When: 
Friday, June 26, 2009 - 3:00pm
Where: 

See Below

 

 

Location Announced!

STARTING RALLY 3PM, MARCH STARTS AT 4PM
Gather at Union Square West between 14th Street and 15th Street (West Side of Union Square Park)

Subway:  L, N, Q, R, W, 4, 5, 6 at Union Square or F, L, V at 14th Street at 6th Avenue.  Bus:  M1, M2, M3, M6, M8, M7, M9, M14 stop near Union Square.  Map - Union Square West

 

MARCHING TO

Sheridan Square/Christopher Park Across the Street from the Stonewall Inn (West 4th St. and Christopher Street/West 4th Between 7th Ave & Grove St.)

  Subway:  1 train to Christopher Street stop or take the A,B,C,D,E,F or V to West 4th  Map - Sheridan Square/Christopher Park

On June 26, 2009, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color and allies will take to the streets of NYC once again and demand justice to let the world know, that on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, the rebellion is not over and we will continue fighting for justice, raising our voices until we are heard. We call on all activist and organizers for justice, both local and organizations around the country and world to endorse this call to action and to build contingents to march in solidarity together.

To endorse TDOA 2009, send an email to endorsetdoa@alp.org

For more info contact - info4tdoa@alp.org or Mya at 718-596-0342 x 23.

 

Download PDF of Points of Unity

 

Endorsers in Formation as of 6/23/09
*for identification purposes only

Individuals

Janice Victoria Arellano

Joanne Arellano

Avita Bansee

Michelle Billies

Richard Blum, Brooklyn, NY

W. Brandon Lacy Campos, My Feet Only Walk Forward

Erica Braudy

Kathie Cheng, October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation

Edward Childs  chief-steward  unite-here local 26

Colia Clark

Debanuj DasGupta. Policy Analyst/Racial and Economic Justice advocate

Julie Davids , Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP)

Jose Dominguez

Lauryn Farris, President San Antonio Gender Association

Jennifer Flynn

Kim Ford

Mike Gimbel, Local 375, AFSCME, Delegate, New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Jamison Green

Margarita Guzman

Ray Hill, Senior glbt activist, Houston, TX

Lourdes Ashley Hunter, NYC Community Organizer/ Campaign Developer

LIDELL JACKSON, Longstanding Political Activist

Crystal Jang, APIQWTC

Manou Joassaint

D'Angelo Johnson

chueh jun-fung, performance artist, CA

Alexander L. Lee, Attorney at Law
Founder & former Director of the Transgender, Gender Variant & Intersex Justice Project (SF)

Tom Leger & Riley MacLeod, playwrights

Michael Letwin, Co-Convener of New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW); former
President of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325

Amanda Lugg

Bob McCubbin

Karla Mejia

Suneela Mubayi, New York

Reverend Pat

Bryan G. Pfeifer, Federation of Teachers, Detroit, MI

Minnie Bruce Pratt, Professor Women's & Gender Studies, Syracuse University

Alisha Ritt

Preeti Sampat- CUNY

Elizabeth C. Segal

Tom Siracuse, NYC Green

dean spade

Tif

Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, writer/educator/activist

Jackie Vimo

YaliniDream, Performance Artist

 

Organizations

Bailout the People Movement (BOPM)

CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities

The Center for Constitutional Rights

Colorado Anti-Violence Program (CAVP)

Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP)

Critical Resistance NYC

The Dari Project

The DC Trans Coalition

The Domestic Violence Project of the Urban Justice Center

Femme Family of NYC

FIERCE (Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment)

FIST-Fight Imperialism, Stand Together youth group

Freedom Train Productions

GAPIMNY

Gender JUST, Chicago

The Harm Reduction Coalition

Human Rights Project of the Urban Justice Center

Immigrant Justice Solidarity Project

International Action Center

The International Socialist Organization (ISO)

The Jim Collins Foundation, Inc.

