
Blue Heart
June 2017
This month, you're supporting queer & trans people of color
artists & activists
The highlights reel from Peacock's 2015 all queer and trans women of color comedy show. Don’t miss this year’s Festival, June 12-13!​
“Gender is a universe and we are all stars.
Transphobia limits and oppresses all of us. By becoming an ally, you’ll not only have the satisfaction of doing the right thing, you’ll get to experience your true starry brilliance.”
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-Micah Bazant (creator of the Trans Life & Liberation Series)
Bay Area Members are funding Peacock Rebellion
National Members are funding the Marsha P. Johnson Institute
Peacock Rebellion is an SF Bay Area -based, queer + trans people of color crew of artist-activist-healers. They make performing, literary and media arts magic for social, economic and environmental justice. Through live local cabaret shows, touring productions, workshops, games they are working towards epic community transformation
The mission of the Marsha P Johnson Institute is to stop the violence and grow the capacity of Black trans women to organize for their own safety and well-being as a unified community. The Institute will be formally launching this summer. Your money will be going to support the planning committee retreat and their general operating costs as they get off the ground.
June Recommended Actions
Can you commit to taking at least one action this month in support of trans liberation?
Bay Area Actions
Volunteering @ Peacock!
Volunteer at Peacock Rebellion throughout the months of June and July! They need help with website design, social media strategy, short & discrete research tasks, event planning, grant-writing, and database management. Email us if you want in on this fabulous opportunity to show up in support. 1-20 hours depending on your interest and availability!

Celebrate QTPOC Comedy
Come to Brouhaha Comedy Shows on June 12 or 13th and invite a friend! Don’t miss this year’s lineup is a group of funny, fierce, sassy, and sexy comedians from Peacock Rebellion. Get your tickets today!

SF Trans March
Show up to SF Trans March: An event of visibility and celebration for trans people living in the Bay Area. Allies are encouraged to show up in support and solidarity. This year’s Trans March is happening June 23rd, starting at Dolores Park.

Show up to the SF City Hall on June 13th
The SF Board of Supervisors is holding a hearing on June 13, 2017, 3pm at Board of Supervisors Chambers (SF City Hall) to discuss the closure of the jail at 850 Bryant, found to be structurally unsound. They are looking for alternate ways to deal with the closure, including finding ways to release many people. Show your support in reenvisioning how this jail closure could free many instead of imprisoning more. Wondering what the link is between advocating for prison closures and supporting trans liberation is? Trans people of color are disproportionately targeted and incarcerated by the criminal justice system.
National Actions

Follow Elle Hearnes on Twitter (@SoulFreeDreams)
Elle, the Executive Director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, is a dynamic advocate with a skill for expressing piercing critique and poetic vision. Diversify your social media diet and follow her musings on Twitter!

Help provide a dignified retirement for a movement elder
Miss Major is a living legend. As a black trans woman, she has been a tireless advocate for trans liberation for many decades. She was present at the Stonewall Riots in 1969, multiple documentaries have been made about her, and she is a beloved elder across movements for racial justice and LGBT rights. Now in her 70s, she is looking to retire from needing to engage in paid work and still cover her housing and medical expenses. Please consider contributing a few dollars a month to support her to retire with dignity. Join the Giving Circle to provide a basic monthly retirement income for Miss Major.

24 Actions You Can Take to Help Trans Women of Color Survive
Check out this practical article written by trans Latina activist Lexi Adsit. A powerful guide for allies wondering how they can take action in support of trans friends, colleagues, and community members.
“Winning does not look like a gender neutral bathroom at the White House, or gay and lesbian folks being able to get married. Winning looks like being able to define all of our collective efforts to obtain equality and liberation, for all who desire to be free.”
- Elle Hearns, Executive Director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute
Meet Our June Artist: Edxie Betts

