Global Pride 2020
This Global Pride day, we reflect on our 2020 experience of intersectionality and take note of those making positive impacts in our communities. [Words by Clare Everson]
June 2020 has been a huge, impactful, emotional, difficult, powerful, historical culmination of events and activism that have, and will continue to, shape our understanding of intersectionality.
Equality has been brought to the forefront of our thoughts. COVID-19 has not impacted everyone equally. The pandemic has revealed stark contrasts between social and economic situations, enabling or limiting access to healthcare and sanitation, private transport, support after job loss or stable housing. As many of us know, race is a factor too (Office of National Statistics).
Furthermore, the death of George Floyd and the anti-racism movement have brought systemic racial inequality to the foreground of our thoughts and actions. Protests and the sharing of experiences have stirred the global population in to action, reflection, education and activism.
With Black Lives Matter protests galvanising cities in to action, LGBTQ+ communities around the world remembered Marsha P. Johnson, a Black Trans activist who cast the first brick during the 1969 Stonewall riots. (COVID-19 and the impact on the LGBTQ+ community, We Are Social)
Earlier this month, Dominique Fells and Riah Milton, both Trans women, were killed in separate attacks in the US. As their families and the LGBTQ+ communities remembered their lives, many reflected on the disproportionate number of Black Trans men and women in the transgender community who are subjected to violence.
Moreover, political decisions continue to threaten and impact the rights of transgender people. In the US, the Trump administration have reversed health protections for transgender people, and the in the UK Boris Johnson is reported to be dropping gender self-identification plans.
If we even needed reminding, these events have confirmed again that it is often intersectional groups who are the most vulnerable.
Throughout the music industry, including many people within and close to the shesaid.so community, activists continually strive to support and amplify the voices of the most vulnerable. Whether this be providing safe spaces, using their position to share experiences and educate others, or galvanising impact through music itself. Here we share a few examples of the powerful actions and initiatives making an impact in the music community.
Madame Gandhi
Madame Gandhi is an artist and activist whose mission is to celebrate gender liberation. She has toured drumming for M.I.A, Thievery Corporation and most recently Oprah Winfrey on her 2020 Vision Stadium Tour with morning dance party Daybreaker. Re-watch Madame Gandhi’s interview with shesaid.so founder, Andreea Magdalina, talking music, intersectionality, activism, misogony in the music industry and using your platform for good.
And listen to Madame Gandhi’s essential Pride playlist.
Kim Anh
Kim Anh has been a part of underground dance culture for well over a decade, cultivating her own sound from the early styles of house, acid house and techno. What started as a response to mainstream nightlife, Kim Anh’s first party Booby Trap! quickly ignited a new era of queer nightlife for women where the undiscovered was most celebrated. Tendencies is her latest addition to late-late night. Described as ‘a safe space’, Tendencies serves to create diversity in LA’s underground nightlife by supporting underrepresented communities in music. She has hosted voter registration drives, coordinated rallies and served as an official ambassador of LA Pride. Her efforts have helped to raise over $1 million in direct support of the LGBTQ community.
Tiffany Yu
Tiffany is a frequent speaker on disability representation through an intersectional lens, mental health, and embracing adversity. Check out Tiffany Yu’s podcast here. She is the CEO & Founder of Diversability (rebranding disability through community) and the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter (monthly micro-grants for disability projects, $39.5k granted to 40 projects in 8 countries).
Kai-Isaiah Jamal
Kai-Isaiah Jamal is a spoken word poet/performer who tackles social matters through dialogue. Mainly focusing on talks, poetry and open conversation attempting to deconstruct moulds regarding gender and stereotypes within the black culture which influences hyper masculinity and unavailability to be vulnerable to people of colour with emphasis on self-exploration within his work. Being a TPOC, Kai-Isaiah Jamal’s work explores the trials and triumphs trans folk face and feel. Hoping to give visibility for trans folk of colour he speaks the unspoken and represents the unrepresented. Read Kai-Isaiah’s interview with Dazed talking gender, trans-identity and movement.
