by Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement (TQLM)
“After the news of 50 people killed at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL, we asked four Trans and Queer Latinx leaders for their thoughts. Here you will find the raw and unscripted footage.” –TQLM
Transcript:
[Text on screen, no audio] We sat down with Trans and Queer community members and asked them… What are your thoughts on the #PulseShooting?
Alan Pelaez Lopez: What happened in Orlando is not new, because we, people of color, have a history in the U.S. of never mattering. We have a history of enslavement, we have a history of exploitation, we have a history of criminalization, and we have a history of violence. And that is what happened today.
Bea Esperanza Fonseca: The attack was years in the making and based on hundreds and hundreds of years of oppression and violence targetted towards queer and trans people of color. The media will use labels like “terrorism” and other things to get us away from understanding how our culture and institutions like the media, like education, and like prisons, have been complicit in this attack and are complicit in the ways that our bodies are put at risk every single day – both, inside of our homes and out in public space, such as the streets.
Jorge Gutierrez: We as queer and trans Latinx people need to see what happened in Orlando as a reminder that our human dignity, our lives, are connected to the liberation of Black people, Muslim people, of women, of Trans people. We cannot move forward without working with these communities to end white supremacy, patriarchy. When we say “Latinx” it includes Asian folks , Black people, Muslims, NativeAmericans. For us, we’re one culture but with very diverse experiences.
Jennicet Gutierrez: We need to put an end to this because it is not one specific group that is to blame. It is the system that has created the violence since the colonization started over 500 years ago.
Do not republish anything from this site without expressed written permission from BGD. For more info, go here.
