Somewhere out there, bisexual organizers are still hoping against hope to be included in the organizing for the new National LGBT Pride March. May the Lord Goddess bless and keep them!
One of my favs, Lynnette McFadzen, both a friend and colleague, asked for a letter of recommendation and this is what I came up with and just sent along.
Here's hoping that bi+ organizers organizing for bi+ communities also get tapped to be part of the organizing team! Feel free to use a template like this below for your own bisexual letters of recommendation! I honestly just copied Lynnette's approach when she submitted her own letter of recommendation for longtime bi advocate and new BiNet USA board member Ron Suresha.
What can I say? Bisexuals love to share!
XOXO,
Faith
Dear David Bruinooge and Members of Equality March Leadership,
I would like to strongly recommend Lynnette McFadzen, new President of BiNet USA and creator/producer of The BiCast as a National Co-Chair of The Equality March for Unity & Pride. One of the strongest and openly active bi advocates in the country today, Lynnette first came to prominence in the bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer (bi+) community when she began The BiCast, the first podcast for the bi+ community. Visit the archives here. https://archive.org/details/@the_bicast
In the last 4 years, Lynnette McFadzen, has put nearly 200 interviews onto iTunes covering topics from A-Z of the bisexual community inluding critically important interviews with bi thought leaders and celebrities like gender/sexuality expert Robyn Ochs, Korean-American comic and advocate Margaret Cho, bi trans icon Julia Serano, BiNet USA co-founders Lani Ka’ahumanu and Loraine Hutchins and me!
In the last 3 years, Lynnette helped me organize 3 different conferences and meetings at President Barak Obama’s White House including the 2016 Rural LGBT America Summit at the White House, the 2016 Bisexual Community Briefing at the White House, and the 2015 Bisexual Community Briefing at the White House.
In the last 2 years, Lynnette has also co-organized several high profile events for bi and LGBT communities including day long institutes for the Task Force’s Creating Change conference and BiNet USA’s panel at the 2016 Comic Con in San Diego, CA which was called one of the most affirming moments of Comic Con by BleedingCool.com, one of the comic industries biggest blogs. Last year, Lynnette was also instrumental in generating over 200 million impressions for #biweek and bisexuality related social media content working alongside GLAAD and other LGBT organizations on Bisexual Awareness Week, a social media event I co-created that’s led to an inspiring amount of new bisexual activists just like Lynnette.
In any portion of the LGBTQIA community, I have found our newest members to be the most active, but what truly makes Lynnette a legend in the making, is how much she’s gotten done while also being a disabled bisexual demisexual asexual elder who lives below the poverty line. BiNet USA has proposed 2 different co-chairs to you from our organization and I urge you to consider all applications from bi+ organizers working for bi+ communities with the care and respect they have long deserved, and have yet to find, from national LGBT Pride Marches. Change must start with someone, so let it be you David!
“WHEN WE RISE” DID NOT JUST BRING UP LADY GAGA ON THE RANDO
Not One With You: Why Bisexuals Like Me Are Always Missing From Gay History
Remember that time a whole bunch of bisexual activists worked so hard to be nice about being left out of the Cleve Jones led March on Washington (MOW) in 2009? Remember those days when Faith cared a bit more about being a respectable bisexual?
Oh, those days? They are no more!
Remember when bisexuals shared name after name of amazing bi community advocates, experts, filmmakers and subject matter expert speakers with the 2009 MOW programming team? Remember when we stocked bi hopes in gay dreams?
Only to be told the ONE bi, pan, fluid, queer (bi+) community speaker at the March would be a musical icon who hadn’t yet identified herself as an activist for bisexual communities?
I remember, but did not see that history represented in ABC Network’s When We Rise, a television miniseries on the history of the LGBT movement.
