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Gender, Sexuality, & Black Liberation

Black has always been Queer

Welcome to Month 2 of our year-long focus on Black Liberation as Collective Liberation. This month, we’re focusing on gender, sexuality, and Black liberation. I’m so excited to bring you these amazing conversations and resources. This episode focuses heavily on Black queerness with contributions from Ericka Hart, J Mase III, Angelica Ross and richie reseda. Throughout the month we’ll cover other aspects of gender, sexuality and Black liberation in depth - including focus on reproductive justice and on Black women friendship. This episode meant a lot to me and I hope that it means a lot to you as well as we continue to work on getting free together.

Blackness, Transness, Queerness and the current political climate

Are you sick of talking about the election yet? I know I am. And yet, we must place this conversation in political context if we are to understand where we are now and what we need to be aware of in the future. Palestinians, Black people and trans people found their bodies and their freedoms at the center of political debate this election season, even more so than in recent years. And as our lives were used for political gain or ignored for political expediency, we were left more unsafe and yet somehow blamed for that unsafety.

Further Reading:

Why is the GOP escalating attacks on trans rights? Experts say the goal is to make sure evangelicals vote

US Republican transgender laws pile up, setting 2024 battle lines

“Kamala Is For They/Them”: Republican Attack Ads Remain Obsessed With Trans People

Some Democrats blame party’s position on transgender rights in part for Harris’ loss

Harris Loss Has Democrats Fighting Over How to Talk About Transgender Rights

The Maine Millennial: Trans people had nothing to do with Harris’ loss

Democrats would get nothing for throwing trans Americans under the bus

Trump’s fierce attacks on DEI reflect a longtime GOP focus

Republican lawmakers are backing dozens of bills targeting diversity efforts on campus and elsewhere

Crow Jim: Project 2025’s Obsession With Reverse Racism

‘Woke’ didn’t lose the US election: the patrician class who hijacked identity politics did

And while not discussed in this video, it is important to note that intersex people are also at risk from anti-trans legislation as well: Intersex youths are also hurt by anti-trans laws, advocates say

The History of the Denial of Bodily Autonomy of Black People in the US

The denial of bodily autonomy is at the core of white supremacy and the oppression of Black people in the United States. We cannot ignore how fundamentally gender justice and reproductive justice issues are tied to Black liberation.

Further Reading:

(Un)safe Spaces: The Relationship Between Slavery and Sexual Victimization of Black Women

Enslaved Women’s Resistance to Slavery and Gendered Violence

Sexual Violence Against Enslaved Men

The Sexual Abuse of Black Men under American Slavery

The Troubling Past of Forced Sterilization of Black Women and Girls in Mississippi and the South

The Right to Have Children: A Look Into the Role of Forced Sterilization in the U.S.

Surgical Sterilization, Regret, and Race: Contemporary Patterns

The School-to-Prison Pipeline

How the “Child Welfare” System Destroys Black Families with Prof. Dorothy Roberts

‘Family policing system’: how the US criminalizes Black parenting

Why Intersectionality Matters

Black women, Black trans and gender-expansive people, and Black queer people are at unique risk from state violence and oppression. And while many Black women and Black queer and trans people have been the fiercest fighters in our Black liberation movements, it is rare that Black women or Black queer and trans people are centered by Black liberation movements as a whole. When we are not intersectional in our Black liberation work, we are not doing Black liberation work at all.

Further Reading:

America’s War on Black Trans Women

New Everytown Report: More Than 70 Percent of Homicides of Transgender People Involve a Firearm, with Disproportionate Impacts on Black Trans Women

Black trans women face a unique threat rooted in centuries of history

The Black Lives Matter Movement Must Include Trans People

Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2024

Why Are There So Many Women in Jail?

The intersection of racism, discrimination, bias, and homophobia toward African American sexual minority patients with cancer within the health care system

The Queering of Blackness

If queerness is to exist outside of established “norms” then has not Blackness always been queer? Let’s explore how Blackness has been queered, what it means to be Black and queer and our history before whiteness and white supremacy.

Further Reading:

Queering Black History and Getting Free

Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology

The Missing Colors of the Rainbow: Black Queer Resistance

The Anti-Trans Panic Is Rooted in White Supremacist Ideology

Anti-Trans Sports Bills Aren’t Just Transphobic — They’re Racist, Too

Why Transphobia Is at the Heart of the White Power Movement

The Gender Binary Is a Tool of White Supremacy

Queerphobia in the Black Community & White Supremacy’s Impact on Black Relationships

Further Reading:

Stop Saying Black People Are More Homophobic Than Others

Echoes of Slavery: Reflections on Contemporary Racial Discrimination in Black Americans’ Romantic Relationships

Let’s Get To Work: Organizations to join, support, and learn from in the fight for Gender Justice, Queer and Trans Liberation, and Black Liberation

Marsha P Johnson Institute

Lavender Rights Project

Incite!

Black Trans Travel Fund

SnapCo

TENT

Black Women Radicals

Black Feminist Future

SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Initiative

The Afiya Center

Black Mamas Matter Alliance

Sisterlove

Me Too.

Freedom Inc

Black Women Revolt

Black Trans Prayer Book

This Episode’s Amazing Contributors:

Ericka Hart: website | Instagram | podcast

J Mase III: website | Instagram | Black Trans Prayer Book

Angelica Ross: website | Instagram | Podcast

richie reseda: website | Instagram | Songs From The Hole

Where you can find more Until All Of Us Are Free

Instagram | YouTube

Ijeoma Oluo: website | Instagram | Behind the Book | Be A Revolution

This project is created and hosted by Ijeoma Oluo

Video and podcast produced by Isabel Khalili