This June: Pride & Palestine; reflections and resources
June 2024
Wake up, wake up, wake up! It's the first of the month. Not just any month, Pride month. A month that began as a way to finally honor the civil disobedience (or rather the divine obedience - thank you amb) of the trans community in the fight for LGBTQ Rights, the fight for equal human rights. A month that ties into our current movement for liberation of Palestine.
Here are a few resources, paired with my reflections and recommendations, to inspire and fuel your work in the fight for liberation.
Who is Marsha P. Johnson?
Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson was a revolutionary black trans woman who was among the first to fight back against the racist and homophobic police at the 1969 Stonewall Riots. She was HIV positive, a sex worker, and an incredible performer and member of the group Hot Peaches. She organized people in jails and prisons, hospitals, and psych wards.
Marsha led a full life of activism, collectivism, advocacy, while fighting against transphobia and for LGBTQ rights at a time when her existence was threatened on a daily basis because of bigotry fear, and ignorance.
Marsha's body was found in the Hudson River in 1992 at the age of 46 and was initially classified as a suicide. "Police then reclassified the case as a drowning from undetermined cause, but the LGBTQ+ community was furious that the police refused to investigate further and that many press outlets did not cover her death. In 2012, the New York Police Department reopened the case into Johnson’s death."
Read more about Marsha P. Johnson here.
Honoring Marsha
Last week, I visited the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in NYC where two exhibits are displayed in honor of Marsha. Here's a brief excerpt of each with additional resources linked.
TOURMALINE (SHE/HER)
Born 1983 in Boston, MA, lives in New York, NY
Tourmaline has been essential to the widespread recognition of Johnson’s profound impact on the modern LGBTQ rights movement. In 2012, she drew on years of community organizing and education work to publish a web archive, reanimating Johnson’s previously discarded history.
In Pollinator, footage features the funeral procession and community celebration of Black trans activist and performance artist Marsha P. Johnson (1945–1992). Johnson often adorned herself with flowers, acting, as Tourmaline has put it, “as a pollinator for more expansive renderings of self and beauty in the world.”
Read more: Tourmaline's work at The Whitney
Read more: Tourmaline on Transgender Storytelling, David France, and the Netflix Marsha P. Johnson Documentary
Why Transgender people should be telling transgender stories
"Too often, people with resources who already have a platform become the ones to tell the stories of those at the margins."
By Tourmaline, October 2017
KIYAN WILLIAMS (THEY/THEM)
Born 1991 in Newark, NJ, lives in Brooklyn, NY
Looking on from nearby, Williams’s sculpture of celebrated trans activist Marsha P. Johnson stands as a witness to the ruination of the White House. Rendered in reflective aluminum, the sculpture’s surface also shows us back to ourselves.
Marsha holding a cigarette and a sign that reads "Power to the People"
Marsha standing witness to the ruination of the White House
Read more: Kiyan's work at The Whitney
Note: the image The Whitney selected of Kiyan's work does not include the sculpture of Marsha.
How does Pride relate to Palestine?
Not Gay as in Happy but Queer as in Free Palestine
Not Gay as in Happy but Queer as in Free Palestine is a statement that first appeared on placards in Palestinian queer solidarity marches around the globe, and later visualised by artist and designer Marwan Kaabourduring Pride Month in 2021.
The design is a creative wordplay, at once championing gay and queer identities, while reminding of alternative readings of queer that signify the other, the unconventional or nonconformist – ideologies that resonate with the struggle for a Free Palestine.
The sentiment also stands in bold defiance of Pinkwashing, the weaponization of supposed comparable progressiveness for LGBTQIA+ rights, especially in arguments made as a distraction from settler colonial violence. In this case the proclamation is in direct confrontation to common prejudices which, for example, conflate Islam with homophobic violence.
Resource: Progressive International Workshop
Teaching Update
In June, I will offer a consistent theme across both Slow Poses practice on Wednesdays and Meditation on Fridays, pulling from the text, Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba.
As much as I know anything, we need to keep going. This is my effort to revitalize energies and continue our advocacy.
Our weekly focus:
Week 1: What does Radical mean? covered by a guest teacher
Week 2: Grounding and Imagination
Week 3: Acceptance in Action
Week 4: Capacity Building
For BIPOC centered Restorative Yoga Practice on June 26th, the theme will focus on:
Pay It No Mind and other useful sayings for Pride
Practice will also be a fundraiser for The Marsha P. Johnson Institute, responding to unjust violence systemically, physically, and structurally as it happens to Black transgender people.
Additional Actions
Sign this Petition
End Anti-Transgender Legislative Violence Now!
Commitment to the protection and safety of BLACK trans people
Increase access to gender-affirming healthcare
Autonomy for trans youth, adults, and their families
End legislative violence against trans people
Watch this Documentary
Watch the documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson by David France with Tourmaline's words held at the center, that transgender stories should be told by transgender people.
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson is a 2017 American documentary film chronicling Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, prominent figures in gay liberation and transgender rights movement in New York City from the 1960s to the 1990s and co-founders of (STAR) Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.
The film centers on activist Victoria Cruz's investigation into Johnson's death in 1992, which was initially ruled a suicide by police despite suspicious circumstances.
This film shares much of the struggle of activists working towards liberation and their quality of life in a divided, confused time.
Notable timestamps:
At 10:15 minutes, Marsha sings to a jubilant crowd.
At 17:30 minutes, the eve of the revolution is identified as taking place in a NYC bar:
“Molotov Cocktails were flying. And I’m like, “Oh, my God, the revolution is here. Thank God." You’ve been treating us like shit all these years? Uh-uh. Now it’s our turn.”
At 37 minutes, Sylvia Rivera’s famous “y’all better quiet down” speech.
The teaching and tie-ins from trans activists to the ever-present conversation on who deserves to be free is clear.
I’m left with these ponderings:
What does it mean to be peaceful? To be radical?
When will freedom come freely?
And finally, when will the expectation for marginalized communities to accept oppression cease to exist?
Dance to this mash-up
Thank you to Twinka Masala for sharing this banger with me! I hope you enjoy it as much or more than I do!
Binge this show
I went on a world- traveling, time and mind bending, gender-expanding journey with The Wachowskis (creators of The Matrix) recently when watching their acclaimed 2015 show Sense8.
I ended this binge full of love and appreciation and ready to open more minds and hearts.
Watch the trailer below:
Read more: 'Your love has brought Sense8 back to life': cancelled Netflix show wins two-hour finale
HAPPY FUCKING PRIDE Y'ALL, LET'S FREE PALESTINE TOGETHER.
Love,
Tejal
Feedback and reflections are always appreciated here.
Tejal Yoga offers accessible movement and continuing education in a warm environment. Our knowledgeable South Asian instructors are committed to the authentic and spiritual practice of yoga. Learn more at tejalyoga.com