Edxie Betts is a Black, filipin@, gender non-conforming, trans femme, queer anti-authoritarian art healer who uses all creative tools and technologies at their disposal to empower themselves and those who are oppressed.
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Their existing work consists of critical self-collective reflection, bringing support and attention to political prisoners, restorative mediation work and emphasizing art as cultural production for the sake of inspiring healing, counter narrative, oppositional alternatives, collective liberation through autonomous self-organizing and direct action.
In my piece I was hoping to create an image that tells the story of strength and vulnerability with choice words and symbols. I made this piece keeping in mind what the peacock and peacock feathers represent as sacred symbols of all knowingness and resurrection. In conjunction with honoring who Marsha ‘Pay It No Mind’ Johnson was I combined the usage of her image from a performance she did, dawned in a reflective disco ball pieced crown, in a surrealist compounding of the Peacock feather as an ‘all seeing’ right eye into the future and back into the past.
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Meet the Movement Leaders

Lexi Onset, Vanessa Lewis, and Devi Peacock
"Becoming an ally is hard work. You are disrupting everything you grew up with. All the messages and the things that privilege you. If you are doing it, it’s one of the most vulnerable things to do. And it will hurt. So, don't lash out at each other, hold each other. Don’t rely on QTPOC to be your teachers or your leaders. Take care of each other, love each, have compassion for each other, forgive each other."
DIG DEEPER
Recommended readings and resources for Bay Area members

"Trans Respect, Etiquette and Support 101"​
9 min read
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Highly recommended introductory resource if you are seeking to be a better ally to trans people! This accessible guide, written by Oakland artist and activist Micah Bazant, goes through the basics of etiquette and allyship for cisgender people when interacting with trans folks. It addresses many of the questions that cis people are unsure how to approach.

Trans Life and Liberation Series: Art Prints
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Once you’ve read the Trans Support 101 guide (above), check out Micah’s gorgeous portrait series of trans people thriving, fighting, and dreaming. All prints are available for purchase and will support grassroots trans-led organizations like Peacock Rebellion.
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Brouhaha Trans Women of Color Stand-up Comedy Highlights:
5 min watch
Check out this short highlights reel from trans women of color comedians featured in Peacock Rebellion’s 2015 show. Don’t miss this year’s Comedy Festival, June 12-13!​

Grassroots Groups Unite to Buy Land in Oakland!
6min read
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Peacock Rebellion and other grassroots organizations successfully crowdfunded enough money to buy their building in East Oakland and make it a permanently affordable community space for trans, queer, and gender conforming activists, makers, and healers! Read about their success story here.
Recommended readings and resources for National members

15 min read
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This is an incredible, in-depth article that explores the statistics (and the real stories behind them) of trans people in the U.S. who have been killed over the past decade. Beautiful, powerful data visualizations, interviews, and photos.

Black Women Solidarity: Interview with Elle Hearns
6 min read
Elle Hearns, Executive Director of the Marsha P Johnson Institute, gets real and vulnerable with fellow activist Treva B. Lindsey about the role of black women in building social movements and what true solidarity looks like. “Black women/femmes constantly are on the frontlines of movements, pop culture, and our collective visioning of our communities. We must continue being on the frontlines for each other. We must lead through love and unlearning. Without Black women, there is no future.”

A powerful poem about the experience of being transgender in South Africa
10 min watch
"I was the mystery of an anatomy, a question asked but not answered," says poet Lee Mokobe, a TED Fellow, in this gripping and poetic exploration of identity and transition. It's a thoughtful reflection on bodies, and the meanings poured into them.

Why Marriage Equality Isn’t Enough
8 min read
June 26th, 2017 marks two years since the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. But what does marriage equality mean for the daily reality of queer and trans people, particularly those who are working class and non-white? This article explores the limitations of the movement for marriage equality and why stopping the violence against trans people of color needs to be at the center of our social movements today.​
Blue Heart Impact: Your Dollars at Work
This month, we sent $1,380 to Peacock Rebellion and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute!
Each month, at least $10 of your subscription goes to that month's partner organization. For Boost Up, Pollinate, and Amplify Members, $20/mo or more goes to our partners.
By choosing to be a Blue Heart member you are investing in social change not supported by traditional philanthropy. We believe that model is broken. Responding to the root causes of injustice requires building the self-determination of the communities most marginalized by our dominant, extractive economy. And this means funding the small, scrappy, movement-building organizations on the front lines. By voting with your dollar, you believe this type of transformation is possible.
Up Next at Blue Heart
Next month, Bay Area members will be funding Indian People Organizing for Change
National members will be funding the Winnemem Wintu Tribe's project to restore their native salmon populations and cultural practices.
