This Is an UPRISING

When it comes to whiteness and privilege in America, there are no innocent bystanders

- ASHLEE MARIE PRESTON

It was after midnight, and I’d just turned 36 years old. The estimated life expectancy for a trans woman of color had once been reported to be just 35. As I lay in bed facing the ceiling, tears made their way from the outer corners of my eyes and down the nape of my neck. I thought about everyone who had trudged with me through one of the most disenfranchised chapters of my life. Yet unlike myself, they didn’t make it. I thought about what their story would have been like had they received the opportunities I’ve been given over the years; they were most definitely worthy of them.

Although I’d officially “made it” and beat the statistic, the sense of urgency I’d carried prior to turning 36 hadn’t dissipated in the least bit. Instead, I continue to carry the burden of making sure my trans sisters “made it” as well. It’s what Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera would have done, and the fact that I’d beaten the most insurmountable odds while dangerously marginalized, proved me to be indomitable. In the words of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, p“When the dust settles, I want a whole bunch of transgender girls to stand up and say, I’m still fucking here.” I am still determined to push back against racial and gender-based injustices, now armed with the belief that Black trans women are not statistics. We are our ancestors’ greatest hopes, dreams and aspirations—and we deserve the chance to manifest our own.