Racial Justice Is An LGBTQ Issue
What is Racial Justice?
Racial justice is the systematic fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. This includes anti-racism, addressing systemic inequalities and inequities based on race and ethnicity, confronting and dismantling white supremacy and race-based discrimination, and creating and investing in measures that begin to repair the real harms done by the long history of racial injustice in the United States.
Deep-seated systemic racism and inequities that disadvantage communities of color are still built into our institutions today, from education to employment to housing to our criminal legal system. Anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism have been and continue to be at the core of American history and present-day racism in our country. We also recognize that racism and racial justice cannot be simplified into a black-and-white issue; racial discrimination takes many forms in the United States and affects all LGBTQ+ people of color in myriad ways that uphold white supremacy and ethnocentric nationalism.
Why is Racial Justice an LGBTQ Issue?
“There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” – Audre Lorde
Racial justice is an LGBTQ+ issue because racial oppression is inextricable from homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, and biphobia for LGBTQ+ people of color, and because the systems of oppression that marginalize both LGBTQ+ folks and people of color work in concert in a particularly damaging way for LGBTQ+ people of color.
What We Believe
- We believe that all people of all races and ethnicities deserve to be treated fairly and justly, under the law, in interpersonal interactions, and throughout society.
- We oppose white supremacy and the racial inequities and anti-Blackness that form the foundation of the United States.