peechy

KSH // 20 // OH + NY

[paintedout]

Anish Kapoor, Sketchbook selections

[anarcho-queer]

The Shot Glass Heard Around The World

In 1969, the Stonewall riots — precipitated when the NYPD burst into the famed gay bar and started being their usually abusive selves — defined the modern gay movement.

Among the first to physically resist the police was Marsha P. Johnson, the now infamous transgender rights activist who co-founded S.T.A.R. (Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries) with Sylvia Rivera in the ’70s.

At 1:20 in the morning on Saturday, June 28, 1969, four plainclothes police officers entered Stonewall Inn and announced “Police! We’re taking the place!“ 

Officers forced the customers to form into two lines divided by perceived gender and show them their genitals to confirm if it matched the gender on their identification card.

At some point during the raid, Marsha Johnson proclaimed, ‘I got my civil rights!’ and then threw a shot glass into a mirror, adding on to the tension and creating an atmosphere of resistance. Some witnesses and historians believe her action is what instigated the riot.

Patrons began to refuse to produce their I.D. and police decided to arrest everyone still at the bar. Those who were not arrested gathered outside the bar and quickly drew a crowd of over 1,000 queers. As rumors spread through the crowd that those inside were being beaten by cops, they began throwing pennies, beer bottles and other items at police.

A drag queen who was shoved by an officer in front of the crowd responded by hitting him on the head with her purse as the crowd began to boo.

Soon after, an unidentified lesbian was hit on the head with a billy club after complaining that her handcuffs were too tight. She faced the bystanders and shouted, “Why don’t you guys do something?”

Police threw her into the back of a patrol wagons, at that point the crowd became a mob and collectively resisted the police.

——-

Along with Sylvia Rivera, the two transgender revolutionaries created S.T.A.R. and STAR House in which they housed, fed and clothed homeless drag queens and trans* youth by hustling in the streets of NYC so that their children didn’t have to.

Marsha P. Johnson is often credited for inciting the Stonewall Riots, yet she receives close to no recognition by mainstream Gay Organizations and the queer community. I have no doubt that the erasure of Marsha’s participation in the riots and the Gay Liberation Movement is due to her being a black, transgender radical. Had she’d been a white gay cis-male, her name would be permanently embedded in every queer’s mind.

I know Marsha as a courageous queer revolutionary, a queen of Queens, a Stonewall Veteran, a dedicated activist, a mother of S.T.A.R. and a personal idol. She deserves more than anyone I know, to be recognized by the queer community.

In July 6, 1992, Johnson’s body was found floating in the Hudson River off the West Village Piers shortly after the 1992 Pride March. Friends of Johnson claims she was harassed near the spot where her body was found. The police disregarded this and ruled her death a suicide without any evidence. However, in November 2012, the NYPD re-opened the case.

Click here to watch “Pay It No Mind”, a documentary on Marsha P. Johnson.

[jackafz]

Utmost importance 

[kate-sweeney]

[unhistorical]

I live in Baltimore and there is so much going around right now in the media and on the Internet, much of it totally ignorant in the same vein as all the ignorance that surrounded similar demonstrations across the country in the past few months. But some of it is especially...

[pyrrhics]

the moon rises

[krxs10]

MENTALLY ILL WOMAN TASED TO DEATH WHILE SHACKELED, BEATEN, AND HANDCUFFED

Natasha Mckenna, a mentally ill woman who died after a stun gun was used on her at the Fairfax County jail in February, was restrained with handcuffs behind her back, leg shackles and a mask when a sheriff’s deputy tasered her four times, incident reports obtained by The Washington Post show.

Six members of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team, dressed in white full-body biohazard suits and gas masks, arrived and placed a wildly struggling 130-pound McKenna into full restraints, their reports state. But when McKenna wouldn’t bend her knees so she could be placed into a wheeled restraint chair, a lieutenant delivered four 50,000-volt shocks from the Taser, enabling the other deputies to strap her into the chair. 

Minutes later, she stopped breathing. Days later, she died.

The truth is, though, that police have been covering up the real details on Natasha’s death for months. And, even after all of this, police are not quite clear on why Natasha McKenna was even jailed in the first place. On the day she was arrested, she had actually called the police herself to report being assaulted and appeared to be struggling mightily with mental illness before she bounced around between hospitals and jails for days.

Nothing has happened to the officers yet.

Source / Source / Source 

#StayWoke

[nickjonastillhasdiabetes]

your boyfriend tbh 

[mediamattersforamerica]

You need to watch this full video.

(Video originally by Benjamin Hancock)

[kienan-and-kale-deactivated2015]

FUCKING PREACH

[dailydot]

A transgender woman was shot in Baltimore. No one's talking about it.

Mya Hall wasn’t looking for trouble when she took a wrong turn on March 30 and wound up on the wrong exit of a Fort Meade, Md. parkway, which led to the Baltimore headquarters of the NSA.

But she still wound up dead after security opened fire on her vehicle, apparently causing it to crash into the gates of the compound. …

Initial reports of the incident that led to her death described Hall and Fleming as “men dressed as women,” “crossdressers,” “men in drag,” and “transvestites.” Hall was also frequently misgendered and typically referred to as a man, using her legal name.

The few media reports on Hall’s death have been tinged with transphobia, with a Washington Post article continuing to describe Hall and Fleming as “men dressed as women,” a revelation which it referred to as a “shocking twist.” The Post also described the street scene where Hall and Fleming worked as a “choreography of cliches,” focusing on the high heels, short shorts, and heavy makeup of the women.

In contrast to the outrage that the deaths of black men like Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and Freddie Gray have prompted on social media, there has been very little attention given to Hall’s death. As a black trans sex worker, she and Fleming have been written off as “troubled.” On Tumblr and Reddit, platforms that are usually supportive of transgender victims of violence and black victims of police brutality, Mya Hall’s name has been notably absent.

But the Baltimore protests have renewed public concern over Hall’s death, as well as criticism of the lack of attention it received and the way the media has covered it.

[READ MORE]

[gumaasaat-deactivated20170103]

i wish to melt (ice blue), Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, 2009

[krxs10]

photographer caught incredible photos at the Baltimore protests and they’ve gone viral.

check him out

[dispossessed]

All power to the revolutionary youths of Baltimore.

[micdotcom]

14 powerful images from the #FreddieGray protests currently rocking Baltimore 

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Baltimore on Saturday to protest the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died this month while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department — the details of which are still somewhat unclear.

[facesofthemvmnt-blog]

"I believe one should act upon what moves their heart. Ferguson has moved my heart… so I have acted." -Sunny

[facesofthemvmnt-blog]

"Fighting in this movement is my way to imagine and create new futures. Being Black in this country has always meant struggling for new realities, and now it’s my turn." -Reuben aka @ReubLou

[itsmorethanamovement]

[decolonizehistory]

for angela and gloria and

assata and leila and

marsha and yuri and 

the countless unnamed

for the women I was taught not to remember