From: Tanner E. (MOW March Coordinator) Date: 2009-09-30 18:12 GMT-07:00 Subject: Chat with Tanner E. To: thefayth 6:06 PM me: hi 6:07 PM this is faith, like thefayth.net and faith and all that Tanner: hi faith im on a conference call right now - so I apologize if I am not completely "here" me: oh gosh no nm, i just wanted to shake the tree on bi speaker for NME 6:08 PM i'll shoot u an email instead! Tanner: Lady Gaga is going to speak about being bisexual 6:09 PM me: hmm, no bi activists who have experience talking about marriage equality, fluid political and all that? any trans activists? Tanner: we have about 7 trans speakers 6:10 PM but yes, Lady Gaga, also the biggest celebrity on our stage, is going to have to represent the community me: and 1 bi speaker 6:11 PM who's not an activist, advocate or educator? 6:12 PM Tanner: Lady Gaga considers herself an activist and advocate me: sorry, i just burst into tears i gotta go
6:13 PM someone will be in touch, thanks for letting me know the decision!
Mad respect to Tanner (above) who was just relaying the message from Cleve Jones as multiple other sources at the time relayed to me. I do not share this information lightly, but since it directly relates to the discrimination and exclusion of bisexuals from the 2009 March, I do so now. So what was I, a reasonably new and obviously deeply invested bi activist, to do? After Tanner told me the above message in a Google chat? What do we bisexuals do when “LGBT” history is written about us, once more without us? With BiNet USA and other bi leaders, I threatened to protest the 2009 National March on Washington because Lady Gaga, who had yet to publicly identify herself as bisexual, could not be the only person representing the bisexual community that day. And I LOVE LADY GAGA!
I let the MOW team know we would call both gay and straight mainstream press about bisexual exclusion. I told them naked bisexuals would be at their gates if they did not have a speaker who represented us and our issues. For a little under an eighth of medicinal green, I hired some of L.A.’s best stand up comics and alternative songwriters to call a bisexual phone tree of organizers who then attempted to call all 80 people or orgs listed on the MOW website as co-sponsors to let them know they’d be getting protested with Cleve too. I think me and Sean Hart also went off and wrote a song about me growing up in San Luis Obispo, CA, called SLOW too. Hey, it was 2009, and before I had a kid, and was just working full-time, so I did bit more back then.
Simply put, we all raised hell across every state and Jones and his planning crew acquiesced and allowed a single bisexual activist speaker to introduce Lady Gaga. Tanner then told me “Cleve, says 2 bi speakers is OK as long as it’s not you” and while I’m an engaging and funny Black bi woman who had already been featured on an Emmy winning reality show on race co-produced by Ice Cube, I swallowed my disappointment. It was important to have a community speaker to represent us and it really did not have to be me.
The bi+ speaker the MOW programming team chose to introduce Gaga at the 2009 March did not use the word bisexual in her speech as much as I would have liked. To be honest af, having fought tooth and nail for one effing person who was a bisexual activist to appear, I did not respect her choice then as much as I do now.
The day of the 2009 March on Washington, a fluid bi queer woman of color, Penelope Williams, introduced Lady Gaga to the stage as a representative of the bisexual community. Before introducing Gaga, Williams took the opportunity to give voice to many without voice that day. She spoke in Spanish and in English because “that is who our movement is” she told me fiercely. Sí, Penelope, Yes!
And so bisexuals were there that important day in LGBT history, as we always are, with our hearts lifted in quiet and hardwon pride. We came as ourselves, and as the whole people we must be and as the large diverse movement we are to become. We are the caller outers, the out of liners, the ones who do not fit easily between, and may we always stay where Black bisexual poet June Jordan wanted us to be when she said:
As long as there are Gay and Lesbian Americans who view sexuality as the first and last defining facet of their existence, and who, therefore, do not defend immigrants against the savagery of xenophobic hatred, as long as there are Gay and Lesbian Americans who view sexuality as the first and last defining fact of their lives, then for that long I am not one with you and you are not one with me.
Was it convenient for the LGBT community to engage itself in diversionary tales such as When We Rise while Latinx communities are being quietly deported by the millions? When Muslims are fighting a ban on their travel based on their religion?
