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This a call to action!

This much I know on a day like today. In some places in our supposed “free country” being a queer woman of color can be a crime.

Last year on August 16th a group of seven young lesbian African-American friends from New Jersey we’re hanging out in the West Village of New York. As they walked by Dwayne Buckle a NY resident, he began to proposition and harass the women including saying homophobic insults and grabbing his own genitals.

One of the women had enough and confronted Buckle. Soon a physical fight occurred between him & some of the women. After Buckle pulled out chunks of hair from one woman & chocked another, one of the lesbians, Patreese Johnson pulled a small knife out of her purse & aimed for his arm to stop the attack. A surveillance camera shows the struggle between Buckle & 4 of the 7 women involved.

Two men came to stop the attack on the women. By the time the police showed up the women were across the street. Buckle wound up in the hospital for five days with a lacerated stomach and liver.

Interestingly enough, no blood was found on Johnson’s knife. No forensics testing was done either. No search was ever conducted by the police for proof of assault. Yet the four women, all first time offenders, two of whom are parents, sit in jail right now for anywhere between 3 and 11 years.

Not only do we see the unfairness of young lesbian women not being free to go where they want without being harassed, we see a racist queer hating court system that does not feel a thorough investigation is important when it comes to black, young lesbians. These women were also sentenced by a jury of all white women. Hardly what I’d call peers.

The media had a field day with this story this spring portraying the women as a “gang of angry lesbians.” Making lesbian synonymous with angry man haters & reducing a group of young black people to simply being a gang.

We lesbians & queer women of color need to stand up for ourselves & the New Jersey Four to show we won’t be bullied by a sexist, racist & homophobic system.

Lesbians, queer women & trans folk of non-color need to stand with us & lend support for LGBTQTS rights and dismantle our own prejudices.

All allies need to stand up and be willing to fight in what ever way for a change to this corrupt injustice for these women and women everywhere.

To help please contact:

http://www.fiercenyc.org/

Bran Fenner – bran@fiercenyc.org
Jessica Robertson – jessonia@gmail.com
Jessica Stearn – stearnj@hrw.org

For more on this please read the article on Workers.org

Thanks for reading!
QWOC: Queer Woman of Color