#BLACKLIVESMATTER (Black Lives Matter)
As an organization rooted in the experience of survivors who are queer and transgender people of color, The Network/La Red (TNLR) recognizes the insidious link between all forms of structural oppression to all tactics of partner abuse. For hundreds of years, our country has been built on the backs of Black, brown, and indigenous folks and is rooted deeply in white supremacy. At TNLR, we acknowledge the ways that oppressive structures condone and reward people who hold structural power (white, cisgender, straight, documented, able-bodied, etc.) to keep and maintain that power at the expense of marginalized people’s lives and humanity.
White supremacy (and other oppressive power structures) lays the foundation for and gives permission for individuals with power to find ways to hold and maintain power over marginalized communities and individuals. White supremacy gave permission to white folks to form the police to catch escaped enslaved Black people, and today condones and rewards the systematic murdering of Black folks. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Sean Reed, are only the most recent among the thousands of beautiful lives that have been taken by state violence, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness. We call on our communities to say their names and organize against these structures.
Without action, without change, it will remain acceptable for the police to intimidate black and brown communities by their constant presence and surveillance. It will remain acceptable for the police to stop black folks for driving, smoking, birdwatching, having a phone and anything else they should have the freedom to do. It will remain acceptable for the police to target Black, trans women and arrest them simply for existing. It will remain acceptable for the police to physically assault, demean, beat, and murder Black and brown people.
As an organization we honor the pain, power, harm, and survival that marginalized communities of all identities hold and demand every day. We acknowledge that power structures prevent communities from living, surviving, and thriving; simply being. In all cases of oppression, humanity, agency, and access to a full sense of self are denied. When communities fight back in self-defense to gain or regain agency they are condemned, fired upon, and locked up.
We commit ourselves as individuals, a community, and a survivor-led organization to work against anti-Blackness, all other forms of oppression and abuse, and continuing to root our work in the experiences of survivors of partner abuse and oppression. We urge our communities to take the lead of Black-led and survivor-led organizations in this work. We are dedicated, as an organization, to uplifting essential conversations and community organizing that centers the connections between oppression and abuse in our communities.
To Queer and Trans, and Black survivors, Indigenous survivors or People of Color (QTBIPOC) who are survivors of partner abuse: We’re here to talk, 24/7 through our free and confidential hotline. (800) 832-1901
To LGBQ/T, polyamorous and SM survivors of partner abuse:We’re here to talk, 24/7 through our free and confidential hotline. (800) 832-1901
To folks with privilege and/or resources: We urge you to donate. Donate your time, your resources, your knowledge, your money and your privilege to local Black-led organizations.
The Network/La Red does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.