Updates, Statements & Releases

  • Pushing Back Against WMATA’s New Policies Targeting Low-Income Riders

    Posted by · January 08, 2018 3:00 PM

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  • What No Justice No Pride Built in 2017

    Posted by · December 23, 2017 3:00 PM

    As 2017 comes to a close, join No Justice No Pride (NJNP) in fighting for the rights of ALL trans and queer people, because there can be no pride for some without liberation for all!

    collage1.jpgSince its inception in February, NJNP has worked tirelessly to support trans and queer organizing in the District of Columbia and build community and solidarity with our chapters and allied groups both nationally and internationally. In the Trump era, as trans and queer folks (especially those who are black, brown, Muslim, migrants, Native, and/or disabled) face continued attacks, we know that effective resistance to violence against us depends upon demanding more from those who claim our voices, profit from our traumas, and ignore the lived violence faced by our communities.

    In the face of these injustices - in conjunction with supporting the work of our local, national, and international partners - we have formed two primary programs, but need your help to sustain the work!

    As the once radical LGBTQ+ movement was consolidated into the non-profit industrial complex, Gay Inc. formed and continues to tirelessly work to assimilate itself into mainstream cis-hetero systems of power that depend upon white supremacy, patriarchy, settler colonialism, and other systems of oppression.

  • Complicity is Horrifying

    Posted by · October 10, 2017 11:29 PM

    On October 28th, the Human Rights Campaign is holding its 21st annual “national dinner,” a lavish $400-per-plate fundraiser at the Washington, DC convention center. Celebrities, corporate CEO’s, bankers, and politicians will come together for a night of self-congratulatory celebration, raising money for an organization that for decades has worked to achieve its narrow vision of equality that ignores the lived realities of most of the trans and queer community.

    HRC’s national dinner has been one of the most glaring examples of the mainstream LGBT movement’s myopic attempt to align itself with big corporations, weapons manufacturers, out of touch politicians, predatory banks, and wealthy donors. This year is no different, just look at the dinner’s Presenting Sponsor: Wells Fargo.

    “Wells Fargo has demonstrated a high level of commitment to equality,” reads the website for HRC’s national dinner. “Please consider supporting those that support us.”

    Support “us”? Who is us? Who exactly does Wells Fargo support?

    “Us” doesn’t include 120,000 individuals currently held in private prisons (to which Wells Fargo provides funding and invests in) or their loved ones.

    “Us” certainly doesn’t include the nearly 15,000 immigrants who are detained each day in private detentions centers (to which Wells Fargo provides funding and invests in).

    “Us” doesn’t include the Native communities whose sacred land was decimated by the Dakota Access Pipeline (to which Wells Fargo provided funding).

    “Us” doesn’t include the trans Wells Fargo employee who received an undisclosed settlement after she was harassed and mocked nearly to the point of suicide by her coworkers and managers.

    “Us” doesn’t include Black folks in Ferguson, Missouri, (and countless other cities across the US) where the foreclosure rate has risen to 50% because of Wells Fargo’s racist predatory lending.

    “Us” doesn’t include people of color in Baltimore, who were targeted for subprime loans – or what Wells Fargo employees themselves like to call “ghetto loans.”

    Racism isn’t just a by-product of Wells Fargo’s actions – it is at the core of its practices across the board. From its financing of the private prison system, immigrant detention facilities and the Dakota Access Pipeline to its predatory lending practices that target communities of color, to the way it treats its own employees, Wells Fargo demonstrates a toxic disregard – if not outright disdain – for people of color, immigrants and Native communities.

    In the current political climate, when people of color, trans folks, immigrants, and working class folks are under attack, HRC continues to celebrate and promote – of all possible corporate sponsors - Wells Fargo.

    For years HRC has worked to slowly kill the dream of radical trans and queer liberation – a vision of liberation that recognizes the vast diversity of the queer and trans community and the fact that none of us can be free until all of us are free. By abandoning the most vulnerable members of our communities and prioritizing the most powerful, HRC has appealed to the United States’ core values: White Supremacy, Respectability, and Capitalist Greed. With this “strategy” they have taken aim at the laws that keep powerful, cisgender, white gays and lesbians from fully accessing their privilege.

    But HRC doesn’t just ignore the rest of us. Instead, they partner with institutions like Wells Fargo that contribute to our marginalization, helping ensure that their corporate partners – like Wells Fargo – appear on the “right side of history.” It’s a win-win: HRC gets money, corporations get a “socially-responsible” façade, while they continue to perpetuate toxic systems of oppression.

    In recent years HRC has tried to get with the program. They’ve tried to provide symbolic support to causes like Black Lives Matter and the movement for immigrant justice. But these efforts are in bullshit as long as they continue their partnership with Wells Fargo. HRC needs a wake up call.

    At this year’s national dinner, that’s exactly what we’ll provide. This year our radical dream of trans and queer liberation is back from the dead.

    No Justice No Pride is planning a fabulous, frightening, and festive disruption of HRC’s annual corporate clusterfuck. Join us outside the convention center on October 28th, where we’ll dress up as Zombies and give HRC something to be afraid of. Let’s show that trans and queer folks will no longer accept HRC’s complicity with institutional racism, Native genocide, and mass deportation. The movement for trans and queer liberation used to be something radical and beautiful - something we could really be proud of. Let’s bring it back from the dead.

    Sign up below to get involved. We'll send you logistics and other important information as the action approaches.