BBZ London
“We are an ever-evolving curatorial & creative production collective born, raised and based in South East London with roots in nightlife and clubbing culture. Prioritising the experiences of queer womxn, trans folk and non binary people of colour in all aspects of our work, we provide physical and online platforms for this specific community. We work to democratise access to public institutions and challenge insitutionalised behaviours to diversify.”
Honey Dijon
Honey Dijon is a DJ, fashion icon and trans rights activist, speaking widely on trans visibility. Read her May 2020 interview with SSENSE here.
Chantelle Ayanna
Chantelle Ayanna is a London based DJ, Producer and history graduate. One of the original DJ’s at lick events — a club night and recently turned nightclub space run by queer wxmen for all wxmen and their non binary friends — she has had pivotal involvement regarding musical direction/the culture of sound, as well as general event advice to founder and close friend Teddy Edwards. Chantelle always aims to reflect and converse with her peer group through music — which is an often ignored demographic on the queer / wxmen focused events scene in London.
Check out Chantelle Ayanna’s mix for the shesaid.so mix series.
Mica Coca
Mica is a London based DJ hailing from Manchester, bringing the vibrations of energetic House music, elements of Chicago and New York and mixes it with UK garage to pay homage to their influences. Music is a lifelong passion, and Mica brings that love to create safe spaces for marginalised people. She is the co-founder of QTPOC club nights such as Resisdance and Nite Dykes. The power of music brings people together and energises her to fight for common causes such as housing and LGBT rights in London. Resisdance throw fundraiser parties that raise money for grassroots campaigns and also puts on free DJ workshops for women and non-binary people. Mica is recognised in the London Scene as an activist who regularly plays for iconic queer club nights in East London.
Looking for ways to celebrate Pride at home?
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on Pride organisations worldwide with hundreds of marches and events cancelled or postponed. Global Pride provides an opportunity for the LGBTI+ community around the world to come together and celebrate diversity and equality during these challenging times.
VICE just released a list of free LGBTQ documentaries and music streams.
Club Q
Club Q is an underground queer nightclub hosted every night of the new socially distanced reality from 9 p.m. to midnight on the videoconferencing app Zoom. It has even attracted a celebrity guest or two, including Charli XCX, who hosted a set for 1,000 fans one night, supermodel Kiko Mizuhara and actress Hunter Schafer. Robyn Instagrammed about the club one night. Read more here.
Elle shared a list of ways to advocate for and financially support Black Trans lives:
Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MJPI): “The Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI) protects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people. We do this by organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting our collective power.”
Black Trans Femmes in the Arts: “The mission of the BTFA Collective is to connect the community of black trans women and non-binary femmes in the arts & to build power among ourselves.”
The Okra Project:”The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them.”
The Black Trans Travel Fund:”The Black Trans Travel Fund is a mutual-aid based organization committed to uplifting the narratives and supporting the livelihoods of Black trans women. Launched in June of 2019, BTTF was developed for the purpose of providing Black transgender women with the financial resources needed to be able to self-determine and access safer alternatives to travel, where women feel less likely to experience verbal harassment or physical harm. We are proud to have already redistributed over $60,000 to Black trans women in need!”
Black Visions Collective: “As an organization dedicated to Black liberation and to collective liberation, we need a radical and ongoing investment in our own healing. By claiming love for our own bodies, our own psyches, our own experiences, and by building the resources we need to integrate healing justice into all that we do, we are insisting on conditions that can carry us towards the next generation of work, and towards a deeper place of freedom for all of us.”
Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society (G.L.I.T.S.): “Gays & Lesbians Living In A Transgender Society is a grassroots organization dedicated to supporting the LGBTQIA+ community on a global scale.”
UK support groups:
London LGBTIQ+ COVID-19 Mutual Aid
Manchester a 24-hour virtual LGBT community centre
LGBTQ mental health service Mind Out
