FLOWERS STAS GINZBURG
This goes out to the heterosexual cis man of color! It is important to address the problems with the NYPD systemic racism and classism. However, it is also important to understand that unity is not only necessary, it is inclusive! Throughout the course of this movement, I’ve noticed that regardless of the inclusion of Black queer people through the amplification of Black trans lives, cisgender heterosexual men, specifically Black and Latino men, continue to demonize and threaten trans and queer people. For example, this week on Monday, another Black trans woman was brutally beaten! Her name is Kendall Stephens. She was at home in Philadelphia with her husband and children that night. And yet not much circulation of this incident has happened! I myself only found out through a friend who sent me that article via Instagram. Had it not been for that, I would have never known! This has to change!!! We need to do more for Black trans women on social media! People are quick to make an incident against a cisgender heterosexual man by the police go viral but fail to make enough noise when a Black trans woman is brutalized by her own people!!!
The second example is myself. As a gender-nonconforming man, I still face homophobia and borderline, and this is on borderline because I am not taking away from the trans experience, borderline transphobia from said men simply because I am visibly queer! Like many queer people, I get snickered at, glared at and stared at. If I respond, they escalate and threaten to inflict violence on me! I am speaking on this because we, as people of color, miss a very important aspect in uniting and being a stronger force to be reckoned with against our common oppressors. That aspect is self-reparation! Y’all ever heard of a saying If you can’t love yourself, how you’re going to love somebody else? That applies to this movement as well. We cannot move as one people when we are too busy dividing ourselves, making us unable to get it together. We cannot preach that Black Lives Matter when we turn around and shun, threaten and kill other Black lives for being of a different sexuality or gender identity! We as people of the African diaspora cannot
demand reparations, justice or freedom when we consistently fail to repair the emotional, psychological and physical damage we cause to our own! How many more of us have to be brutalized and killed before we finally wake up?!?! Black trans women are still taking the most damage out of us despite being among the first to fight for freedom of all! Don’t get me wrong, it feels great to feel the love and acceptance from other protestors of this movement. But when the work is done for the day and queer people go back home, what do we face? The same transphobic, homophobic bullshit we left out of this neighborhood to fight! By the very people we are fighting for! This shit has to stop!!! This needs to be addressed not only in downtown Manhattan but in under-cared-for communities such as the Bronx and Harlem. I suggest you all take a look at the speech called How to Make a Slave by Willie Lynch. It is one of the great examples of divide and conquer and in that speech is one of the origins of why differences rule our world and why it’s hard for us to come together.
To my Black and Latino male oppressors, I leave you with this...In order to grow, thrive and be stronger in this movement, you need to step out of your comfort zone! Step out of your comfort zone!!! Stop demonizing queer people and understand that we are not the enemy that generations of psychological conditioning by slave owners have made us out to be! We are here for the same reason and it’s for justice and reparations!!! We are here to dismantle the oppressive system that has kept us deeply divided for so long. Stop making excuses to stay in your hypermasculine bubble! If you’re really about the movement and you really want to see community and unity as well as peace, drop your pathetic ego and machismo and fight with us, not against us! Fight with us, not against us! Fight with us, not against us!!!
transcribed from a speech delivered by Neptunite
The Stonewall Protests, Foley Square, August 2020
Thank you to each person in this book for trusting me and giving their time and presence so generously. Special thank you to Jeff Streeper. All Photographs © Stas Ginzburg 2020-2022. All Rights Reserved.
NO JUSTICE
Lenape Lands
Abolition Park (City Hall)
June 2020
OCCUPY CITY HALL
Abolition Park (City Hall)
June 2020
AUTONOMOUS ZONE
Abolition Park (City Hall)
June 2020
SIGNS & GRAFFITI
Abolition Park (City Hall)
July 2020
BLACK IS BEAUTY
Tweed Courthouse
July 2020
IMAN
Founder, Trans Asylias The Blasian March Pride Rally Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
June 2021
BOOGIE
The Stonewall Protests Pride March Washington Square Park
June 2021
ERIC
The Stonewall Protests Christopher Street
May 2021
NIA
Co-founder, Black Women’s March George Floyd Remembrance
March & Vigil
Foley Square
May 2021
NA-LEKAN
Co-founder, For Our Liberation George Floyd Remembrance
March & Vigil Foley Square
May 2021
ANONYMOUS
The Stonewall Protests Christopher Street
March 2021
ACE
Cancel 4th of July
Abolition Park (City Hall)
July 2020
XANDER
March for Jayland Walker Brooklyn Bridge
July 2022
YVES
The Stonewall Protests Christopher Street
October 2020
MARCH & RALLY FOR BLACK FOSTER YOUTH
Brooklyn Bridge
September 2020
GREG VON LAVEAU
The Stonewall Protests
Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem
May 2021
ALFRED
Justice for Daniel Prude March Foley Square
February 2021
ALFRED’S FLAG
The Stonewall Protests
February 2021
RAMIE & OSH
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
October 2020
LAUREL
The Blasian March Trans
Power Rally
Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
October 2021
NEPTUNITE
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
March 2021
ALANA
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
June 2021
QWEEN JEAN
Founder, Black Trans Liberation
Memoriam & Deliverance
MoMa PS1, Brooklyn
June 2021
IBRAHIM
Washington Square Park
July 2020
JOULES
George Floyd Remembrance
March & Vigil
Foley Square
May 2021
ALANI
Slut Walk
Jackson Heights, Queens
September 2022
JEEROND
The Stonewall Protests
Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem
May 2021
MISS JOSEPHINE
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
March 2021
MAXIMUS
Co-founder, Youth for Justice NYC
Vigil in Honor of Youth Lives Lost Washington Square Park
April 2021
M.L.K. DAY POLICE RIOTS
City Hall
January 2021
JAKOB
Coney Island, Brooklyn
August 2021
ALVIN
Accountability Rally for Kathleen Casillo & Andrew Mercer
Downtown NYC
December 2021
THE STONEWALL PROTESTS STREET BALLS
New York City
October 2020–May 2021
JOELA
Founder, The Stonewall Protests
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
October 2020
KIMBERLY
Co-founder, Black Women’s March
Justice for Daniel Prude March
NY State AG office, Downtown NYC
February 2021
ALETHEIA & JAY
Slut Walk
Jackson Heights, Queens
September 2022
LABOUJIENATA
Eid Mubarak
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street Pier
May 2021
MAN WITH TATTOOS
NYC Dyke March
June 2021
COMPTON
State of Emergency
March and Rally
Central Park West
October 2020
KALANI
NYC Dyke March
Washington Square Park
June 2022
JAYLIN
Blasian March Downtown Brooklyn
October 2020
JP
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
June 2021
STREET RIDERS
Justice for Jacob Blake
Washington Square Park
August 2020
BREONNA TAYLOR
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
November 2020
MS. GUIDED
Women’s March
Foley Square
October 2021
WORM
March and Vigil for Vincent Truitt
Foley Square
November 2020
THE PEOPLE MARCH
The Oculus, Downtown NYC
November 2020
JEM
March Against TLGBQ Hate Bushwick, Brooklyn
September 2021
EDREES
Globalize the Intifada
MoMa, W 53rd Street
September 2021
ALI
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Park
September 2020
BOY WITH PARROT
Vigil & Rally for Daunte Wright
Washington Square Park
April 2021
QAAREE
Accountability Rally for Kathleen Casillo & Andrew Mercer
Downtown NYC
December 2021
RAQUEL
Transgender rights activist Coney Island, Brooklyn
June 2021
JUSTICE GRAFFITI
Abolition Park (City Hall)
July 2020
KIARA
Co-founder, Warriors in the Garden
March & Rally for Black
Foster Youth
Brooklyn Bridge
September 2020
DRIMIR
Brooklyn Liberation March for Trans Youth Downtown Brooklyn
June 2021
LADAY E. TUCKER
NYC Pride
Washington Square Park
June 2021
SPIRIT
Justice for Breonna Taylor
West Side Highway
March 2021
JERMAINE
Founder, Black Disabled Lives Matter
Downtown Brooklyn
December 2020
JADE & DONOVAN
The Stonewall Protests Christopher Street
April 2021
BLACK DISABLED LIVES
MATTER MARCH
Harlem
October 2020
ARMAAN
The Celebration of Black Trans Women Cookout
Herbert Von King Park, Brooklyn
August 2021
JADE
Trans Visibility March South Harlem
October 2020
JUSTICE FOR JULIUS
Washington Square Park
November 2021
ISAIAH
Washington Square Park
June 2021
RELLY
Founder, We the People The Blasian March Trans Power Rally
Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn
October 2021
RAGE
March for Jayland Walker Brooklyn Bridge
July 2022
QWEEN AMOR
Washington Square Park
June 2021
CRACKHEAD BARNEY
Candlelight Vigil for Atlanta Victims
Washington Square Park
March 2021
GIA LOVE
March Against TLGBQ Hate Bushwick, Brooklyn September 2021
THE STONEWALL PROTESTS
Holland Tunnel
April 2021
KENN
The Stonewall Protests Christopher Street
June 2021
PARIS L’HOMMIE
Abolition Park (City Hall)
July 2020
BASIT
Brooklyn Liberation March for Trans Youth Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
June 2021
PAULIE
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
June 2021
JOJO
March Against TLGBQ Hate Bushwick, Brooklyn September 2021
PLUTOE, SHEA & WILL
Black Transwomen Cookout
Herbert Von King Park, Brooklyn
August 2022
WOMAN IN WHEELCHAIR
Women’s March
Foley Square
October 2021
ELIYA
Memorial for Antonio Armstrong
Harlem
December 2021
CHALA
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
June 2021
ROHAN
Founder, The Blasian March
Blasian March Book Fair
Chinatown
April 2021
TRANS DAY OF VISIBILITY MEMORIAL
Washington Square Park
March 2021
SELF MADE
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Park
June 2021
SEX WORKER
Slut Walk
Jackson Heights, Queens
September 2021
THE B.R.E.A.T.H.E. BILL MARCH
Washington Bridge, the Bronx
September 2020
KAT & ISAAC
The People March
Washington Square Park
November 2020
LUBI
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
April 2021
ELLA FARTZGERALD
Riis Beach Pride
People’s Beach at Jacob Riis Park
September 2022
KAM & SINN
The Stonewall Protests
Christopher Street
June 2021
BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER
The Stonewall Protests
September 2020
FLOYD FAMILY
George Floyd Death Anniversary
Brooklyn Borough Hall
May 2021
COMMUNITY, BLACK LIVES MATTER
Abolition Park (City Hall)
June 2020
