In the event you spend sufficient time round me, you’ll hear me proudly say I used to be born and raised in North Omaha, Nebraska.
To be Black in a spot like Omaha is to wrestle to your identification. To craft your Blackness with care. You construct it from scratch, from what’s handed down and what’s taken again.
For me, that journey wasn’t restricted to my Blackness. It was the identical when it got here to queerness and to my identification as a Black trans girl. However right here’s the trick: society made queerness appear extra accessible. No one informed me the positive print got here stamped in whiteness. That a lot of queerness—because it’s marketed and magnified—was filtered by white supremacy. That embracing that model of queerness might, actually, boring the brilliance of my Black pleasure.
I’ll always remember the yr when the Juneteenth Parade and the Delight Parade fell on the identical day in my metropolis.
It was a crossroads. For a lot of Black queer of us, there wasn’t a query; they selected Juneteenth. I used to be there too, however that wasn’t as a result of I didn’t love Delight. I had executed my time.
I’d been president of Delight, and constructed Youth Delight from the bottom up. I had fought for Delight when it didn’t struggle for me. I had executed the work of creating house for my queerness. That day, I used to be lastly making house for my Blackness.
What I witnessed, although, was deeper. I noticed youthful queer of us—particularly these partnered with non-Black individuals—being pulled between two identities that, in a simply world, would by no means require a selection. That day didn’t simply symbolize a scheduling battle. It symbolized the dailytightrope stroll so many Black queer individuals carry out on this nation: to decide on between being seen and being entire.
Let’s be trustworthy; in lots of Black-centered establishments, queerness is welcome solely when it performs small. To be embraced as queer, you usually must downplay what makes you completely different and preserve your queerness on the backside of your identification checklist. As a result of on the finish of the day, you’re Black first, proper?
However flip it. In most mainstream queer areas, you’re anticipated to examine your Blackness on the door—until that Blackness matches a stereotype or serves as a fancy dress. Except it entertains. Except it’s for consumption.
So I want you to listen to me once I say, it isn’t an accident that Juneteenth and Delight exist in the identical month.
It’s not a coincidence that our strongest Black changemakers had been additionally queer. It’s not by probability that the intersection of Blackness and queerness continues to be a birthplace for brilliance, resistance, and transformation.
That is divine alignment.
Now, I do know I’m preaching to of us who really feel me. However let me be clear: I write this not only for affirmation; I write this for the Black of us who don’t see the world like I do. Not as a result of your notion will restrict my freedom, however as a result of none of us are free if we consider we are able to get to the opposite aspect and go away our individuals behind. Particularly the individuals who make us uncomfortable.
Liberation isn’t actual if it’s just for the variations of us which are palatable.
White communities have spent the final 50 years mobilizing an agenda that has taken root in each nook of this nation, they usually didn’t do it as a result of they had been all the identical, or as a result of they had been all straight, or as a result of they had been all ethical. They didn’t do it as a result of they agreed. They did it as a result of they had been all white. That was the one prerequisite.
I’m not saying we should always construct coalitions primarily based on shortage and worry.
I do know that recreation. And I do know the exhaustion it’s bred in our communities. However we’d be silly to not discover the facility in what occurs when individuals align, even amid distinction.
So let’s take a look at what alignment has given us.
On June 19, 1865, enslaved Black individuals in Texas had been lastly emancipated, triggering the beginning of a freedom dream that gave us Michelle Obama on a float, Oprah commanding empires, Megan Thee Stallion reminding us we ain’t received knees like we used to, and Brandy and Monica arguing over “The Boy Is Mine.” It gave us Whitney. Mariah. Aretha. Patti. Jazmine.
And 104 years later, on June 29, 1969, a Black Trans girl—Marsha P. Johnson—sparked a revolution at Stonewall that gave us TS Madison, the queen of media; Queen Latifah, a mogul and a mom; Laverne Cox, making Emmy historical past; Bayard Rustin, strategist to Dr. King; Nikki Giovanni, residing her radical brilliance in actual time; Miss Main, constructing a legacy of elder take care of our neighborhood; Toni Bryce and Monroe Alise, reshaping tv; A’Ziah “Zola” King, whose Black girlhood turned cinematic canon; and me—Dominique Morgan—who went from a prisonyard to strolling down the road named after her in the identical state.
It was 104 years between June 19, 1865, the emancipation of the final enslaved Black individuals in Texas, and June 29, 1969, the evening a Black Trans girl helped ignite a revolution at Stonewall. That hole isn’t simply historic. It’s religious.
In numerology, 104 is usually seen as an Angel Quantity—a divine reminder to embrace change and align your actions with a better objective. It indicators that transformation just isn’t solely attainable; it’s coming.
It asks us to lean into discomfort with religion, to shift our mindset towards development, and to acknowledge love because the connective tissue in our evolution.
That’s what alignment has at all times been — a type of divine choreography. We had been at all times meant to be transferring collectively—even when the rhythm was onerous to listen to.
You actually wanna inform me we aren’t aligned?
Alignment doesn’t imply we’re the identical.
Alignment doesn’t imply we by no means argue.
Alignment doesn’t imply it’s straightforward.
For me, alignment implies that we’re combating tougher to remain in tandem than we’re wanting to disintegrate.
That’s the definition I need you to take from this piece. That’s the decision to motion. That’s the invitation.
As a result of the world will give us 100 causes to separate. They’ll whisper that your queerness disqualifies you. That your Blackness is just too loud. That your transness is a legal responsibility. That your softness makes you weak. And all of the whereas, they’ll lie, steal, kill, and destroy, simply to maintain themselves aligned.
As my Grandma Woodie used to say, “Don’t let the satan use you.”
This Juneteenth, this Delight, I’m asking us to make a unique selection.
To honor our collective brilliance.
To carry the road.
To remain in tandem.
To decide on alignment—repeatedly and once more.
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