Justice Committee

Housing Works

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, L.A.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center

Metropolitan Community Church

National Transgender Advocacy Coalition

New England Transgender Pride

New York Transgender Rights Organization (NYTRO)

Nodutdol for Korean Community Development

New England Trans Pride March and Rally

NYC AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN)

NYCoRE (New York Collective of Radical Educators)

NYQueer

October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation

OutGrads at Washington University, St. Louis

The Puerto Rican Initiative to Develop Empowerment (PRIDE)

Queers for Economic Justice

Q-WAVE:Queer•Women/Trans/GQ•Asian•Visible•Empowered

SALGA (South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association)

San Antonio Gender Association

Sex Workers Project

SWANK (Sex Workers Action New York)

SWOP-NYC (Sex Workers Outreach Project - NYC)

Students Creating Radical Change at NYU

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Take Back NYU

Third Root Community Health Center

Tranarchy69

Washington Heights CORNER Project

The Yale LGBTQ Student Cooperative

 

**************************************

 The 5th Annual NYC Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice

POINTS OF UNITY

Initiated by TransJustice of the Audre Lorde Project, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color Center for Community Organizing.  

June 26, 2009


We demand that all people receiving public assistance (welfare) including TGNC People of Color, be treated with respect and dignity.  We are in solidarity with all people living on public assistance.  TGNC POC face transphobic harassment and discrimination when applying for and seeking to access public assistance/welfare.  For over three years TGNC communities in NYC have called on the Human Resources Administration (HRA), the NYC agency responsible for public assistance, to address these systemic problems.  After initially ignoring requests for a meeting, due to community pressure raised by TDOA, last year HRA agreed to meet.  As a result, this past year TransJustice and a committee of organizations and community members including the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Housing Works, Queers for Economic Justice, and others have worked with HRA to develop a new HRA procedure to prevent transphobic discrimination including TGNC cultural competency training.  To date we are currently awaiting HRA’s final approval of the procedure and anticipate a response by Trans Day of Action. 

• We demand an end to the profiling, discrimination, harassment, brutality and murders that occur at the hands of the Police.  Communities of color continue to face rampant police harassment and brutality.  Last month two lesbians of color were brutally beaten by police officers in front of a club in Brooklyn, NY.  In 2006 a Transgender woman of color was assaulted and harassed by an employee at a McDonald’s, when the police arrived they arrested and abused her.  We are in solidarity with all people impacted by police violence including supporters of Iman Morales, the family of Sean Bell and the Jersey 4.  Like other oppressed communities, TGNC people are targeted, profiled and brutalized by the police daily.  We demand an end to the brutality and harassment and call for Justice for all people impacted by police violence.  We call for an independent prosecutor for all cases of police violence (www.peoplesjustice.org).  To improve TGNC people’s safety in interactions with the police we demand that Commissioner Ray Kelly implement changes in NYPD policies and adopt the “Proposed Policy for the Treatment of Transgender People in NYPD Custody” and the associated changes to the NYPD patrol guide, submitted to the NYPD in April 2009.  (www.ipetitions.com/petition/NYPDTransPolicy/)

We demand an end to the violence and harassment faced by women and LGBTSTGNC communities in the NYC public transportation system (MTA).  Women and LGBTSTGNC communities face rampant violence and harassment in the NYC public transportation system.  In 2005, a woman was sexually assaulted in a subway station in full view of a train conductor and a station agent.  In 2006, a transgender woman was harassed by an MTA worker using anti-transgender slurs - bystanders joined in the harassment.  We call on the MTA to be accountable and work proactively to end the violence and harassment that occurs in their transit system and to comply with Local Law 3 which prohibits gender identity/expression discrimination.  (nyersforsafetransit.wordpress.com & newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonardlink/2008/02/brooklyn-court.html)

We demand the full legalization of all immigrants.  In the last year, violence towards immigrants has increased. We oppose all forms of enforcement, which target people trying to survive a deepening global economic crisis, and are in solidarity with migrant rights organizations around the world.  We oppose any immigration reform proposal that includes a registration process, more militarization at the border and further criminalization of undocumented people.  TGNC people deserve the right to access competent and respectful immigration services.  We demand that the consulates of all countries respect and honor our identities and issue passports and other documentation that accurately reflects who we are.

