The Bureau is very excited to partner with Reclaim Pride Coalition on a series of five virtual panel discussions in the weeks leading up to the Queer Liberation March on Sunday, June 27th, 2021. Topics will cover issues that are pressing for LGBTQIA2S+ people, with emphasis on the heightened urgency caused by a global pandemic and an utter lack of national (U.S.) leadership through the entirety of 2020.
Next panel:
Radical Black Love, Friday May 21, 6 to 7:30 PM EDT
Radical Black love has developed a Black political movement focused on mutual care. Radical Black love requires that we are concerned for and responsible to one another. In an anti-Black world such as this, to choose to love and support Black people is a highly rebellious and potentially dangerous act. In this panel, activists and authors will explore what Radical Black love means to them and how it sparks imaginations of a free world for us all.
Radical Black Love is the fourth in a series of five virtual events presented by Reclaim Pride Coalition and the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in the weeks leading up to the Queer Liberation March, on Sunday, June 27th, 2021.
FREE event!
You can livestream this event on the Bureau’s or Reclaim Pride Coalition’s Facebook pages or YouTube channels. You’ve got options! We will post links on the Eventbrite page for livestreaming this event in the days leading up to May 21st, and we’ll send those links out to anyone who registers on this page. But registration is not required in order to join the event.
Past panels:
On Thursday, April 15, 2021 – No Place to Call Home: Queer & Trans Houselessness, 2021, was the first in this series of virtual panel discussions. The panelists included: Kate Barnhart, Executive Director of New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless Youth; Reginald Brown, RPC Organizer and Vocal-NY Board Member; Jayden-Avery Love, Spiritual Consultant and Energy Reader; La’Kenya Tam, Founder/Executive Director Open Rainbow Residence, Inc.; and an organizer for Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society (G.L.I.T.S.) Watch the recording of this event on the Bureau’s YouTube channel.
On Friday, April 23, 2021 – Generations of Queer Activism was the second panel in this series. Exploring new and enduring tactics, strategies and methods of LGBTQIA2S+ activism, organizers from across generations addressed how they push forward towards Queer liberation. Topics included: combating institutional racism and systemic marginalization; the challenges and openings from the COVID Pandemic, organizing online and the impact of the George Floyd protests of 2020, ….. and what we all can do to work towards a more just and equitable society. Featuring panelists Leslie Cagan, Mx. Je’Jae Cleo Daniels, ABilly Jones-Hennin, and Dwreck Ingram. (Note: Jay Walker was unable to participate in the panel). Watch the recording of this event on the Bureau’s YouTube channel.
On Friday, May 7, 2021 – We Keep Us Safe: Prison Abolition and Transformative Justice was the third panel in this series. Chidi Adeyemi, Lydia Brown, Nomi Isaac, Vicky Osterweil, Matthew Perry, & Jennifer Love Williams discussed prison abolition & transformative justice.
The prison industrial complex harms us all. The United States uses mass incarceration, policing, judicial practices, and fines to control Black and Brown communities and to profit from their pain. In this panel, activists and organizers will explore abolitionist imaginations of a world without incarceration and state violence. Transformative justice seeks to solve the problem of violence at a grassroots level, without relying on punishment, incarceration, or policing. It allows us to build a world dependent on community, mutual aid, harm reduction, and transformative justice-informed violence intervention—not cops and cages—to deliver safety and justice. In this panel, we’ll explore the history of this radical movement, how panelists address and fight the devastating impacts of the carceral system on Queer and Trans people of color (QTPOC), and how we imagine a future where we keep us safe.
Watch the recording of this event on the Bureau’s YouTube channel.
In conjunction with these events, the Bureau’s online store now features a section devoted to titles recommended by Reclaim Pride Coalition members –click here to view. These titles span generations of Queer and Trans voices speaking on a variety of issues: from identity and found families, to social justice, equity, and access; from queer histories and queer futures, to poetry, cozy space operas, and 1950s lesbian pulp. We seek to amplify marginalized voices and lesser known works and to raise consciousness within ourselves and our communities in the struggle towards Queer liberation.
