Playlist Rainbow X 2019

Pride is being. Here and now.

Pride is the Golden Rule. It’s looking at people in the eye when you need or want something from them, like at the store or the bank or the post office. It’s saying “Hello,” “Please,” and “Thank you.” It’s also offering something, too. It’s Ama Sua, Ama Llulla, Ama Quella (look it up). It’s remembering that our rights end when and where someone else’s begin. It’s ensuring everyone is safe and protected. Silence equals death. So do carelessness and inaction.

Pride is passing the Equality Act ASAP.

This is America, and this is 2019. We know discrimination and abuse, and neglect, are things happening in the United States of America and all around the world today. We have a history of it. Life will begin to become much easier for everyone involved (so all of us), when it’s official – when equality is the law. In America, in 2019.

Get with it, people: The time I right now, and the future is 🔜.

Eleven black transgender women have been murdered so far this year in this country, in Alabama, Tennessee, Maryland, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and Missouri. Their names and ages: Dana Martin, 31; Jazzaline Ware, age N/A; Ashanti Carmon, 27; Claire Legato, 21; Muhlaysia Booker, 23; Michelle “Tamika” Washington, 40; Paris Cameron, 20; Chynal Lindsey, 26; Chanel Scurlock, 23; Zoe Spears, 23; and Broolyn Lindsey, 32.

This is a criminal statistic. These women were our sisters. They were people. They were more than their terrible end, and they deserve justice, and that justice comes as change. Knowing trans women of color, I understand only a little about the risk they take on the daily simply by being. That has got to stop. I do not want to see their names or any more names on this list.

We’re all here, and we’re all a little queer. Pride is getting over our prejudice, as individuals, as a culture. It’s working and living with dignity, within spitting distance of folks determined to antagonize us or who, for whatever reason, want to become our enemies. It’s moving forward, together, with and for one another, equal under the sun and under the law.

Pride is speaking up, and knowing when to shut up. It’s listening.

Are you listening?

1. Song for the Lonely (Thunderpuss Radio Edit)
2. Don’t You Want Me
3. Venus
4. Express Yourself
5. Girls Just Want to Have Fun
6. Rebel Rebel
7. The Story
8. Closer
9. Dance to This
10. Love Is the Message (Love Groove Bonus)
11. Murder on the Dance Floor
12. Point of No Return
13. Deep in Vogue
14. Vogue
15. We Can’t Stop
16. 🎧➡️ I’m Coming Out
17. I Rise