black folks: cut the transphobic bullshit

Yo, I am sick of you transphobic, pseudo-scientific, miserable fucks. Y’all gotta stop.

And before you head to the comments to come for me, let me say: I’m not debating, I’m scolding you.

In the comment section of a post we wrote last week, many ashy negros had the AUDACITY to fix their fingers to defend a private organization from accepting individuals because they are trans. And, no, I wasn’t shocked to read Black folks being transphobic, oh no, quite the opposite. I’m sick and fucking tired — and frankly kinda heartbroken. How can we as Black people, a historically oppressed and discriminated group, turn our backs on intersecting groups and co-sign on their disenfranchisement?

“I don’t have to be ‘okay’ with trans people.” Y’all. Really, we’re not far enough removed from the plantation to be talking like that. The police aren’t “okay” with your Black ass either. But that’s all gucci, apparently. Using that logic no one owes you the respect of human dignity and tolerance either.

Oppression is a system of intersection highways. When you hold down other people, you are perpetuating the same systems of marginalization that affect you. If it’s acceptable for you to not be “okay” with transgender people, it’s acceptable for non-Black people to not be okay with you. Get it?

We as people of color and people with underrepresented identities must stick together and at the very least stand up for each other’s existence rights.

Suicide rates for trans folks are among some of the highest across the board. Every time you dehumanize, demoralize, laugh at, shun, and abuse Black trans people you are killing Black youths. When you act as yet another reminder that trans people don’t matter or that they should be ashamed of who they are, ask yourself why it’s so hard to show empathy when it costs you nothing?

Globally, the average rate of suicide attempts by transgender people is 41 percent.

In the United States, more than 50 percent of trans young men and 30 percent of trans young women have attempted suicide at least once. 42 percent of LGBT teens report not feeling accepted by their communities. At school, they are twice as likely to be physically harmed than cis and heterosexual teens. And while 75 percent of LGBT teens report feel accepted by their peers, 73 percent report to being more honest about who they are online than with those around them in real life. That’s probably because 92 percent of LGBT youths report hearing negative messages about LGBT people by at school, on the internet, and by their peers.

And we haven’t even TOUCHED on the increased danger Black trans women experience just for being themselves. While federal statistics on trans-Americans is painfully under-documented, we do know that of all transgender murders each year, around 80 percent of them are Black trans women. This, combined with such high suicide attempt rates contribute to why trans women of color only, on average, live to age 31.

These statistics paint the portrait of young people who operate through a world were the fear of rejection, ostracization, and violence is a part of everyday life. Where messages of unworthiness and displacement are hammered into your head without reprieve.

On what planet are you the type of person who is okay with making those lives uglier, and more challenging? And for what? If you knew choosing tolerance over a momentary, cruel laugh could mean saving a life you would take it. So, why not live that in practice?

What I am asking and begging for is for you to reconsider how you contribute to someone’s pain on a one-to-one human level. Be a net positive in this world. Be better. And if you can’t be that then please… please just shut the fuck up.