Mortimer, the Biter-Fighter, human hater.

if you wouldn't mind, would you maybe share some of your favourite Black transgender people in honour of trans day of visibility? Black trans people (especially Black transgender women and drag queens!!) are CRUCIAL to queer history and queer rights and i think they can never get enough love and recognition

I don't necessarily have like, a list of "favorite" Black trans people. But I can list two people that had an effect on me and my understanding of the trans community!

Marsha P Johnson was my first like... I started to make the necessary connections of Blackness, racism, queerness, and activism, by learning about her. She came with the realization that wow, the queer community- as James Baldwin put it best- is no more prepared to accept Black people as anywhere else. The white queer community did HORRIBLE by her and Sylvia, despite all the hard work she put in to protect her community. She came with the realization that the way folks act now is not brand new, it's a pattern, a long held tradition to treat Black trans women terribly despite how wonderful they are, how marginalized they are, and how much they have to offer. That all of our battles are connected, that if we don't fight for everyone, we will lose everyone. I wish she'd lived, and gotten to live a better life, I really do. She deserved that.

Laverne Cox was my first pop culture interaction with transness as a whole, when I was a teenager. I might have hated Orange is the New Black, but it certainly wasn't because of her (or any of the Black cast)! I remember being like "oh, okay!" And not really feeling anything bad about it, so when everyone acted bad it was like... Why are y'all so mad? Obviously I had some learning to do. But I will always respect her for being willing to be out, to have those conversations, to live her best life. I'm happy that she is alive and happy. She's also my safe bar to measure Black people's queer acceptance by. If I bring Laverne up, and you act funny, I don't wanna hear anything else you have to say about anything, really.