We are in solidarity with all prisoners, especially the many TGNC people behind the walls who are often invisible to our movements.  We call attention to the under-reported accounts of severe violence and rape that our community faces at the hands of correction officers and other prisoners.  We demand an end to the torture and discrimination TGNC prisoners face.  We demand that all TGNC prisoners receive competent and respectful healthcare.  We oppose the continued growth of the prison industrial complex that targets our communities, yet we recognize that TGNC people need access to services and facilities that lessen our vulnerability to violence within the present jails and prisons.  We call attention to the criminal injustice system that increasingly puts POC, immigrants, TGNC and poor people behind bars - further criminalizing our communities and our lives.

•  We demand that TGNC people have equal access to employment and education opportunities.  We are outraged by increasing unemployment facing all communities, particularly TGNC POC.  TGNC people continue to face blatant discrimination and harassment from employers due to systemic transphobia.  Few TGNC people have access to opportunities for learning in a safe school environment. We demand that employers and educational institutions implement non-discrimination policies and comply with Local Law 3.

•  We demand that all people, including TGNC people, have access to essential health and human services.  We are in a period of ongoing budget cuts to critical services such as HIV/AIDS, youth, LGBT, etc.  We call on Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg to stop the budget cuts to essential health and human services and restore funding.  The Piers have been a safe space for our community, particularly LGBTSTGNC youth of color for years.  In solidarity with FIERCE, we demand the establishment of a 24hour LGBT youth center at the Piers.  (www.fiercenyc.org)

•  We demand that children and youth under jurisdiction of the Administration of Children Services (ACS) and Private Foster Care Agencies, have the right to freedom of gender expression/identity. In 2002 it was established that NYC’s foster care system cannot discriminate against TGNC children and youth nor force them to only wear clothing associated with birth gender.  ACS and private foster care agencies must be accountable for the health of people under their care including TGNC people.  After organized community pressure ACS established an anti-discrimination policy for TGNC people.  We demand that ACS fully implement this policy. 

We oppose all the public and hidden wars of the U.S. the continued occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the expansion of U.S. militarization.  We are appalled by the ongoing attacks on the people of Palestine through the denial of equal rights inside Israel, division through the wall, economic isolation, blockades of supplies and imports, escalating militarization throughout the occupied territories, and the continued refusal of Palestinian refugees’ right of return.  We support organizations intensifying efforts through boycott, divestment, and sanction strategies.  We oppose escalating military activities everywhere.  We demand the immediate removal of all U.S. troops from all countries under occupation and demand an end of use of U.S. dollars to cultivate and sponsor wars against people in the U.S. and abroad.

We demand justice for the many TGNC people who have been beaten, assaulted, raped, and murdered.  These incidents continue to be silenced, misclassified or blamed on TNGC people.  The police and media continue to criminalize us even when we try to defend ourselves.  An increase in hate crime laws will not solve the problem but will give increased power to the state to put more people in jail.  Instead we call for a unified effort for all of us to address the root causes of why these incidents happen.  As a society that seeks social justice we seek to find ways of preventing attacks on TGNC people by building strong and knowledgeable communities and using transformative justice to hold people accountable.  

We commemorate Amanda Milan, Sakia Gunn, Ruby Ordeñana, Gwen Araujo, Erika Keels, Victoria Arellano, Lawrence King, Saneesha Stewart, Duanna Johnson, Angie Zapata, Teish Cannon, Taysia Elzy and the many others we have lost, who struggled and lived fearlessly, being true to who they were. They keep the fire of struggle burning within all of us.

On June 26, 2009, TGNC POC and allies will take to the streets of NYC once again and demand justice to let the world know, that on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, the rebellion is not over and we will continue fighting for justice, raising our voices until we are heard.  We call on all activist and organizers for justice, both local and organizations around the country to endorse this call to action and to build contingents to march in solidarity together.  To endorse TDOA 2009, send an email to endorsetdoa@alp.org, for more info contact - info4tdoa@alp.org or Mya at 718-596-0342 x 23.