![]() ![]() BTL volunteers also sold T-shirts bearing the phrase “Feed Our People” to raise funds for individual attendees in need, as well as for future events. ![]() Blankets were sprawled where people sat to eat, and tanned legs were stretched on every bench to take breaks from dancing. It took place at Herbert Von King Park in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where, from mid-afternoon to sunset, heaping plates of candied yams, rice and peas, and fried chicken were passed around as music, wriggling bodies of all ages and sizes, and laughter filled the hazy night air. Last summer, I witnessed BTL’s good work firsthand at the Thoughts & prayers policy & change 2023 shirt in contrast I will get this inaugural Black Trans Cookout, co-hosted by Love and other BTL members. Thoughts & prayers policy & change 2023 shirt, hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirt With hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills now pending legislation across the United States, such efforts have never been more urgent. In July of 2020, Jean and Joel Rivera, another activist, joined the chorus of voices calling to protect Black lives by helping to arrange a march from Washington Square Park down to City Hall, centering the slogan “Black Trans Live Matter.” BTL eventually attracted members such as model and activist Gia Love, visual artist Dominique Castelano, Lexii Foxx, Cohen, and others photographed for this story by Ryan McGinley and its programming expanded to involve community kitchen events, food and clothing drives, and mutual aid actions designed to address issues plaguing TGNC people, from unemployment to homelessness. We’ll never have a world with zero tragedy, but I want to see what they are going to do to put us as close to zero as possible.The group first took root as a response to the Thoughts & prayers policy & change 2023 shirt in contrast I will get this murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and other Black people by law enforcement. I don’t want to hear another politician say that their thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. And then we’re back to that phrase, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, and their families.” The official statement by the White House last Monday, after the Las Vegas shooting, was that “there will certainly be a time for that policy discussion to take place, but that’s not the place that we’re in at this moment.”īut what better moment is there to discuss these problems, than when they are most prevalent, causing the most harm? If someone was diagnosed with cancer, the doctor wouldn’t wait to discuss treatment options.Īnd yet, the pattern seems to be to say it isn’t the time, until the public consciousness has moved on, and any law that could have made the act more difficult to repeat, or could have made lives easier for the victims, is left on the sidelines.Īt least, until the next shooting rolls around. No one wants to learn from the actions of other countries who don’t have these mass shootings, or ones who never had many to begin with. Even writing about it, as I am doing here, won’t really help in the long run.Īnd yet no one seems to want to talk about action. Praying won’t change things, but it might give you a false sense that it did. There is something positive that comes out of this, an awareness that something bad is happening, a comfort knowing that there are others out there who are upset and wish things were better.īut thinking and wishing something was better, doesn’t actually make it better. “Praying for them”, “my thoughts are with them”, on and on. All over social media, after a tragedy, friends and family post similar things. It’s not just the big names who say it, either. since 2012.Īnd after each, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, and their families.” These are only a handful of the mass shootings that have happened in the U.S. Orlando, 49 dead, 58 wounded in a gay nightclub.Īnd now Las Vegas, surpassing all of these, with 58 deaths so far and 498 injuries at a country music concert. Sandy Hook Elementary, 26 killed, the majority of them first and second graders. San Bernardino, 14 killed and 22 injured at a company holiday party. Every time tragedy strikes, and it feels like it’s been striking more often than not.Ĭhattanooga, five military men killed, two others wounded.Ĭharleston, nine black churchgoers killed during prayer.Īurora, 12 killed and 70 injured while watching a superhero movie. It comes from the mouths of politicians, public figures, police chiefs and pastors. ![]() It’s a simple phrase we hear variations of over and over again. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, and their families.” makes sure candles stay lit at a memorial for the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. ![]()
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