History shows that Black Lives Matter and Pride are not two separate issues. The Black Panther Party and the Gay Liberation Front worked together on many occasions and there are some amazing people of color that led the gay liberation movement and participated in the Stonewall Riots. Marsha P. Johnson, a Black Trans woman and activist, is perhaps the most famous figure, but there are many others such as Achebe Powell and Sylvia Rivera. We have a responsibility to celebrate them. Below are some resources and organisations you may like to know about and find useful.
We'd also like to bring your attention to the U.K. Governments plans to roll back transgender rights. We urge you to sign this google form on Munroe Bergdorf's insta profile, email your MP and you can email the PM direct via this link.
Transgender rights are human rights, it won't take long to do the above. Make sure your MP hear your voice. It's time for progression not for rights to be revoked.
U.K. organisations
UK Black Pride Instagram / Website
"UK Black Pride is Europe's largest celebration for LGBTQ people of African, Asian, Caribbean, Middle Eastern and Latin American descent. We produce an annual celebration during pride month, as well as a variety of activities throughout the year in and around the UK, which also promote and advocate for the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual health and wellbeing of the communities we represent"
BLACKOUT UK Instagram / Website
A not-to-profit social enterprise run by a collective of gay, bi, trans, queer black men that works together to address shared challenges, create platforms for their voices and build networks and active communities. They encourage and stimulate debate and discussion online and face to face through their website, writer workshops, networking events, and supporting interventions to meet the needs of black queer men.
PURPLE RAIN Instagram / Website
This is a collective for QTIPOC in the UK to mobilize, converse on their experiences and develop strategies for safety, resistance, and liberation. They create a space where BAME LGBTQ identifying people & QTIPOC are choosing to come together and be there for one another in ways that prioritize their care, safety, and wellbeing.
COLOURS - GENDERED INTELLIGENCE Instagram / Website
COLOURS is GI’s youth group for BAME 13-25-year-olds in London that creates safe spaces for young people who are trans, non-binary, or gender non-conforming. They welcome young people who are unsure or questioning their gender or are just looking to meet like-minded people.
HOUSE OF RAINBOW Instagram / Website
House of Rainbow fosters relationships among BAME LGBTIQ+ individuals, people of faith and allies in order to create a safer and a more inclusive community. With active groups in London and Africa, they are able to assist with issues and challenges such as asylum seekers’ support, sexual health, counseling, and pastoral care.
U.S. organisations
Emergency Release Fund Instagram / Website
"The Emergency Release Fund is a grassroots response to a grave public safety issue. It is a mutual aid getting LGBTQ+ and medically vulnerable individuals out of Rikers Island and ICE detention."
NBJC - National Black Justice Coalition Instagram / Website
"The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) is a civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and same gender loving (LGBTQ/SGL) people, including people living with HIV/AIDS. (...) As America’s leading national Black LGBTQ/SGL civil rights organization focused on federal public policy, NBJC has accepted the charge to lead Black families in strengthening the bonds and bridging the gaps between the movements for racial justice and LGBTQ/SGL equality."
Brave Space Alliance Instagram / Website
"Brave Space Alliance is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ Center located on the South Side of Chicago, dedicated to creating and providing affirming, culturally competent, for-us by-us resources, programming, and services for LGBTQ individuals on the South and West sides of the city. We strive to empower, embolden, and educate each other through mutual aid, knowledge-sharing, and the creation of community-sourced resources as we build toward the liberation of all oppressed peoples."
Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project - BLMP Instagram / Website
"BLMP envisions a world where no one is forced to give up their homeland, where all Black LGBTQIA+ people are free and liberated. Led by a directly impacted steering committee and staff and housed at the Transgender Law Center and, we build power, community, and knowledge in the U.S. while challenging the role the U.S. plays globally in creating the conditions that force us to leave our homes."
Trans Women of Color Collective Website
"TWOCC is deeply invested in developing and advancing the organizing capacity of its leadership team and community members so that it can create opportunities to obtain everything that they need to thrive in a world designed to erase us off the face of the earth. They have led the successful development and implementation of culturally competent, trans-affirming best practices at government agencies such as the New York City Department of Homeless Services, New York City Human Resources Administration and the New York Police Department."
Center for Black Equity Instagram / Website
"The Center for Black Equity is the National leader in connecting members of the Black LGBTQ+ community with information and resources to educate, engage and empower their fight for equity and access. Our mission is to promote a multinational LGBTQ+ network dedicated to improving health and wellness opportunities, economic empowerment, and equal rights while promoting individual and collective work, responsibility, and self-determination."
TGIJP - TGI Justice Project Instagram / Website
" TGI Justice Project is a group of transgender, gender variant and intersex people—inside and outside of prisons, jails and detention centers—creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom. We work in collaboration with others to forge a culture of resistance and resilience to strengthen us for the fight against human rights abuses, imprisonment, police violence, racism, poverty, and societal pressures."