What does it mean for When We Rise to elevate a narrative of “gay rights” that excludes bisexual activism like BiPOL’s fights for Haiti or Dr. Alan Rockway’s Orange Juice Boycott at the same time today’s gay community outlets release “straight faced” reporting on President Trump making a gay man his NATO ambassador? With nary a mention of Mexicans, Central Americans, Muslims, Black Lives, Jewish cemeteries being desecrated on the regular and/or the dumpster fire that is otherwise called the Trump administration. #GAYMEDIASOWHITE indeed?
It should be no surprise that this When We Rise teachable bi moment is being brought to you by badass bisexuals of color who are content creators and activists, like actor and advocate Sara Ramirez, faith leader and bisexual.org author Eliel Cruz and YouTube sensation R.J. Aguiar alongside longtime leaders like BiNet USA’s new President Lynnette McFadzen, a demisexual asexual bisexual disabled elder and Bay Area Bisexual Network’s Martin Rawlings-Fein, a Jewish bi trans dad. Bisexual diversity, or what advocates throughout our history have identified as “biversity”, is and remains our greatest strength.
Real talk bisexuals, stay mad. I am extremely proud of all of you!
P.S.
I just got asked on Twitter by Dustin Lance Black to tell him more in a DM about bisexuals protesting in 2009! Sadly, I can’t DM him at the moment having learned a valuable lesson from bi woman of color comic, author, singer and fellow rape survivor, Margaret Cho who tried to help Tilda Swinton out before seemingly getting leaked by #whitefeminism. Most times it’s not to the benefit of women of color to have private behind the scenes conversations, especially when some folks are used to using women of color as cleanup.
Ah!
Maybe I’ll suggest we take what might prove to be an engaging conversation about LGBTQIA community inclusion to a more public forum. Maybe Dustin Lance Black and I can virtually visit with HuffPostLive’s lovely Jewish roller derby queen and proud bi queer Alex Berg!
Or find some other opportunity that represents the “pay Black women, love Black women, and respect Black women” approach to my life that I work towards these days! After a decade of unpaid bisexual advocacy, I no longer do bisexual work for free or without benefit to me.
When Will Black Women #GetSeen like for real, not gonna be #GetOut. Photo Credit: Faith
From my homie's homie I saw this, #GetOut Syllabus: Crystal Boson, PhD...well done work by Crystal Boson/americanexpat.com that speaks to why I did not go opening weekend myself, namely that the refrain of "SHOW BLACK WOMEN. PAY BLACK WOMEN. RESPECT BLACK WOMEN" was missing, both neatly and nearly entirely in the marketing of the film, Get Out.
You would think with the amount of people who say they love Beyoncé,
BLACK WOMEN WOULD BE SEEN MORE OFTEN IN FILM.
You would think with the amount of people who say they love Viola Davis,
BLACK WOMEN WOULD DIRECT MORE FILMS.
As a person in an interracial relationship, I believe you CAN include Black women's stories, fears, rage and tears just as much as every other.
I suspect and hope that Jordan is just getting started, but if Black men start getting paid to do excellent work that speaks to racial reality, can Black women see that dream come true more often too?
First on my list for a 4 picture deal too:
Dee Rees
Cheryl Dunye
Ava Duvernay
Of course, I'm still gonna see it cause I love Jordan Peele like I love my own child who may grow up to be like Jordan Peele if we're so lucky. Just glad to have a syllabus to hold onto when I go tho.
Town halls are traditionally used by congresspeople to hear from those that elected them. Wouldn't it be nice to see them packed to the brim with more kids like Toby Smith?
“Donald Trump makes Mexicans not important to people who are in Arkansas who like Mexicans, like me and my grandma, and all my people” - Toby Smith
Good job, kid! Wanna be like Toby? Check the #TobysList of upcoming town halls below!
