feature image by Molly Adams

Today’s Trans Day of Visibility, a day when we recognize and celebrate and affirm all the trans people who are alive today and who have come before us. We need to let trans people know that when we see them, we aren’t just doing the bare minimum, we’re also seeing them as people who are important and deserve our support. Seeing trans people, especially trans women, especially trans people of color, especially Black trans people, especially Black trans women, doesn’t just mean seeing us. It means seeing that we are worth listening to, worth hiring, worth loving and worth supporting.

At the beginning of the year, it became clear 2017 would be a critical time for the liberation of Black trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC) people. With the murders of eight trans women of color, seven of them Black, our liberation is even more urgent.

In January, I created an initiative called #GiveBlackTransPeopleMoney which was created out of a fuming Twitter rant. Across the country, Black TGNC people are performing serious emotional labor as organizers, healers, artists, sexual liberationists, and advocates. While we are doing this work, we often lack access to employment, primary medical and transition care, mental health services, and housing. We lack economic and financial sustainability in order to thrive. Black trans people are under attack; the average annual income for us is $10,000. We are at multiple economic disadvantages that must be tackled with urgency.

Because much of our work requires, or is amplified, by technology and social media, there is no excuse for the distribution of reparations to Black TGNC people. Our presence should not be reduced to beautiful selfies and regulated to sexual fetishism because we are utilizing all of our ways to survive.

The goal is to transform #GiveBlackTransPeopleMoney into a living document. For now, it is a thread to pool in monetary solidarity and awareness to all of these people and organizations. The privileges automatically afforded to white and cis people must be leveraged for any kind of revolution to be achieved. And if this is not done, it is another act of complacency.

Here’s a few ways to support Black trans people. Please click on the tweet to see the entire thread of ways to #GiveBlackTransPeopleMoney.

What y'all can do for Black trans people thread:

— 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐝𝐢’𝐤𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐣𝐚𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞 (@venusselenite) January 5, 2017

1. Support Goddess X’s patreon so she can keep making literature.

2. Buy Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi’s books and book her for readings, concerts, oracular work, speaking, etc.

3. Fund #NamelessWoman, an upcoming anthology of fiction by TWOC which will include stories by Black trans women. #NamelessWoman is being published by the Trans Women Writers Collective, who is also planning to publish more books by TWOC very soon.

4. Fund the Trans Sistas of Color Project.

5. Support Kyem Asa, who designs a bunch of fly shit.

6. Buy Lucy Valentine‘s stellar book Circa and other shit.

7. Support Tyson Evans’ top surgery fund

8. Support Miss Major, who was AT STONEWALL and CONTINUES TO WORK FOR US ALL.

9. Support Briana Johnson’s 2-year campaign to have the medical transition she desires!

10. Buy Samantha Jo-Dato’s first book (in a set of three), ShatteredPerfect.

11. Support AwQward Talent, which is run by Black trans people.

12. Support the Kitty Bella Show.

13. Bring J Mase III and Vita Cleveland (#BlackTransMagick) to your fucking venue.

14. Support Andrea Jenkins‘ work and her run for Minneapolis City Council.

15. Buy Sidney Chase’s music and book her for shows and writing, etc.

16. Support LaLa Zannell’s organizing work.

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