Our schools teach that February is Black History Month. But this is February 2015, and today's black communities are under attack.
We need more than history: we need action.
LGBTQ youth like Tony know this. That's why he made the video above, and that's why youth leaders at GSA Network, the National Student Bill of Rights Task Force, Project South and other organizations across the country are calling on LGBTQ youth to join them in #BlackFutureLegends Month, a queer take on Black Future Month inspired by the current fight to build a more just world where #blacklivesmatter. That's why Gay-Straight Alliance clubs (GSAs) are holding actions, rallies, teach-ins and teach-outs this Friday, February 20th, for GSA Day for Racial Justice.
Resistance is as important today as it was in the past. Many organizers and activists have dubbed 2015 as the year of resistance. If that is true, our resistance must be fought between the many artificial lines created between our shared communities by the forces that perpetuate state-sanctioned violence and unbridled capitalism.
Since the beginning of 2015, six transgender women of color have been murdered. Every 28 hours, a black man is murdered by police or security that are supposed to keep us all safe. We cannot continue to be an LGBTQ community that fights for marriage, but lets black people be senselessly murdered by the state, or allows the system and our communities to target black transgender women for violence over and over again.
When black people are homophobic, they are doing the oppressor's work for them, and when white queers erase the experiences and efforts of black transgender women and LGBTQ youth of color, they are doing the oppressor's work for them. The global violence against communities of color will not go unnoticed or unchallenged by the youth leaders and organizers of the GSA movement.
This month, and from here on out, LGBTQ youth leaders are uniting to reclaim our history and our shared path to a better world. We believe that Black Lives Matter. We believe that the future of the black community, communities of color and the queer and transgender movement for justice cannot be separated. We believe in the next generation of leadership.