Solutions Not Punishment Co. Instagram / Website
"The Solutions Not Punishment Co. is a black, trans-led, broad-based collaborative to restore an Atlanta where every person has the opportunity to grow and thrive without facing unfair barriers, especially from the criminal legal system"
Transgender District Instagram / Website
"The Transgender District is the first legally recognized transgender district in the world. The mission of the Transgender District is to create an urban environment that fosters the rich history, culture, legacy, and empowerment of transgender people and its deep roots in the southeastern Tenderloin neighborhood."
Black AIDS Institute Instagram / Website
"Founded in May of 1999, the Black AIDS Institute (BAI) is the only premier uniquely and unapologetically Black think and do tank in America powered by two decades of work to end the Black HIV epidemic and led by people who represent the issues we serve. BAI is deeply committed to exposing the systems and roots of oppression used around the world and in the US to particularly marginalize Black people as a whole."
BreakOUT! Instagram / Website
"BreakOUT! seeks to end the criminalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth to build a safer and more just New Orleans. We build on the rich cultural tradition of resistance in the South to build the power of LGBTQ youth ages 13-25 and directly impacted by the criminal justice system through youth organizing, healing justice, and leadership development programs."
The Okra Project Instagram / Website
"The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home-cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them"
FOR THE GWORLS PARTY Instagram / Website
"FOR THE GWORLS PARTY is a monthly party where we raise money to pay for a Black Trans person's rent or gender-affirming surgery."
Brooklyn Community Pride Center - LGBTQ+ Brooklyn Instagram / Website
"Brooklyn Community Pride Center provides services and support to the borough’s LGBTQ+ community through original programming and partnerships with other organizations."
Trans Justice Funding Project Instagram / Website
"The Trans Justice Funding Project is a community-led funding initiative founded in 2012 to support grassroots, trans justice groups run by and for trans people. We make grants annually by bringing together a panel of six trans justice activists from around the country to carefully review every application we receive."
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy Instagram / Website
"A veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, former sex worker, and survivor of Attica State Prison, transgender elder and activist Miss Major has fought for over 40 years to create visibility and equity for trans women of color. She is fiercely committed to justice, which shows through her work as an HIV/AIDS treatment advocate, and her previous leadership of the Transgender, Gender Variant, Intersex Justice Project."
Marsha P. Johnson Institute - MPJI Instagram / Website
"The Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI) protects and defends the human rights of BLACK transgender people. We do this by organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting our collective power. (...) We were founded both as a response to the murders of BLACK trans women and women of color and how that is connected to our exclusion from social justice issues, namely racial, gender, and reproductive justice, as well as gun violence."
Black Trans Travel Fund Instagram / Website
"The Black Trans Travel Fund is a mutual-aid based organization committed to uplifting the narratives and supporting the livelihoods of Black trans women. Launched in June of 2019, BTTF was developed for the purpose of providing Black transgender women with the financial resources needed to be able to self-determine safer alternatives to travel, where women feel less likely to experience verbal harassment or physical harm."
Portland Sex Worker Relief Fund Instagram / Website
"PDX Sex Worker Relief Fund is a mutual aid fund that aims to distribute relief to Sex Workers in the Portland metro area who are most marginalized by systemic oppression in the industry and most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic."
By Us For Us - BUFU Instagram / Website
"BUFU is a project-based collective interested in solidarity amongst us, co-creating with you experimental models of organizing and making, generating prestige and mining time as a resource. In Fall 2015, BUFU initially began as a collaborative living centered around (pan)Black and (pan)Asian cultural and political relationships."
JOOP JOOP Creative Agency Instagram / Website
"JOOP JOOP is a radical creative agency specializing in workshops, consultation, talent management, events, photoshoots, music video, film/TV production, social media content & curation through bringing diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) with a social justice framework to challenge conventional paradigms and systems. We are representing multidisciplinary Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Womxn, LGBTQIA2S+, Non-Binary creatives, and their accomplices."
Activation - Respite as Residence Instagram / Website
"Activation is an immersive healing justice residency and year-round co-op fund. The residency is in New York state’s southern Catskill mountains of Woodridge and is designed to support artists in activating their creative practice. (...) Activation was founded two years ago by Kamra Hakim. Hakim started the project in direct response to the lack of creative opportunities available to Black and brown trans and queer artists."
SPICY Instagram / Website
"SPICY is a collective led by women of color and queer/trans people of color working at the intersection of art, organizing, and publishing. (...) Rooted in an intersectional feminist foundation, SPICY was not only born out of a frustration with mainstream media’s current landscape but also a knowledge of the beauty and depth that exists in WoC and QTPoC communities."
bklyn boihood Instagram / Website
“Our mission is to create spaces where black, brown queer and trans bois* and our communities can cultivate stories, dreams, and creative work. (...) BBH is a love-driven crew of bois, trying to make waves of impact through the world. ” They do creative work in publishing, throw parties for QTPOCS in Brooklyn, Toronto, Philly and more and organize workshops exploring their role in redefining masculinity.
FEMMEPREMACY Instagram / Website
"FEMMEPREMACY is a queer dance party that exists as an advocate for black and poc femmes. It rejects the notion of assimilation and embraces our raw, unfiltered beauty - be it rachet or refined. This is a celebration to remind us of our power with each twerk, sip, and hair flip."