Letter for Release – June 12, 2020
LGBTQ Organizations and Leaders Call to Defund the Police and Invest in Communities
This week, Black-led organizations in Minneapolis, including the Black Visions Collective, Reclaim the Block, and MPD 150 won a historic victory when a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council committed to defunding and dismantling their police department and investing in proven community alternatives. This victory comes during a time when people in all 50 states and around the world have risen up in protest of the recent murders of Black people at the hands of the police, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and far too many others. It comes at a time when we are rising up against the police-aligned white supremacist violence that stole the life of Ahmaud Arbery, an ongoing epidemic of violence and murder from the general public that Black trans people—especially Black trans women—face, it comes during the time of a global pandemic in which Black and Indigenous people, along with other communities of color, migrants, disabled/Deaf/ill people, and elders are hit most severely.
Recently, over 700 LGBTQ organizations from across the country and the globe signed a letter in support of Black lives, stating that now is the moment to go further and make explicit commitments to embrace anti-racism and end white supremacy. The letter went on to say “we cannot remain neutral, nor will awareness substitute for action.”
Black LGBTQ leaders in Minneapolis and Black leaders across the nation have clearly laid the path for what it means to “go further” and have outlined the specific actions that are necessary in order to create communities that value Black lives. They are illustrating what safety and support means, especially for those who have been most impacted by systemic racism and state violence. Today, we add our voices in support of the local Black-led community groups in towns and cities across the country like Black Visions Collective. We join elected officials like Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham, and we join national organizers like the Movement for Black Lives.
We issue a collective call to defund the police and invest in communities. Concrete, community-based alternatives can include investing in free or affordable community healthcare, funding mental health response teams to respond to mental health crises, funding violence prevention and intervention programs, creating access to safe and affordable housing for all, providing access to affordable and accessible transportation, funding advocates to provide help and safety to people who are homeless, funding elder services, funding independent living opportunities for disabled communities, investing in quality jobs and education, funding treatment for substance use and addiction, providing access to child care, and many more.
We remind ourselves that when the LGBTQ movement began, Black and brown trans women who were often living with disabilities and illness were taking care of their communities without institutional support: they housed one another, found family in one another, and kept each other safe. All without police — because they knew the police provided no safety and in fact threatened their well being just as they had before the Compton Cafeteria and Stonewall Rebellion. We already have community care systems in place right now. Imagine if the billions of dollars in police budgets were channeled to that community care instead.
We commit to use the full extent of our reach and platforms to advance and win this demand locally and nationally. We commit to joining local campaigns, joining national calls to action, and using our connections to increase support and resourcing of Black LGBTQ-led groups and organizations in leadership of these campaigns. We pledge throughout all of our actions to follow the wisdom and experience of Black leadership. We have shown that when we join together as a movement, we can win. As an LGBTQ movement, we again must affirm we cannot remain neutral. Now is the time to push forward with the demands that have already been laid out by Black organizers. We will not accept anything less than defunding the police and investing in communities.
1199 LGBTQA Caucus
All Under One Roof LGBT Center
Allgo
American Civil Liberties Union
American University Washington College of Law
API Equality-LA
APIENC (API Equality – Northern California)
Arianna’s Center
Audre Lorde Project
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
BAAD!
Beyond These Walls
Black AIDS Institute
Black and Pink
Black LGBTQ+ Migrant Project
Black Visions Collective
Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth (BAGLY, Inc.)
Bowen Public Affairs Consulting
Brave Space Alliance
BreakOUT!
California TRANScends
CARES of Southwest Michigan
Casa Ruby
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research
Deaf Queer Resource Center
Decrim NY
Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee
El/La Para TransLatinas
Entre Hermanos
Equality New York
Equality North Carolina
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
ETI
Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement
FIERCE
Freedom, Inc.
Fresh Meat Productions
Fund for Trans Generations at Borealis Philanthropy
GAPIMNY-Empowering Queer & Trans Asian Pacific Islanders
Gay City: Seattle’s LGBTQ Center
Gay USA TV
Gender Diversity
Gender Justice LA
Gender Justice League
Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network (GSA Network)
Global Justice Institute
GoodWorks
Harlem Pride
Housing Works
Ingersoll Gender Center
Institute for Tongzhi Study
Intersex & Genderqueer Recognition Project
InTransitive
Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club
Just Practice
JustUs Health
La Gender Inc
Legal Aid Society
LGBTQ Allyship
LGBTQ Caucus of The Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325 (ALAA)
LGBTQ Workers Center Chicago
Louisiana Trans Advocates
Lourdes Perez Music
LYRIC
Make The Road New York
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
Mijente
Mirror Memoirs
Montana Gender Alliance
More Light Presbyterians
MPD 150
My Sistah’s House
National Council of Jewish Women
National Equality Action Team
National Lawyers Guild
National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network
National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA)
National Working Positive Coalition
NEAL Together: A Community for Change
New York Transgender Advocacy Group
Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center
OutFront Minnesota
OutNebraska
OutRight Action International
Parivar Bay Area
Peacock Rebellion
PFLAG San Antonio
Positive Women’s Network-USA
Prevention Access Campaign
Pride Center of Vermont
Pride Community Services Organization
Pride Foundation
QLatinx
Queer Cultural Center (QCC)
Queer Detainee Empowerment Project
Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project – QWOCMAP
Radio VoxFem
RANCHO Tonantzin
Reclaim the Block
Reframe Health and Justice
San Francisco Transgender Film Festival
Santa Fe Dreamers Project
SAVE – Safeguarding American Values for Everyone
Sero Project
Siskiyou Abolition Project
Social Justice Committee – First Presbyterian Church
Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative
Somos Familia
Somos Familia Valle
Southerners On New Ground
Still Here San Francisco
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
Texas Rising
The Aliveness Project
The National LGBTQ Workers Center
The Pride Center of Maryland
The Transgender District
The TransLatin@ Coalition
The Well Project
Third Wave Fund
TKO Society
Trans Equity Consulting
Trans Justice Funding Project
Trans Lifeline
Trans March SF
Trans(forming)
Trans* Leadership Alaska
TRANScending Barriers
Transformations Counseling Services
Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT)
Transgender Gender-variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP)
Transgender Law Center
Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico
TransMen Rising
TransVisible Montana
Unity Fellowship of Christ Church NYC
U.S. People Living With HIV Caucus
U.T.O.P.I.A. Seattle
Vision Change Win
VOCAL-NY, People’s Action
Woodhull Freedom Foundation
Youth Represent