  • Statement: Trans Liberation, Not US Militarism: Selective Outrage Over Trans Military Ban Obscures Larger Failures to Support Trans Communities

    Posted by · July 26, 2017 6:58 PM

    While we are concerned for the well-being of trans individuals currently serving in the military, we are skeptical of the “outrage,” calls for protest, and fundraising appeals we are seeing from LGBT folks and their allies. Many of those coming out the loudest against the ban on trans military service have been silent as trans folks across the country continue to be killed, as they continue to suffer harassment and violence at the hands of police, and as they continue to be denied housing, jobs, healthcare, respect, and dignity.

    We’ve been in the streets showing up for trans folks. Where have you been? What have you been doing?

    We are deeply skeptical of the degree to which criticisms of the ban on trans military service ignore the grave injustices carried out by the U.S. military and the military industrial complex. It is possible — and necessary — to criticize policies that single out and attack trans individuals while refusing to endorse, support, or celebrate the U.S. military. Pandering to dangerous sentiments of nationalism and patriotism is no way to garner respect and dignity for trans folks. We will not allow the trans community to be leveraged to support U.S. militarism and imperialism.

    We reject the the idea that trans military service should be a priority for the movement for trans liberation. As other trans activists and scholars have pointed out, advocacy around military service only became visible after wealthy billionaire donors, “dedicated to celebrating the US military” put their money behind it. For trans individuals, the right to housing, jobs, food, healthcare, education, and safety should not be contingent on putting one’s life on the line in service of the U.S. war machine.

    When thinking about how to respond to Trump’s ban on trans military service, it’s important to listen to the voices of trans folks first. Today, we’ve been inspired by the words of some of our trans comrades on our newsfeeds:

    There are trans people RIGHT NOW IN AMERICA who are homeless, jobless, without healthcare, being denied access to food and resources and you know this. There are trans people RIGHT NOW IN AMERICA who still have not received JUSTICE for the state sanctioned violence we face every day from this murderous regime. And you want me to give my life to a country that never gave a fuck about me? Now you all of a sudden y’all care about trans people? Because of the military… who are you and why are you here? Go ahead and make a difference! www.twocc.us/donate

    -Lourdes Ashley Hunter, Trans Women of Color Collective

    “This ban serves as a disturbing model for trans health care in the US and how institutions will further fail to protect us. To be considered a burden because we demand and deserve affordable and equitible care is nothing short of dehumanizing. BUT most importantly, where are y’all when TWOC are being murdered and abused on the streets? That’s the crux right there. We live on these frontlines daily, and if only cis advocacy could shift it’s focus to what’s really affecting us, we’ll actually feel like we’re heard rather than cis folks steering a ship that’s not theirs. Don’t get me wrong, cis folks do play a crucial and necessary part in all of this, but when an issue like this is what creates your yearning for allyship, then you’re missing the big picture”

    -Frida Ibarra

    “Don’t worry white trans people you can still join the border patrol and police if you really need to kill colonized people.”

    -Malinalxóchitl Cimi

    We refuse to make the ability of trans (and queer) individuals to serve as oppressive agents of the state a central part of our vision of trans liberation. Our liberation cannot and will not be achieved by gaining access to systems fueled by death and destruction. We reject the arguments of those who reduce this issue to a matter of equality versus inequality, because fighting for equality within a corrupt and oppressive system perpetuates injustice.

    And to those who claim that military service presents a viable employment opportunity for trans folks — we encourage you to take a moment to examine the systemic barriers to trans employment that make this line of thinking possible.

    It is our sincere hope that those mobilizing today in opposition to the trans military ban also recognize their duty to mobilize in opposition to rampant discrimination against trans individuals everywhere. We implore cisgender allies to think twice before celebrating the possibility of trans folks putting their lives on a line for a country that has yet to affirm or respect their value as human beings.

    To read more on this topic, check out these resources:

    Sex, Gender, and War in an Age of Multicultural Imperialism — Dean Spade & Craig Willse (2014)

    Transgender Activists Speak Out Against Campaign to End Trans Military Ban — Toshio Meronek (2014)

    Against Equality: Don’t Ask to Fight Their Wars — Against Equality Collective (2012)

    A Military Job Is Not Economic Justice — Queers for Economic Justice Statement on DADT (2010)

    Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times — Jasbir K. Puar (2007)

    To speak with a representative from No Justice No Pride, contact drew@nojusticenopride.org.

    No Justice No Pride is an ad-hoc collective of organizers and activists from across the District of Columbia. We exist to end the LGBT movement’s complicity with systems of oppression that further marginalize queer and trans individuals. Our members are black, brown, queer, trans, gender nonconforming, bisexual, indigenous, two-spirit, formerly incarcerated, disabled, white allies and together we recognize that there can be no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.

    www.nojusticenopride.org

  • Statement: Another World Is Possible: Fighting Back Against DC’s Marginalization of Trans Women

    Posted by · July 13, 2017 7:02 PM

    WASHINGTON — Following their direct action at last month’s Capital Pride parade, No Justice No Pride, a coalition of local trans and queer organizers, activists and community-based organizations, took to the the streets once again on the evening of July 13. The rally and march, entitled, “All Out For Trans Women: When Under Attack, We Fight Back!” kicked off at Freedom Plaza, where where local activists and organizers shared testimony about the consequences of Washington, D.C.’s severe neglect of trans women of color. Following the rally, the group took to the streets and marched to MPD headquarters.

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  • Statement: Days After Pride Month, Attacks on Trans Women of Color in DC Continue

    Posted by · July 07, 2017 3:00 PM

    Silence from MPD after hit-and-run lands Black trans woman in ICU

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