It's Time You Realize #AllLivesMatter Is Racist

It seems that whenever we talk about race and #BlackLivesMatter comes up, a whole lot of people get super, super uncomfortable. So, naturally, they resort to the common retort of #AllLivesMatter. However, that logic is, well, illogical.

We want everyone to do the important work of combatting racism in the LGBT and queer community, but also in the world at large, so we decided to compile some super helpful info to help out the #AllLivesMatter camp.

Because when you say #AllLivesMatter, whether you mean to or not, you’re being racist.

We also recognized the need to have a semi-comprehensive document of everything from examples to logical appeals to videos that we can send to our friends who seem a little stuck in the #AllLivesMatter camp.

First, we found some helpful analogies.

In case you need the facts straight up.

Plus a super helpful video!

Because this *is* a queer issue.

If all lives matter, it’s awfully strange how rarely the folks repeating #AllLivesMatter speak up when people are harmed by police brutality.

If all lives matter, you have to speak up when people of color are killed.

If all lives matter, why weren’t you using that phrase until you needed to challenge #BlackLivesMatter?

In short.

Because this is what it all comes down to.

At the end of the day, we are oppressed because of our sexualities, and people of color are oppressed because of racism, and those two things intersect (with a whole bunch of other identities!), which is why issues of racism are issues within the LGBT and queer community, and it’s nothing but illogical to say that #BlackLivesMatter has nothing to do with us as queer folks.

We need to step up to the plate and make sure that we’re challenging racism when we see it, including marginalized voices *other* than our own in the dialogue, and doing the super important and all too necessary work of knowing what it means to be an ally to queer and trans people of color.

Because we may be marginalized for our sexualities, and we may need allies because of that, but we also have to be allies to our friends who are further marginalized by intersecting identities.