Young Activists Plot the Future of the LGBT Rights Movement
by Shani O. Hilton | Monday, January 30 2012
…On the domestic front, the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) was handing out statistics on black transgender people pulled from the results of a national survey conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality. In the results, half of black transgender people in school reported being harassed, 27 percent reported physical assault, and 15 percent reported sexual assault. Twenty-one percent left school because of harassment. Six percent said they were expelled due to bias.
If one theme emerged from the people I spoke to at the conference, it was that “activating” the power of under-heard groups like people and youth of color is desperately needed. “The youth of color community doesn’t feel like it has a voice,” says Rodney Nickens, Jr., a senior fellow with the NBJC. “No one is hearing their perspective.” For that, he says, Creating Change “has been phenomenal.”