February 24th
Marc Veasey (D-TX)
Date/Time: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 / 7:30 AM – 9 AM CT
Location: Tia Dora’s Bakery and Cafe, 2478 W. Illinois Ave. , Dallas, TX
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Date/Time: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 / 8 AM – 9 AM CT
Location: Parkersburg Civic Center, 502 3rd St., Parkersburg, IA
Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
Date/Time: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 / 9:30 AM CT
Location: Breaux Bridge City Hall, 120 Berard St., Breaux Bridge, LA
Please RSVP to Shawn Hanscom at Shawn_Hanscom@cassidy.senate.gov
Betty McCollum (D-MN)
Date/Time: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 / 10 AM – 1 PM CT
Location: Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, 270 Kent St., Saint Paul, MN
Frank Lucas (R-OK)
Date/Time: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 / 10 AM – 11 AM CT
Location: Events at 10 West Main, 10 W. Main St., Yukon, OK
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Date/Time: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 / 11:30 AM PT
Location: Astoria High School Auditorium, 1001 W. Marine Drive, Astoria, OR
Beto O’Rourke (D-TX)
Date/Time: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 / 12 PM – 1 PM MT
Location: El Paso Public Library Main Branch, 501 N. Oregon St., El Paso, TX
Brian J. Mast (R-FL)
Date/Time: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 / 1 PM – 2 PM ET
Location: Havert L. Fenn Center, 2000 Virginia Ave., Fort Pierce, FL
Let us know you’re coming: http://mast.house.gov/townhall
Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL)
Date/Time: Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 / 5:30 PM – 7 PM CT
Location: Roosevelt University, 1400 N. Roosevelt Blvd., Schaumberg, IL
February 25th
Gary Palmer (R-AL)
Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 / 9 AM CT
Location: Hoover Tactical Firearms, 1561 Montgomery Highway, Birmingham, AL
Mike Thompson (D-CA)
Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 / 9 AM – 11 AM PT
Location: Piner High School, 1700 Fulton Road, Santa Rosa, CA
Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 / 10 AM ET
Location: Corporate College East Auditorium, 4400 Richmond Road, Warrensville Heights, OH
Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)
Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 / 10 AM – 12 PM MT
Location: Boys and Girls Club of Santa Fe, 6600 Valentine Way, Santa Fe, NM
Bill Huizenga (R-MI)
Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 / 12 PM ET
Location: Baldwin Senior High School, 525 4th St., Baldwin, MI
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 / 12 PM PT
Location: David Douglas High School, 1001 SE 135th Ave., Portland, OR
G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)
Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 / 1 PM
Location: Hillside High School Auditorium, 3727 Fayetteville St., Durham, NC
This event is free and open to the public. Space is limited. Please register to attend below. https://www.eventbrite.com/o/the-office-of-congressman-butterfield-4755409471
Bobby Scott (D-VA)
Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 / 2 PM – 3:30 PM ET
Location: Paul D. Camp Community College, 100 North College Drive, Franklin, VA
February 26th
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Date/Time: Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017 / 11:30 AM
Location: Gresham High School Auditorium, 1200 N. Main Ave., Gresham, OR
Brendan Boyle (D-PA)
Date/Time: Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017 / 1 PM – 2:30 PM ET
Location: First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, 1710 Bethlehem Pike, Flourtown, PA
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Date/Time: Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017 / 2 PM PT
Location: Camp Withycombe, 15300 SE Minuteman Way, Clackamas, OR
February 27th
Mike Kelly (R-PA)
Date/Time: Monday, Feb. 27, 2017 / 7:15 AM – 8:15 AM ET
PARTICIPATION DETAILS: To participate, dial 877-228-2184 and enter event ID 19013 at the time of the event.
