An Essay By Tamara Sanaa Leigh, “All BLACK Lives Matter”
I have spent the better part of my life fighting for things, for people. Justice, equity, rights, jobs, services, a platform, a voice, a place at the table. I have spent a good part of the last eight or nine years campaigning either in the streets in protest or in the media in interviews fighting for Black lives. I’ve spent the better part of the last five years either in the press or in someone’s boardroom fighting for LGBTQ+ life, liberty and culture. I don’t think I even realized until very recently the degree those causes would intersect. I didn’t come out until adulthood and to be honest, my family circumstances were constructed differently so I didn’t suffer to the same degree as most what it meant to grow up gay in a Black household. Everyone grows up differently, but few circumstances, at least in my mind, rival the unbelievable weight of trying to survive being Black in America and treated like a second class citizen- in addition to being QTPOC (queer or trans person of color) and treated like an embarrassment or an abomination in your own home (when in fact that may have been the only place you would ever have a chance to receive love or acceptance). I’d like to pause there, not to offer further explanation but to ask you to reread the previous sentence. Now read it again. Okay, so now let's unpack. I thought alot about what I felt this very important article needed to touch on. I consulted friends and my social network of experts in this field. Please understand, the use of the word expert in this context doesn’t refer to PHDs or storied research careers, but the actual experts- the lost, now-adult children you discarded years ago because of your own belief system and the people who graciously swooped in to love them, teach them, feed and clothe them in your absence. Not the people who teach it, but those who actually live it. I could go into where and how the machine called Christianity which morphed into Black Church culture was even introduced to African culture and why and how based on that fact alone it is asinine that those doctrines would convince you to today, not to love or accept your own flesh and blood. Or how a religion based on Jesus whose entire life was grounded in love and acceptance is a very poor example of why homosexuality should be condemned since every single reported teaching preached very much the opposite. I could do that, but I won't because- google. I’m not going to get into attacking people’s belief systems because you have the right to think how you think and worship how you worship just like I have the right to be Black and walk safely down the street or be gay and love who I love. Instead, I want to talk about speeches. I have had the honor and privilege to deliver a lot of speeches. It’s terrifying to some people. I love it. The feeling of the crowd interacting with you, the energy of collective thought and purpose wafting into the air. It's a phenomenally powerful experience. Each time you deliver a speech you learn something. Kind of like being a comedian, you learn what works- what gets laughs. When you deliver a speech, you learn what resonates. Sometimes that means for the audience, sometimes that simply means within your own heart. The thing that has struck me recently is that when speaking to BLM crowds, you often end up giving two different speeches to the same audience. There are alot of different points to touch on and speaking to white allies is very different than speaking to the Black folks in the crowd. So different, that at times you have to say out loud who you are actually talking to. I say that to say- that right now, in this moment, I’m talking to Black folks. I stand with you in that cringy moment when you say Black Lives Matter and someone comes back at you with the “well don’t all lives matter?” (and yes, I know you read that in the voice just like I did). For a hundred reasons that I don’t have to tell you it's offensive, unimportant, not the point, meaningless and just a way to further invalidate us and the reason why we are out here day in and day out marching in these streets. It is intended as a distraction. So you may have attended a BLM march or protest and heard “All Black Lives Matter''. I’ve heard a hundred people say it is a distraction also, takes away from the point, takes away from the movement. When in fact it does not. When we say Black Lives Matter- we are talking to white folks and society. When we say “All Black Lives Matter'' we are talking to you. It is a subtle whisper to you Black man, beautiful Black woman to make a statement and ask the question if Black lives matter- does my Black, gay life matter to you? It’s almost rhetorical. But right now, in these streets it's being forced to become literal. Because does it? I have heard people say, “well if we are fighting for Black lives doesn’t that mean ALL Black lives?” So based on fact and reality- I ask you; does it? I often tell people for their own personal level of understanding to take anything they would say about LGBTQ+ people in a sentence and replace it with Black and see if they are still comfortable saying it or hearing it. Although we are CLEARLY still fighting for Black survival and equity, many of the same conversations that we were having about Black folks in the 60’s and 70’s, we are now having WITH Black folks about the LGBTQ+ community. I imagine you have heard white people justify their racist opinions of Black people by saying it's just a preference or a personal belief and they are entitled to their opinion. Yes? The answer in no uncertain terms is you are not entitled to an opinion that threatens my life, affects my livelihood, denies me the same rights as everyone else or allows me to be seen as less than. I never do this, but on behalf of every single Black Queer and Trans person on Earth, I respond an emphatic “ditto”. The place to put an opinion about another person’s sexual preference or gender identity is in the box where you decide your own. If you have a fundamental issue with homosexuality or the idea of gender identity and fluidity, don’t be gay or trans. Entire world issue SOLVED! Mind-blown, Right? It was literally just that simple. I will follow that with, if the basis of that belief is rooted in your Christianity, you are not a Christian. Full stop. Read it again. Christ didn’t make that rule, people did. So let me quickly tackle some of the less religiously based factors my friends, the experts, have encountered.
