i am white so i cannot speak on the violence committed against black people by the police. i AM a lesbian- so i can and will speak on the violence committed against my community.

the stonewall riots: an unscheduled police raid that ended in riots after the patrons were led to fight back. influential in starting the lgbt rights movement. led by marsha p johnson, sylvia rivera, and stormé delarverie

the lavender scare: a government-sanctioned witch hunt of lgbt people in gov’t jobs. police would raid parties, take people into questioning, force people to give out more information. no attorney allowed. thousands of jobs were lost, people were outed, and many died

AIDS crisis: a systematic genocide of gay men by the us government. a severe lack of funding for medical assistance led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands since the beginning. this also disproportionately affected black communities. SILENCE = DEATH

disclaimer: i am not trying to speak over black people on this matter. i am trying to support them and this fight by providing history and informing the lgbt community of the brutality against us

DEATH OF HARVEY MILK: harvey milk was the first openly gay elected official in the history of california. milk was assassinated by another city official, dan white. white was sentenced to seven years in prison- later reduced to five.

DEATH OF MARSHA P JOHNSON: marsha p johnson was found dead in the hudson river. police ruled the death a suicide despite criticism. several people came forward saying she had been harassed by a group of men. another said they witnessed her fighting a man, who later would [1/2]

claim he killed a drag queen named marsha at a bar. police failed to investigate. the case was reopened in november 2012, and the ruling changed from suicide to undetermined.

before (if) i continue this thread i want to make something clear: the lgbt community is not immune to racism. our history is filled with it too- we are not exempt from white privilege and we as a community have to specifically uplift black and brown lgbt folks [1/2]

because they are who got us to where we are. our history is built on the backs of trans women of color and we cannot erase that. erasing that makes us complicit in white supremacy and our own oppression. [2/2]