BLACK LIVES MATTER: A STATEMENT FROM BOSTON LGBTQ AND HIV ORGANIZATIONS

May 5, 2015 – The Boston area LGBTQ and allied organizations listed below stand together in solidarity with people across the nation – in Baltimore, here in Boston, and elsewhere – who raise their voices to challenge systemic inequity and violence, which continue to degrade and cut short too many Black lives in America.

LGBTQ people form a vastly diverse community that includes people of all races, of all economic means, of all political beliefs. Many of us have experienced how persistent violence, both physical and spiritual, can tear apart our lives, our families, and our communities. It is particularly heinous when this oppression and violence is state-sanctioned and systemic.

Recent deaths of Black people at the hands of police have reverberated loudly because they are not isolated events. They rest as the most recent casualties in the history of discrimination, neglect, and often violent suppression that Black people continue to struggle against in the United States.

We call on every member of the LGBTQ community, people of all races, to stand up to structural racism and inequity. We can do this by joining and supporting movements for racial justice and by facing the racism that exists within our own LGBTQ community.

Black people, like all people, have the right to justice. Black voices, like all voices, have the right to be heard. Black communities, like all communities, have the right to peace. Our government must equitably respect these rights – and ensure they are protected, not abrogated.

To everyone striving for justice, equity and peace, we offer our support.

In the long arc of the struggle for justice, we stand united.

 

Signed,

AIDS Action Committee
BAGLY (Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth)
Bisexual Resource Center
Bisexual Women of Color – BIWOC
Black and Pink-Boston
Boston Gay Men’s Chorus
Boston Pride’s Human Rights & Education Committee
Community Research Initiative
Dignity/Boston
Fenway Health
GLAD
GLBTQ Domestic Violence Project
GLSEN Massachusetts
Greater Boston PFLAG
Harbor Camps
Hispanic Black Gay Coalition (HBGC)
“if you can Feel it, you can Speak it” Open Mic Movement
JRI Health
Keshet
Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association (MASALA)
Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC)
MassEquality
Multicultural AIDS Coalition
New England Aces
New England Professional Queer Women of Color (PQWOC)
Renewal House/Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry
SpeakOUT Boston
The Network/La Red
The Theater Offensive: OUT in Your Neighborhood
Women of Color AIDS Council