March 1st
Don Beyer (D-VA)
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 / 5:45 PM – 6:45 PM ET
PARTICIPATION DETAILS: 877-229-8493 Access code: 114941
Joe Wilson (R-SC)
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 / 6 PM ET
PARTICIPATION DETAILS Sign up here: https://vekeo.com/repjoewilson/
John Culberson (R-TX)
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 / 6 PM CT
PARTICIPATION DETAILS Sign up here to participate: http://culberson.house.gov/telephone-town-hall/
Mike Bishop (R-MI)
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 / 7 PM – 8 PM ET
PARTICIPATION DETAILS If you haven’t already been added to our list and are a constituent, call our team to join:
– Washington, DC office: 202-225-4872
– Brighton, MI office: 810-227-8600
Chris Stewart (R-UT)
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 / 7 PM MT
PARTICIPATION DETAILS Sign up here: https://vekeo.com/repchrisstewart/
March 3rd
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Friday, March 3, 2017 / 8:30 AM CT
Location: Butler Village Hall, 12621 W. Hampton Ave., Butler, WI
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Friday, March 3, 2017 / 9:30 AM CT
Location: Lannon Village Hall, 20399 W. Main St., Lannon, WI
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Friday, March 3, 2017 / 10:15 AM CT
Location: N64 W23760 Main St. Sussex , WI
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Friday, March 3, 2017 / 11:15 AM CT
Location: Merton Village Hall, N67W28343 Sussex Road, Merton, WI
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Friday, March 3, 2017 / 1:15 PM CT
Location: Nashotah Village Hall, N44W32950 Watertown Plank Road, Nashotah , WI
Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Date/Time: Friday, March 3, 2017 / 2 PM
Location: Technical College of the Lowcountry, 921 Ribaut Road, Beaufort, SC
Randy Hultgren (R-IL)
Date/Time: Friday, March 3, 2017 / 2:30 PM – 4 PM CT
Location: American Legion Fox River, 22 S. 2nd St., Geneva, IL
Derek Kilmer (D-WA)
Date/Time: Friday, March 3, 2017 / 5:30 PM – 7 PM PT
Location: 7th Street Theater, 313 7th St., Hoquiam, WA
March 4th
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 4, 2017 / 9 AM CT
Location: Delafield City Hall, 500 Genesee St., Delafield , WI
Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 4, 2017 / 10 AM – 11:30 AM PT
Location: Campbell Heritage Theater, 1 W. Campbell Ave., Campbell , CA
Adam Smith (D-WA)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 4, 2017 / 10 AM – 11:30 AM PT
Location: The Rainier Arts Center, 3515 S. Alaska St., Seattle, WA
Space is limited so please RSVP by calling (425)793-5180 or Toll Free at (888) SMITH09. You can also email rsvpsmith@mail.house.gov
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 4, 2017 / 1 PM CT
Location: Lake Mills Public Library, 120 E. Madison St., Lake Mills, WI
Jim Himes (D-CT)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 4, 2017 / 2:30 PM ET
Location: University of Connecticut Stamford GenRe Auditorium, 1 University Place, Stamford, CT
Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 4, 2017 / 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM ET
Location: Reading Public Library Community Room, 64 Middlesex Ave., Reading, MA
March 5th
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Sunday, March 5, 2017 / 1 PM CT
Location: Juneau Community Center, 500 Lincoln Drive, Juneau , WI
March 6th
Derek Kilmer (D-WA)
Date/Time: Monday, March 6, 2017 / 5:30 PM – 7 PM PT
Location: Sequim High School Auditorium, 503 N. Sequim Ave., Sequim, WA
Donald Norcross (D-NJ)
Date/Time: Monday, March 6, 2017 / 6:30 PM ET
Location: Bellmawr Ballroom, 29 Lewis Ave., Bellmawr, NJ
Register here: https://sparkcreative.wufoo.com/forms/rjhfs8w1mz0lr0/
March 11th
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 11, 2017 / 9 AM CT
Location: Germantown Village Hall, N112W17001 Mequon Road, Germantown, WI
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 11, 2017 / 1 PM CT
Location: Brookfield Public Safety Building, 2100 N. Calhoun Road, Brookfield , WI
March 12th
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Sunday, March 12, 2017 / 1 PM CT
Location: Hartford City Hall, 109 N. Main St., Hartford, WI
March 13th
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Monday, March 13, 2017 / 7 PM CT
Location: Wauwatosa Public Library, 7635 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa , WI
Don Beyer (D-VA)
Date/Time: Monday, March 13, 2017 / 7 PM – 9 PM ET
Location: Gum Springs Community Center, 8100 Fordson Road, Alexandria, VA
March 18th
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 18, 2017 / 9 AM CT
Location: West Bend City Hall, 1115 S. Main St., West Bend, WI
Pete Sessions (R-TX)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 18, 2017 / 12:30 PM ET
Location: Richardson High School, 1250 Belt Line Road, Richardson, TX
RSVP here: https://sessions.house.gov/services/town-hall-meetings
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 18, 2017 / 1 PM CT
Location: West Allis Public Library, 7421 W. National Ave., West Allis, WI
March 19th
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Date/Time: Sunday, March 19, 2017 / 1 PM CT
Location: Richfield Village Hall, 4125 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI
To honor Black History Month, NLGJA is highlighting the work of our members who have contributed to broader understanding of LGBTQ issues in the black community. Each year NLGJA honors journalists who write on a wide array of issues related to the LGBTQ community reaching different audiences across many platforms. This week we recognize Tre’vell Anderson, Dominic Holden and The Advocate magazine, all of whom have received recognition in our Excellence in Journalism Award program for their positive impact on the representation of the black LGBTQ community and diversity in the media.
