Trans activists protest systemic violence for Trans Day of Action
Police officers form a barricade to direct marchers onto sidewalks during the 15th Annual Trans Day of Action Rally. (Sean Drakes/Getty)
500 trans activists gathered to protest systemic violence against trans people for the 15th annual Trans Day of Action in New York yesterday (June 28).
Protesters met in Washington Square Park holding signs including “black trans lives matter” and the faces and names of murdered trans women.
According to the Human Rights Campaign 26 transgender people were killed in 2018 in the US, and there have been 11 murders so far this year.
Organisers, The Audre Lourde Project (ALP), said in a press release: “We live in a time when oppressed peoples, including people of colour, immigrants, youth and elders, people with disabilities, women, trans and gender non-conforming people, and poor people are underserved, face higher levels of discrimination, are under heightened surveillance and experience increased violence at the hands of the state.
“We must unite and work together towards dismantling the transphobia, racism, classism, sexism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, and xenophobia that permeates our movements for social justice.”
This year ALP also focused on its Brick by Brick campaign for housing for trans and gender non-conforming people.
Trans activists gathered in Washington Square Park for the protest. (Sean Drakes/Getty)
Trans and gender non-conforming people “remain the least protected,” said march attendee
One protest attendee wrote on Instagram: “It’s always the realest part of Gay Pride, being in the street for those who remain the least protected.
“50 years ago exactly the first major gay/trans rebellion was started on these streets! Still so much left to fight for.”
“Trump has really proliferated this hate towards us,” trans Latina Qweenb Amor told Reuters.
“It’s something we’re going to have to face every single day for the next 20 years, despite who wins the next election because these people who put Trump in power are people we have to work with every day of our lives.”
The Trans Day of Action march took place on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, the same day that a rally was organised outside the Stonewall Inn.
