Great victories for LGBTQ rights in the past 40 years,
But African community conditions are worse than in the 1960’s!
Stand in Solidarity with economic development and justice for African people!
The 2009 Pride Celebration marks the 40th anniversary of the resistance to the police attacks on the Stonewall Inn, a majority Black and Puerto Rican queer bar in
The resistance at Stonewall came about during a period of struggle in the 1960’s led by the movement for the liberation of the African community which was shaking this system and society to its core. This was the period when all around the world oppressed peoples were struggling for their freedom, liberation and self-determination from
The
Since this period of political upheaval, the LGBTQ community has won great strides, even in the face of ongoing hostility from different sectors of this system.
As of 2005:
- the median household income for lesbian and gay men was $87,500
- 76% of same sex couples were employed
- 50% of lesbians and 45% of gay men were homeowners in 2007
- increasingly more states are legalizing gay marriage
- laws created against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
These are all significant advancements in the quality of life for LGBTQ people from the conditions in the 1960’s.
Today the African community still faces conditions worse than the 60’s, the period of convict leasing, and Jim Crow.
- More than 54 percent of HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed in 2002 were among African people who are 10 times more likely to die of the disease than white people
- One in 8 of black men in their 20s is now in prison or jail on any given day
- 41 percent of African children are hungry everyday in this country
- African men are incarcerated at rates 8 times higher than white men
- 72 percent of drug users are white, yet Africans constitute 36.8 percent of all those arrested for drug violations , over 42 percent of those in federal prisons for drug violations and 58 percent of those in state prisons for drug felonies
- 13 percent of African men of voting age in 2000 are disenfranchised because of felony convictions—1.4 million African men
- 2008 true unemployment rates for “inner-city” teenagers:
- Total loss of wealth through subprime mortgage scam for African and Latino community up to $213 billion—greatest loss of wealth for “non-white people” in modern U.S. history
- The average African family earns just 60 percent of the average white family
- Median net worth of average African household is about $6,000 compared to average white household has 14 times as much wealth—more than $88,000
These statistics are alarming. The solution is economic development, justice and self-determination for the African community!
We also believe that the spirit of the movement for LGBTQ liberation of the 1960’s was not to become inclusive oppressors, but to be part of the worldwide movement to end a world defined by oppressors and oppressed.
We reject LGBTQ rights that come at the expense of others and stand in solidarity with African and oppressed peoples struggling for justice and self-determination. We participate in local and national campaigns against city war budgets against the African community, and demand economic and social justice like the African Village Survival Initiative here in St. Pete and around the world.
