Organizers of an event supporting the LGBTQ+ community this weekend have received pushback after announcing that, for a second year in a row, white attendees will be charged a reparations fee.
The Trans Women of Color Solidarity Network planned the event dubbed Taking B(l)ack Pride, which is being held at Seattle’s Jimi Hendrix Park on Saturday. Two other groups – Queer the Land and the Alphabet Alliance of Color – are also behind the event.
KNKX spoke to the organizers of Taking B(l)ack Pride and some of those who planned to attend about why they support the event.
Trans Women of Color Solidarity Network organizers, who asked to remain anonymous because the group has received death threats, said when planning the event they thought back to the central role Black and brown transgender people played in the first riots that led to the modern-day LGTBQ+ civil rights movement.
Of the reparations fee being charged, organizers said: “There is no race police. You know, no one's going to be checking 23andMe genealogy results.”
Organizers said they simply wanted to create a safe space for Black and brown people to celebrate Pride.
The following are excerpts of conversations with those who plan to attend Taking B(l)ack Pride.
Richelle Dickerson
“All transgender people and transgender women of color are marginalized, but the reality in this country is that Black and Indigenous people are in the group of people navigating marginalized intersections more than anyone else, so I wanted to support them,” Dickerson said.
"I believe in reparations. I pay rent to Real Rent Duwamish. I support the land back movement for the Indigenous population. I support a lot of Black women through Patreon – just because I can and I think we should. I don't even have to. I mean, I don't believe that my Black family owes reparations."
Manuel Torres
“As a person of color, as another identity that has been marginalized, as a queer person and non-binary person, I stand in solidarity with Black pride,” Torres said.
"Reparations can be different things. But it kind of goes back to the idea of, like, you know, economic resources. How are you helping kind of balance out society and figuring out what one person can do to help make a small difference?"
Meredith Moffett
“I feel really excited about going someplace where, like, it really might just be this space for us to just have a day of joy and a day of just, you know, being thankful for ourselves and each other and community and everything like that without having to, you know, always look around. I just think that that kind of thing is rare, especially in Seattle,” Moffett said.
