When: Friday, June 27, 2008 – 3:00pm
Where: Starting rally at City Hall Park, Manhattan, NY
Tomorrow is the fourth annual Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice, organized by the TransJustice working group of the Audre Lorde Project. It’s the fourth year that I’ll be going and every year has been exciting, inspirational, and powerful. (You can read about the 2006 march here.) The Trans Day of Action is my favorite NYC Pride rally/march type event, because it’s both a powerful political demonstration and a strong celebration of our communities. It’s way more inclusive than the Dyke March in both the people it gathers together and the issues it addresses, and it’s obviously way more political than the very commercial and more mainstream big Pride march on Sunday. From the ALP website:
We call on our Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) community and on all of our allies from many movements to join us for the 4th Annual Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice. We as TGNC People of Color (POC) recognize the importance of working together alongside other movements to change the world we want to see. We live in a time when people of color, immigrants and poor people are disproportionately underserved, face higher levels of discrimination, heightened surveillance and experience increased violence at the hands of the state. It is critical that we unite and work together towards dismantling the transphobia, racism, classism, sexism, ageism, ableism, homophobia and xenophobia that permeates throughout our movements for social justice. Let’s come together to let the world know that TGNC rights will not be undermined and together we will not be silenced!
I strongly encourage folks in the NYC area to come out and march with us. It’s open to all allies, so anyone can (and should) come.
cross-posted at AngryBrownButch
Oof. Why is the one NYC pride event that seems least problematic for me to attend politically and gender-wise being held too early for me to get there from work?! Damn logistics.
I think my compromise this year will be going to the Dyke March, but volunteering with the Task Force instead of actually wedging my genderqueer ass into the march. Which is a crappy compromise, since “dyke” is pretty much the only word I’ve identified with continuously since initially coming out.
Yeah, it does suck that it’s during work hours! I feel lucky that I have a flexible job (tech freelancer) so I can make stuff during work days.)
My genderqueer ass also has issues fitting into the Dyke March, though I find myself identifying less and less with the label “dyke” because it’s so gendered both in terms of who a dyke is supposed to be and who a dyke is supposed to love/fuck/etc. That’s a shame, though, because I don’t think “dyke” needs to be limiting like that. After some fairly unpleasant interactions with Dyke March organizers over that sort of thing, I’m pretty much done with that march until/unless things change.
This looks so wonderful, and if I had the money to drive to New York, I’d love to go. I wish you all a great time!
I was there and it was pretty awesome from what I saw. Keep up the good work!
We were protesting a building near the Seaport. I have no idea what that was about. I couldn’t make out the garbled bullhorn, but I’d like to find out more.
We were protesting a building near the Seaport. I have no idea what that was about. I couldn’t make out the garbled bullhorn, but I’d like to find out more. Any info would be cool.