Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth ages 13-25 are directly impacted by the criminal justice and immigration detention system every day. Facing exclusion, and violence where we live and from state enforcement of discrimination and profiling in our lives and of our bodies. In 2018 -- forty-nine years after the Stonewall Rebellion, an event that LGBTQ Prides honors -- Black and Brown Trans and Queer communities are still not fully included in the mainstream LGBT vision of liberation and other movements.
BreakOUT! presents #MyQTPOCPride a keynote and panel discussion with
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy a formerly incarcerated Black transgender elder and activist who has been fighting for the rights of trans women of color and TGNC communities for over 40 years. A veteran of the Stonewall Rebellion and a survivor of Attica State Prison, a former sex worker, an elder, and a community leader and human rights activist. Additional panelists for #MyQTPOCPride include Wendi Moore-O’Neal, Sy’ria Jackson, and BreakOUT members.
Wendi Moore-O'Neal is a cultural worker, facilitator, and educator who was born and raised in New Orleans. Moore-O'Neal has worked in local, regional and national justice organizations; but her heart’s work is rooted in the US South, especially the kind of organizing that happens around kitchen tables in the Black belt and Appalachia.
Sy’ria Jackson is one of Louisiana’s own Transgender Women of Color, whom has been in the Prevention, Education and Policy field for now 15 years. Her passion for community drives her to continue to learn, to better assist her community to navigate through Healthcare resources. Ms. Jackson is acknowledged by the Black Trans Advocacy Conference as a “Rising Star” in Advocacy for the Transgender Community,
Vern Plotkin is a soft baby activist with a lifelong devotion to queer liberation and the freedom of people of color. Originally hailing from Long Beach, CA, they graduated from UC Santa Cruz cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in community Studies. Vern’s first on the ground work in organizing was as a community safety organizer at the Brooklyn Movement Center in New York City. They have since joined the building our power institute at Breakout as well as the healing as resistance working committee (HART).
Bea Polanco (They/Them). 20 yr old Agender Afro-latinx that was born & raised in NOLA. An active member of BreakOUT! & I participate in their “Building Our Power”Institute, which is geared towards teaching LGBTQ+ youth leadership skills that will help end the criminalization of trans and queer youth throughout the city.
Along with BreakOUT members
Micaiah Bradley & Tamara Channel
