BLACK LIVES MATTER

Hey Folks,

First, the Boston Dyke March Committee would like to say unequivocally: Black Lives Matter. Even before the inception of this country, lives have been unfairly lost to white supremacy and police brutality; George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade are just some of the latest in a long list of Black (and Indigenous and non-black POC) people who have been murdered by the State. We mourn deeply for all the lives lost to police brutality and the violent white supremacist systems it reinforces.

As members of the LGBTQ+ community, we have a long history with police violence, and we understand the most marginalized among us are the most likely to be affected by this violence; with trans and disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and non-black People of Color) being particularly at risk. Therefore, we encourage members of the white LGBTQ+ community to read up on our shared history, as well as the history of police violence against the BIPOC in our communities. We encourage you to have conversations about white supremacy and police violence within your community and within your spheres of influence -- we encourage you to be a loud voice fighting for anti-racist policy change and understanding.

As you know, Pride is a rememberance of the Stonewall Riots, which lasted 6 days and kicked off the wider gay rights movement that has given us the rights we have managed to capture today. These riots were primarily lead by Black, POC, trans, and gender-nonconforming LGBTQ+ folks. Any LGBTQ+ folks who would prefer order to justice should look at their own community's history and think very hard about whether they'd have what they do today if their LGBTQ+ forebears had taken the same approach.

Across the nation, the militarized police response to protests is unacceptable. Peaceful protestors (and the journalists reporting on them) have been: beaten by police, tear gassed, pepper sprayed, shot with "less lethal" 40mm rounds (rubber bullets) and pepper bullets, and arrested for exercising their 1st amendment rights. In Boston, our committee members have both personally experienced and seen numerous reports of police escalating tensions and acting aggressively with the intent to terrify or provoke peaceful protestors.

We would like to draw attention to the similarities between these current police actions and the violent police response by the city of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during the 2019 counter protest to the "straight pride" event. These actions and those that came before them remain a shameful, yet telling, attack against marginalized communities in Boston and the Commonwealth.

We firmly believe that human lives are more valuable than property. The fact that the state and local government can move so quickly and with such specialized support in response to property destruction yet so slowly, and without resources, in response to the loss of lives either by police violence, white supremacist violence, or the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, is illustrative of the deep-rooted, systemic problems in our society.

To put our words into action, the Boston Dyke March is in the process of reaching out to other LGBTQ+ focused groups, led by people of color, to find out how we can best support their efforts. The Dyke March may have been cancelled, but if any BIPOC-led groups are interested in putting together an event, the Dyke March commits to providing free labor, experience, and resources to those efforts.

Finally, we call on all LGBTQ+ folks and allies (but especially white LGBTQ+ folks and allies) to do the following:

Thank you for reading this far; we hope all of you remain safe and healthy in these difficult times. We’ll see you out on the streets!

In Power and Solidarity,

The Boston Dyke March Committee