“Transphobia is the whitest thing I know”
- THREAD about my speech yesterday at Black lives matter bristol, & the incident that followed. It’s really important for me I just name in public what happened, so excuse the length of this thread but maybe this is so I can move past it.

I was asked to give a speech by the incredible organisers. I did so, knowing the important of Black trans visibility in Black spaces. I spoke in memory of Elie, and the Black trans lives lost this year. I spoke of the need for us to let go of our transphobia to get free.

I did this not for any white people there.I did it for the me that continues to March for Black lives.for my brothers that in the same breath may hurt me. I did it because even despite all the times transness is ridiculed, hope requires some ignoring of past to believe in change.

After my speech, the next person on the mic shouted to the whole crowd to “find the trans girl that just spoke, get her up here”. Repeatedly shouted me out on a mic in front of everyone. Chatting some ish and really, despite his later clarified intentions, reeked of transphobia.

It was humiliating. And what followed was commotion. It seems wherever transness goes people’s uncomfortability with it causes commotion. A fan fair. Meaning the original calmness and clarity of our message gets lost. We get seen as hysterical - instead of u causing the hysterics

I thought of videos of our trans elders in history who gave speeches whilst heckled. Who were ridiculed in the face of adversity. I thought about how often we are laughed at on the street. On TV. Anywhere. I thought about ridicule. And the spectacle they make of our transness.

I thought about the trans PoC person that stopped me as I was trying to leave cus I didn’t want to hear the commotion. They were so sad to watch that commotion happen. They said it’s so sad that this is how we are treated. I am thinking of that a lot today.

I add all the usual prefixes about how I don’t want vilification. This isn’t about the individual on the mic after. This is about how damn exhausting it is as Black trans and queer people to continue to love and march and chant for people who may not do it back for us.

many of the people I love in London were mourning yesterday. We were mourning a member of our community. I started my speech with that. To ground us in the reality of Black trans life. & tbh, the commotion that followed is the exact culture that contributes to our death.

So I will say this, so it ends on my original message and not the wildness that followed:
Black trans people are dying. Sudden & slow deaths.
Your transphobia and uncomfortableness with us, is adding to a culture of our deaths.
We will not get free until we are all free.
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