47 Search results for "non conforming"

According to a recent report released by Affinity 95, transgender people and people of color are more likely to be victim of hate crimes, especially homicides. The report, “Violence Against Gender Non-Conforming People,” was released Tuesday. 

According to CNN, the family of a Honduran woman who fled her home country to seek asylum in the United States says she was physically abused while in the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) before she died. Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez entered ICE custody on May 13th after crossing the San […]

by L.G. Parker The statistics are daunting and all around us. Because black, because queer, because trans, because gender-non-conforming, because, because, because… we are less likely to be hired, more likely to go without. Some of our loved ones might even suggest that we stop acting like a lil boy or girl, stop playing dress […]

“Spelman thou name we praise STANDARDS and honor raise we’ll ever faithful be throughout eternity . . .” Reflecting on my twenty some years of existence, I must say the best decision I’ve made thus far was to attend Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Not because it was the blue print for the show, A […]

We’ve already been taught LGBTQ history. Unfortunately, too many of us don’t even know that we have been. We’ve already heard countless lectures about icons who happened to be queer—learned about their lives and work, read their words, recited their speeches, seen them remembered through art and poetry, and heralded them as some of the […]

by Kathleen Anaza  Richard Akuson obtained a level of success and visibility that could be the envy of many young people around the world. Before the age of 25, he was a licensed lawyer and opened a boutique PR firm within the Nigerian economy’s all-time highest youth unemployment rate. With all this success, his most […]

by Jo (Foderingham) Brown I remember sitting in the cafeteria in kindergarten when something made me feel anxious. When I was around this age, if I felt that way, I would physically ground myself: I’d clench my fists really hard or get up and move around. This particular day while my empty lunch box was […]

by Jo (Foderingham) Brown “When we say abolish police. We also mean the cop in your head and in your heart.” — Tourmaline Liberation theology is defined as “a movement in Christian theology that emphasizes liberation from social, political, and economic oppression.” This philosophy has been utilized in freedom struggles from Latin America to Palestine, […]

by Zesiro Maji This essay discusses Black death and racist state violence against Black children  Timelines and headlines are saturating Black people with images, stories, and video clips of Black Death. It’s a somber, sobering reminder of the grim reality of what it means to be a Black person in America. The unrelenting violence against […]

by Jo (Foderingham) Brown The COVID-19 pandemic has forced non-disabled people to socialize almost exclusively via an internet connection. Suddenly, the IRL — “in real life” — world became inaccessible for people who have never experienced inaccessibility. But the world is still inaccessible for disabled and chronically ill folks.  For the last three months in […]

*This piece is published in partnership with Breakthrough as part of By & For: Black Youth, a written series documenting the issues affecting Black girls and gender non-conforming youth.* This essay mentions death, suicide and state violence.   “Memory is a tough place. You were there. If this is not the truth, it is also not a lie.” […]

by JeCorey Holder It all started among The Straights on Facebook. Let me set the mood. The rest of us were all minding our magical, stylish, non-straight business and I was enjoying a particularly fragrant blueberry tea. I saw a friend of mine going off about a woman’s post that went as follows: “Thousands of [...]