This morning, I read a horrifying truth (via the luminous Alok on Instagram). In the past seven days, six Black trans women have been murdered in the US alone. Join me in speaking their names and honouring their lives.
O God, we join with you in this moment
You, the God of freedom
You, who is boundless love
You, the creative, playful God
You, our emanation and our source
We hold before you the names of six of your children
Murdered in seven days for being black trans women
Seven days of horror
Seven days of hell
We say their names:
Bree Black
Shaki Peters
Draya McCarty
Brayla Stone
Merci Mack
Tatiana Hall
We say them again: Bree Black. Shaki Peters. Draya McCarty. Brayla Stone. Merci Mack. Tatiana Hall.
We hold in silence those unnamed trans family members who have met the same fate in recent days, months and years.
We know that you know and love these souls. We know you saw their beauty, your own beauty reflected in them. You weep and mourn for them. We join you in your suffering.
For a moment, we stop. We honour their lives by halting ours.
Bree Black. Shaki Peters. Draya McCarty. Brayla Stone. Merci Mack. Tatiana Hall.
Next, we raise our heads and look ahead.
We ask for the discernment to see the ways in which we, personally, sustain a system which divides, hurts, kills, makes invisible the very souls whose truth will lead us all out of bondage.
We ask for the strength to uplift, protect and celebrate black trans lives in our own lives. For the staying power to push, until our trans family are not routinely freed from their bodies by violence, but rather free to be in their bodies, exactly as they are.
Bree Black. Shaki Peters. Draya McCarty. Brayla Stone. Merci Mack. Tatiana Hall.
May you rest in power. May we not rest until the work is done.
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