Ithaca College

Today we remember:

• the 49 victims and 53 survivors of the Pulse Nightclub shooting that took place four years ago today
• Dominique Rem’mie Fells of Philadelphia and Riah Milton of Liberty Township, Ohio, two Black transgender women reported dead this week.
• George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery
• the seven Black transgender women killed in Florida in less than two years: Bee Love, Kiki Fantroy, Londonn Moore, Sasha Garden, Cathalina Christina James, Antash’a English, and Celine Walker
• Tony McDade, a Black transgender man shot by Tallahassee police two weeks ago.
• Countless more whose lives have been taken.

Black Lives Matter. We must commit ourselves to the actions those words require. Actions in opposition to white supremacy, systemic racism and police brutality.

Each day we’re called upon to honor the victims of racism and injustice. We must honor them with action.

We don’t show up in our lives with singular, separate identities. LGBTQ students don’t just bring their LGBTQ selves to the LGBT Center – they bring their whole selves. LGBTQ liberation must be intersectional, or it will not be liberation at all.

LGBTQ history was forged with young transgender and gender nonconforming Black and Brown people at the center and forefront of change. Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Stormé DeLarverie. At Stonewall fifty one years ago, but also at Compton’s Cafeteria in 1966, Dewey’s Lunch Counter in 1965, Cooper’s Donuts in 1959. And right here in Ithaca at Morrie’s Bar and at Nite Court.

Our lives are histories of resistance and resilience.

This Pride season as our nation confronts racism, we face a global pandemic too. People of color, LGBTQ communities, and everyone at the intersections, are particularly vulnerable. COVID-19 brings into stark, bright light the impacts of oppression already embedded throughout society. At the center of both racism and COVID-19 are inequities, and the public health crises they spawn.

What is Pride? The courage to act, to live life in service to others, and to speak out and act in solidarity for justice. 

Please join me in continuing to act.