MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The month of June is recognized by many as Gay Pride Month, celebrated with pride parades and awareness campaigns for equality.
This Pride, with the growing Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd, LGBTQ activists say the movement needs to be inclusive for all black voices.
Whether visible or not, the LGBTQ community is marching along with the Black Lives Matter demonstrations happening the last two weeks in Memphis.
"Everyone wants justice, equality, and liberty, so I think the timing is perfect. All Black Lives Matter. We have to protest and fight against in type of injustice in this world," Dr. Davin Clemons said.
Dr. Clemons is the executive director of Tri-State Black Pride. He says black LGBTQ voices need to be heard too.
"Black and brown LGBTQ people have to be at that table. The injustices that we are experiencing have to be in that conversation," he says.
He says the large issues at hand for the black LGBTQ community is a high number of homeless youth and the violence against and the murder of black transgender people. In 2020, 12 transgender people have been murdered according to the Human Rights Campaign; the majority black.
"Trans people of color are the highest group of individuals who die at the hands of police and the highest group of people that die in a violent killing," OUTMemphis Executive Director Molly Quinn said.
Two days after George Floyd's murder, a transgender man named Tony McDade was killed by police in Tallahassee. That incident is under investigation, but his name is not widely known nor mentioned in protests.
"It's like we get the double whammy. We get racism and then we have to deal with homophobia," Gwen Clemons, Tri-State Black Pride for Girls Chairwoman.
Without the black LGBTQ community, Pride month as we know it would not exist. The birth of pride began 51 years ago this month, with the Stonewall Inn riots, led by black and brown trans people fighting one of the main issues still at hand today, police brutality.
"Fifty years later we have so many rights that we didn't have then but that origin is a very important piece of our story," Quinn said.
Quinn said OUTMemphis stands with solidarity with Black Lives Matter and recognize they have room to improve as an ally to lift black LGBTQ voices.
"It's of upmost importance to us that we do stand in solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement, but we also know that we have to learn how to stand within that movement and how to be a true collaborator," she said.
Both Tri-State Black Pride and OUTMemphis say black LGTBQ voices cannot be allowed to fall through the cracks of conversation and change.
"Right now is a pivotal time to make sure that everybody issues are heard and addressed. We are not a subset of the black community. We are the people and the voice of the black community," G. Clemons said.
The final details are still being worked out, but a "Pride Ride for Black Lives" is being organized for this Saturday.
