Statement on the Massacre at Pulse in Orlando
As a student coalition encompassing queer, transgender, and Muslim Black students across California, our solidarity is presently with the LGBTQ community in Orlando, around the country, and around the world. A terrorist attack, the biggest shooting in American history, at Pulse nightclub (a gay club) killed over 50 people and left 53 injured.
We live in a settler state that, from its creation, has sought to regulate and violently marginalize queer and transgender individuals. Through cisnormativity, we have come to understand that certain kinds of bodies and genders are wrong. Through heteronormativity, we have come to understand that certain sexualities are wrong. Through racial capitalism, we have come to understand that the commodification of [racialized] bodies and genders and sexualities is normal. After 9/11, we have come to learn that the aggressive demonization and securitization of Muslim communities is justified and acceptable. ALL of these systems - heteronormativity, cisnormativity, capitalism, and racism - operate in tandem, and it's no mistake that the very politicians who create and support anti-queer and trans legislation are suddenly tripping on their own feet to spew hateful Islamophobic rhetoric in sudden "support" of queer communities.
As we fight white supremacy, we must challenge violent normativities and NECESSARILY support and stand in constant solidarity with queer and trans communities, particularly our queer and trans Black siblings sitting at the intersections of anti-blackness and queer/transantagonisms. Our thoughts are with the Orlando community, as well as our own ABC members, and our fight to make a safe and free world for ALL Black people continues. A luta continua! Islamophobia