Tre’vell Anderson’s L.A. Times article on the decline of black gay clubs in Los Angeles was runner-up for NLGJA’s Excellence in Feature Writing (Non-daily) Award. Anderson shows the importance of black-owned gay clubs at a time when racial discrimination was a major issue all over the country. “There was no space where black gays could enjoy themselves in one another's company,” writes Anderson, “escaping what they saw as the racial discrimination of West Hollywood and the homophobia of the African American community.” As a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Internet dating and other changes in the LGBTQ community, black gay bars have been going through financial hardship, resulting in the closure of the historic Catch disco in L.A. Now many in the black LGBTQ opt to spend their nights in West Hollywood, which shunned them only 40 years ago. The Advocate magazine received the Excellence in Profile Writing Award for its “40 Under 40: Intersectional Voices” spotlight. The Advocate featured many prominent, diverse members of the LGBTQ community including Alicia Garcia and Patrisse Cullors, two co-founders of Black Lives Matter, and Michelle Garcia, an NLGJA member and Race & Identities Senior Editor at Vox. The article underscores the important contributions of diverse, young individuals who have made significant contributions to the black LGBTQ community, as well as other minority communities.
Writing about the high rates of violence against black trans women in Detroit for BuzzFeed, Dominic Holden was runner-up for NLGJA’s Excellence in News Writing (Non-daily) Award. In the story Holden pushes back against the stereotype that violence against black trans women results from their involvement as sex workers. “The circumstances of each killing are different, and by no means is sex work a common thread among all transgender women or among those who were killed,” writes Holden. “Still, in several cases in recent years, cops have treated transgender women as sex workers regardless - sometimes making arrests and then releasing the women - even though there was no evidence of sex work.” Holden’s article challenges stereotypes based on assumptions about race and gender identity, and promotes better understanding of an often marginalized community. The deadline to nominate someone for one of NLGJA’s Excellence in Journalism Awards is approaching fast, so remember to submit your nominations soon! More information can be found on NLGJA’s website.
OH MAN! NO WAY YOU DID NOT JUST ACKNOWLEDGE A WHITE GUY FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH!
Photo Caption: Tombstone that reads #WhiteFeminism May 29th 1851 - Nov 9th 2016 and underneath it says in purple scrawl “my feminism will be intersectional, or, it will not be.”
Photo Credit: Faith Cheltenham
While I understand the intentionality surrounding the #womensmarch, I haven't willingly walked alongside #whitefeminism since that one time I kept writing for UCLA's Outwrite after my student editor went to press (against my objections) with a cover of a white woman in plantation garb next to a smiling Black woman both gazing with joy on a "mirror of history" touting the success of "lesbian rights". Ouch. Nearly two decades later, a wiser and more woke Faith has questions. For instance: if millions of women marched today, were they engaged in explicitly anti-racist, anti-white supremacy conversations while they passed out handouts from Showing Up for Racial Justice?
Photo Caption: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting march poster, proving once again Quakers might just be the only white folks Black folks can trust, going back (checks watch) about 360 years. Photo Credit: PYM
Solidarity looks like people who may lose benefit, status or privilege, still making a conscious choice to protest their own access to that same privilege (peace tip: follow Dr. Larycia Hawkins on Twitter to learn about "embodied solidarity".)
