Athletes4CHNGES, an activist group founded by San Jose State and University of California, Santa Barbara student-athletes, hosted a Black Trans Lives event on Aug. 24 to bring awareness of the discrimination against the Black Trans and LGBTQ+ community.
The activist group encouraged individuals around the nation to participate by walking, running, swimming or biking for 6.28 miles in memory of the Stonewall riots which occurred in 1969. Those who could not participate were asked to donate to the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, a social justice organization led by Black transgender people.
The group celebrated figures on social media such as Marsha P. Johnson, a predominant activist during the Stonewall riots.The riots were some of the most powerful days for the LGBTQ+ community. These riots, which often turned into violent demonstrations, were the LGBTQ+ community responding to a police raid on June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, in New York City.
The goal of the Aug. 24 event was to educate the public on the history of Black transgender people. Johnson was an important activist figure that completely transformed what the Black Trans Lives movement is today.
Athletes4CHNGES expressed its concern for Black transgender people dying at incredibly fast rates. According to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, the number of violent transgender murders reported were 27 deaths in 2019 and 26 in 2020, of which the majority of the victims were Black transgender people.
One of the founders of Athletes4CHNGES and UCSB women’s soccer player, Evann Smith, said she did not expect the same amount of people to participate or donate for this event as their last event for Black Lives Matter. The activist group exceeded their goal, raising almost $80,000 in the end.
Smith said that donations weren’t the main motivation this time around. Instead, they were “focused on bringing awareness to the divide between Black Lives Matter and Black Trans Lives Matter.”
Smith mentioned that Athletes4CHNGES wanted to raise awareness to an issue that was just as important as any other relevant problem today, but was rarely talked about.
“The ‘H’ in our name stands for humanity,” Smith said. “Personally, I believe that humanity is realizing that someone might have different beliefs, looks, sexuality or gender identity from me, but I will fight for that person’s equality and pursuit of happiness because it is what everyone deserves.”
Caleb Simmons, SJSU men’s basketball guard, felt that the event hit close to home.
“I knew somebody who went through a time in their life where they had an identity crisis and they wanted to change their sexual orientation,” Simmons said. “He was ridiculed for it and three weeks later, committed suicide because of the pressures that society and his friends and people that he loved brought on to him.”
UCSB women’s soccer player, Hannah Wendelken and SJSU women’s soccer player,
Natasha Harris, co-founders of Athletes4CHNGES, said they are both members of the LGBTQ+ community and are aware of how Black transgender people are often forgotten or neglected when it comes to raising awareness for Black Lives Matter protests.
“Many times their murders are misreported or not reported,” Smith said. “There’s been too many transgender deaths in 2020, and nothing is being done about it.”
Harris and Wendelken, helped support the cause by raising money doing a 6.28 mile bike ride with teammates and raising donations through Venmo and Instagram. Simmons did his part by organizing a basketball game among friends to help bring awareness to the cause. Together, the group surpassed their initial goal of $500 and raised more than $900.
“During this time, I think it’s really important to just realize that humans are humans, so if you’re going to fight for Black lives, why not fight for Black trans lives with the same energy?” Harris said. “I’m angry at the world and how it treats human beings, and I know that as an athlete, we have the platform to bring up these issues.”
