Should you spend sufficient time round me, you’ll hear me proudly say I used to be born and raised in North Omaha, Nebraska.
To be Black in a spot like Omaha is to wrestle to your identification. To craft your Blackness with care. You construct it from scratch, from what’s handed down and what’s taken again.
For me, that journey wasn’t restricted to my Blackness. It was the identical when it got here to queerness and to my identification as a Black trans lady. However right here’s the trick: society made queerness appear extra accessible. No person informed me the effective print got here stamped in whiteness. That a lot of queerness—because it’s marketed and magnified—was filtered by means of white supremacy. That embracing that model of queerness might, the truth is, uninteresting the brilliance of my Black pleasure.
I’ll always remember the yr when the Juneteenth Parade and the Satisfaction Parade fell on the identical day in my metropolis.
It was a crossroads. For a lot of Black queer people, there wasn’t a query; they selected Juneteenth. I used to be there too, however that wasn’t as a result of I didn’t love Satisfaction. I had completed my time.
I’d been president of Satisfaction, and constructed Youth Satisfaction from the bottom up. I had fought for Satisfaction when it didn’t combat for me. I had completed the work of constructing house for my queerness. That day, I used to be lastly making house for my Blackness.
What I witnessed, although, was deeper. I noticed youthful queer people—particularly these partnered with non-Black individuals—being pulled between two identities that, in a simply world, would by no means require a selection. That day didn’t simply symbolize a scheduling battle. It symbolized the dailytightrope stroll so many Black queer individuals carry out on this nation: to decide on between being seen and being entire.
Let’s be trustworthy; in lots of Black-centered establishments, queerness is welcome solely when it performs small. To be embraced as queer, you usually must downplay what makes you completely different and preserve your queerness on the backside of your identification listing. As a result of on the finish of the day, you’re Black first, proper?
However flip it. In most mainstream queer areas, you’re anticipated to verify your Blackness on the door—except that Blackness matches a stereotype or serves as a fancy dress. Except it entertains. Except it’s for consumption.
So I would like you to listen to me once I say, it’s not an accident that Juneteenth and Satisfaction exist in the identical month.
It isn’t a coincidence that our strongest Black changemakers have been additionally queer. It isn’t by likelihood that the intersection of Blackness and queerness continues to be a birthplace for brilliance, resistance, and transformation.
That is divine alignment.
Now, I do know I’m preaching to people who really feel me. However let me be clear: I write this not only for affirmation; I write this for the Black people who don’t see the world like I do. Not as a result of your notion will restrict my freedom, however as a result of none of us are free if we consider we will get to the opposite aspect and go away our individuals behind. Particularly the individuals who make us uncomfortable.
Liberation isn’t actual if it’s just for the variations of us which can be palatable.
White communities have spent the final 50 years mobilizing an agenda that has taken root in each nook of this nation, and so they didn’t do it as a result of they have been all the identical, or as a result of they have been all straight, or as a result of they have been all ethical. They didn’t do it as a result of they agreed. They did it as a result of they have been all white. That was the one prerequisite.
I’m not saying we should always construct coalitions based mostly on shortage and worry.
I do know that recreation. And I do know the exhaustion it’s bred in our communities. However we’d be silly to not discover the ability in what occurs when individuals align, even amid distinction.
So let’s take a look at what alignment has given us.
On June 19, 1865, enslaved Black individuals in Texas have been lastly emancipated, triggering the beginning of a freedom dream that gave us Michelle Obama on a float, Oprah commanding empires, Megan Thee Stallion reminding us we ain’t received knees like we used to, and Brandy and Monica arguing over “The Boy Is Mine.” It gave us Whitney. Mariah. Aretha. Patti. Jazmine.
And 104 years later, on June 29, 1969, a Black Trans lady—Marsha P. Johnson—sparked a revolution at Stonewall that gave us TS Madison, the queen of media; Queen Latifah, a mogul and a mom; Laverne Cox, making Emmy historical past; Bayard Rustin, strategist to Dr. King; Nikki Giovanni, residing her radical brilliance in actual time; Miss Main, constructing a legacy of elder look after our group; Toni Bryce and Monroe Alise, reshaping tv; A’Ziah “Zola” King, whose Black girlhood grew to become cinematic canon; and me—Dominique Morgan—who went from a prisonyard to strolling down the road named after her in the identical state.
It was 104 years between June 19, 1865, the emancipation of the final enslaved Black individuals in Texas, and June 29, 1969, the night time a Black Trans lady helped ignite a revolution at Stonewall. That hole isn’t simply historic. It’s religious.
In numerology, 104 is commonly seen as an Angel Quantity—a divine reminder to embrace change and align your actions with the next goal. It alerts that transformation will not be solely doable; it’s coming.
It asks us to lean into discomfort with religion, to shift our mindset towards progress, and to acknowledge love because the connective tissue in our evolution.
That’s what alignment has all the time been — a type of divine choreography. We have been all the time meant to be shifting collectively—even when the rhythm was onerous to listen to.
You actually wanna inform me we aren’t aligned?
Alignment doesn’t imply we’re the identical.
Alignment doesn’t imply we by no means argue.
Alignment doesn’t imply it’s straightforward.
For me, alignment implies that we’re combating tougher to remain in tandem than we’re desirous to crumble.
That’s the definition I need you to take from this piece. That’s the decision to motion. That’s the invitation.
As a result of the world will give us 100 causes to separate. They are going to whisper that your queerness disqualifies you. That your Blackness is just too loud. That your transness is a legal responsibility. That your softness makes you weak. And all of the whereas, they’ll lie, steal, kill, and destroy, simply to maintain themselves aligned.
As my Grandma Woodie used to say, “Don’t let the satan use you.”
This Juneteenth, this Satisfaction, I’m asking us to make a special selection.
To honor our collective brilliance.
To carry the road.
To remain in tandem.
To decide on alignment—time and again and once more.
SEE ALSO:
Satisfaction Is Nonetheless Protest: World Satisfaction within the Period of Trump 2.0
Kendrick Sampson’s BLD PWR Groups Up With SisterSong And GBEF For Houston Juneteenth Occasion