Many articles abound stating the women's marches have dealt well with questions surrounding inclusion, but you know me! I write about queer white tears, so I'll brew tea and ask questions now.
When Black lives don't matter over your venti pumpkin spice latte
Are #womenmarches "just another white thing?” Like safety pins, or pumpkin spice lattes? Will these marchers still be marching when Trump's new administration begins longtime detainment of anti-police or anti-Trump activists, promotes gay normality at the cost of bisexual lives, or cozies up closer to oil with quiet support from progressive leaders who fall for "making the best of it" logic? Will these marchers allow for "gay marriage" to be traded for Black and Brown lives?
As a Black woman, resistance is a minute by minute meditation that delivers me my continued existence. I've been marching so long that my feet have a hard time remembering any other way to walk. I've been standing on street corners fighting for my rights, your rights, and everyone who needs rights, for as long as I can remember. Tired now, your turn!
To all my Black women who braved it today, you have my utmost respect and continued awe. I hope your signs were as on point as Get Equal co-director Angela Peoples’ was today (captured below by equality photographer bychubbz.)
And to all my Black women at home today, I see us and love us for OUR STRENGTH, OUR SPIRIT AND OUR WILLINGNESS TO KEEP LOVING. Most of us will happily celebrate any women, for any reason, at any time, forever and ever amen; even though we rarely find Black women or our work celebrated in a similar way. Or did my Wikipedia page spring into existence yet? I know I've done enough, and I certainly know thousands of Black women still unrecognized for their hard work, thought leadership, and bravery who don't have a Wikipedia page, monuments, Vanguard awards, or even close to the same salary as their white female counterparts working the same jobs. We grind away ever awash in seas of risingmisogynoir, the term queer Black feminist Dr. Moya Bailey coined for the discrimination, prejudice and unchecked fear of black women. Black girls be feared, then suffer the indignity of experiencing those that fear them alsotrying to bounce to Beyoncè with them too, as if we didn't notice. As if, bitches, as if!
Image Caption: Beyoncè in Lemonade singing "you know I give you life!" in an animated gif. Image Credit: Imagr.
#whitefeminism, or the myopic fight for "white women only" gender equality, didn't start in 1851 but I love to point out Sojourner Truth spoke her famous speech on equality to a room full of white women recently interrupted by #mansplaining white men. Like every Black woman who's ever lived, Sojourner Truth pulled double duty that day. In less than 400 words, she pushed back on both the white male Christian pastors who had just interrupted a women's convention, and the white women in the audience hoping she'd decline to mention slavery in her rousing defense of women's equality (she didn't).
Photo Caption: Image of Sojourner Truth from Google Art Project on Wikipedia, with her "these women together" quote. Did you know? Sojourner Truth freed herself after being born 2 years after NY "Gradual Emancipation" deadline that would have legally freed her.
Image Credit: Faith Cheltenham/thefayth.net
The Soujourner Truth memorial website says cheers began to rise at that conference in Akron, Ohio, as Sojourner Truth spoke a message that would embolden centuries of women and femmes. As part of my undying thanks to Sojourner Truth, I reprint her speech in full and advise you to hear her Dutch accented voice speaking to you today, as clearly as she did then.
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man–when I could get it–and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.
In the coming months and years, I hope to see many Sojourner Truth's atop many a stump fiery speech in progress. And we should not just be listened to. More than anything, I urge white women to look for their leadership from Black women too.
Follow Black women, support Black women, pay Black women, listen to Black women, love Black women and let yourself be led by Black women. Signs of health in Black women leaders can look like their ability to make (and keep friends), their ability to cross aisles while keeping themselves whole, their openness to take money to get hungry mouths fed and their avowed desire to make every life on this planet matter...like Black women's lives (whether cis or trans) should matter.
If millions of white women marched today, some of them had to have voted for Trump too. Wear a pussy hat if you like, but if we're to have any hope of gathering "these women together" to make the world right and keep it so, you'll need to keep your eyes wide open for #whitefeminism too.
Photo Caption: Faith Cheltenham with Bisexual Pride Flag and the words Black Bisexual Lives Matter on the image.
