I keep seeing these otherwise fantastic and magnificent Tumblr posts, about that horrible Stonewall movie, that basically boil down to:
they weren’t gay white men they were trans women of color
and as a trans person I’m excited and encouraged by the fact that so many people feel like it’s really important to say THEY WERE TRANS WOMEN OF COLOR. That it’s important that they’re trans, and that Sylvia Rivera was Puerto Rican, and that Marsha P. Johnson was Black.
but as a bisexual it kills me a little bit every time that nobody ever says they were *bisexual* trans women of color.
like, particularly since we’re specifically talking about the people who started the riots, people who were fundamental in the movement for the rest of their lives. We’re talking about Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. Who were bisexual. [Citations: Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson]
[Yes: there are a lot more bisexual/trans/people of color involved, including legendary Black trans activist Miss Major, who is amazing and whose sexuality I don’t know. (UPDATE: SHE’S BI TOOOOOO AND NONBINARY JUST LIKE THEM 💙💜💖 I’m on mobile so I can’t embed a link, but for now just search my blog for “Miss Major” to get the source.)
But this discussion tends to be centered particularly around these two and the “what is a white gay man doing throwing the first brick” fiasco.]
I haven’t reblogged each or any of these posts to say, one by one:
and bisexual
And bisexual
AND BISEXUAL
Because tbh, bisexual issues are so de-emphasized within the queer community that I think it would be interpreted as if I were tugging on the community’s sleeve and meekly piping up, “They were also Baby Boomers! Don’t forget!”
But today I figured out how to explain this.
When you say:
they weren’t *gay white men*
they were *trans women of color*
you’re correcting “[cis] men” with “trans women.”
You’re correcting “white” with “of color”.
And you’re erasing their sexualities as trans women of color.
You’re acting as though “trans woman” replaces “gay man”, as though trans is your sexual orientation. Or as though you can only be one kind of queer, and if you’re trans then that’s it, you can’t also count as bi, gay, or lesbian.
You’re also telling other bi and pan people that our identities and our contributions don’t matter – that no matter what we do, we’ll be remembered as we always have been, as something other than who and what we were.
You’re feeding the people who say things like “bisexuals don’t belong at Pride” and “when bisexuals fight for our issues they can be part of our community,” as if we haven’t been here from the literal beginning of the modern-day movement (and before). And as if we don’t share many of the same issues.
So: thank you for re-centering trans women of color in queer history. And please start re-centering their bisexuality too.
