embody leadership development practices, direct action, and transformative campaigns that focus on policy changes affecting not only LGBTQ+ people, but all Black folks,” says Williams.

The fight for transgender liberation has been a decades-long process met with opposition, subordination, and persecution. This fight, spearheaded by Black and Brown trans organizers, aims to tackle the systemic demolition of the queer community. Day in and day out, trans people are targeted by the law. We experience severe hatred at both local and national levels. Our access to visibility is stifled by the most violent forces of society, telling us that we should not exist. This crisis, which has accounted for the murders of at least 18 Black trans women in 2019 alone, continues to plague our homes, our families, and our social institutions. It is for this reason that we have been fighting since the first brick was thrown at Stonewall. The fight continued on September 28th, with the first-ever National Transgender Visbility March on Washington D.C.

Organizers, like Toni-Michelle, mobilized nearly 3,000 people in a campaign to engage elected officials in a dialogue about the perils of our community. Hailed as a “therapeutic” experience, the march brought together trans people from across the country, ferociously crying out for equality and unity. It was a grand call of attention to the lack of conversation surrounding the murders of trans women, and most specifically Black trans women, in America.

“It’s a critical, political moment where we all have come to the point of similar longing. That’s a longing to belong; it’s a longing to be seen, heard, and to be able to be fully in our dignity” - Toni-Michelle Williams

Trans people are disproportionately affected by incarceration and poverty, which keeps the lesser privileged members of the community susceptible to violence. Nearly one in six transgender Americans—and one in two black transgender people—has been to prison. That is why in Atlanta civil action coordinators are arresting the attention of our local government and demanding better treatment for the city’s Black trans population.

The Racial Justice Action Center supports two organizing projects, Women on the Rise and the Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative.

“We have done amazing work in the city. We got reform back in 2014, when there was a banishment ordinance proposed that would banish trans folks, and specifically Black trans sex workers, from the city of Atlanta. SNaP Co formed as a coalition, which has grown tremendously in the past 5 years” (Williams).

Since then, the collab has repealed sixteen state ordinances through a criminal justice reform package back in 2017, leading to the community victory of closing down the city jail. Their campaign, called the Communities Over Cages: Close the Jail ATL Campaign, resulted in the passage of legislation to close the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC) and repurpose it into a Center for Wellness & Freedom.

This was a triumphant victory, seeing as this was the very same detention center that was exposed for inhumane conditions against TGNC people in 2016. Her organization is now also leading the call to decriminalize gender and repeal or reclassify 40 “quality of life” offenses that target poor people of color and have been comprising the vast majority of the jail’s population in recent years.

Williams aims to remind the public that this is an issue of shared interest for everyone in the Black community. Though a lot of the hatred is a result of restrictive ideologies adopted by cis Blacks from white institutions, there is no excuse for refusing to unlearn these behaviors.

“SNaP Co has been an experiment of seeing what it’s like to come together across all identities, what it’s like to be in a principal struggle together, and what it’s like to have breakdowns and come back to each other. How are we practicing openness and connection, for the sake of the work? It’s going to take all of us in order to survive.

In the battle against systemic transphobia, it is crucial to take action before it’s too late.

And it’s already too late.

The lives of at least 150 Black transgender women have been taken in the past 5 years. This genocide cannot continue while our nation’s leaders stand idly by.

We must enact change.

We must scream.

We must march.

We must hold our government, and the people around us, accountable for the neglect and mistreatment we are subjected to.

—

Ivana Fischer is the Culture Editor of WUSSY and a film and media enthusiast who specializes in cultural studies. You can find her across all socials @iv.fischer

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