This article is part of the Black Magic Project, which focuses on people who embody the resilient and empowering legacy of the black community. If you’re a Facebook user, you can join our Black Magic Project group, where we talk about stories, topics and issues concerning black Alabamians.
Armed with bricks and bottles, black and brown transwomen were on the frontlines of an uprising at a New York gay bar called Stonewall Inn 50 years ago today.
The six-day riot was a response to police brutality targeting the LGBTQ community at the time and ushered in the modern LGBTQ movement. Stonewall veterans Marsha P. Johnson, who was black, and Latina drag queen Sylvia Rivera were transwomen who teamed up following the riots to combat homeless and hunger in their community - problems they felt were being overlooked by other white-led, gay organizations.
It's a problem a black transwoman in Birmingham is still addressing today in Alabama's first resource center specifically dedicated to transwomen of color. Daroneshia Duncan-Boyd founded an organization called Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering (TAKE) to improve the quality of life for black and brown transwomen. The average life expectancy for Americans is 78.6 years, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Due to violence, that number dwindles to 35 for transwomen of color.
On Thursday, Duncan-Boyd stepped into a national role and became the first executive director of Trans United. The nonprofit connects with trans leaders and organizations across the country to build a collective that supports the transgender community on a local, state and federal level.
Daye Pope, organizing director of Trans United, said it was Duncan-Boyd's work ethic that made her stand out from other applicants.
“Daroneshia really is the legacy of the Stonewall leaders who started the trans movement,” Pope said. “She is an unapologetic, brilliant black transwoman who really cares deeply about the community and works harder than anyone I know to help black transwomen and all of the community to have all the needs we are dying without.”
Posters from an event honoring Daroneshia Duncan-Boyd as the first executive director of the national transgender advocacy nonprofit Trans United. The event was held Thursday night at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Mountain Brook.
What started as a bi-monthly support group in 2013 has ballooned into the TAKE resource center in Birmingham's East Lake neighborhood. Crammed in the small building, black transwomen find bias free therapy sessions, a boutique full of free clothes for job interviews, a fridge full of food, medical and bill assistance, sisterhood and sanctuary. At the helm of the operation, they will also find Duncan-Boyd juggling phone calls and Facebook messages from transwomen asking for help in many forms.
The center ended 2018 with about 40 open cases of black and brown transwomen asking for assistance. The caseload has more than doubled to 95 within the first six months of this year. Just Monday afternoon, Duncan-Boyd added the name of a transwoman who has been dealing with chronic homelessness to TAKE's roster.
"Every woman who comes through that door is a crisis because being black and trans is a crisis," Duncan-Boyd said. "It's a housing need. It's a food need. It's a transportation need. There is some type of need that needs to be addressed and we need to get to working.
Angela Johnson was struggling to find a home in the world and within herself before TAKE's inception. Struggling with the loss of both the grandmother and aunt who raised her, Johnson started medicating the sinking feeling of grief with drugs. A four-year stint of homelessness soon followed. She used to nap at the homeless shelter during the day before drifting in the streets at night to do sex work, which funded her addiction at the time.
Johnson calls Duncan-Boyd her "chosen mother." Duncan-Boyd would let Johnson stay at her place. When the TAKE resource center opened, Johnson was linked to multiple resources. Instead of sleeping in the corner of a shelter, Johnson was linked to a program that pays the rent for her apartment where she has lived for about three years. She used to force herself into men's clothing she received from the shelter. Now she can pick her own style in the boutique and wear flowing dresses and shawls.
Alabama and eight other states received an F on the National Center for Transgender Equality's report card examining the trans-friendliness of a state's policies concerning name and gender marker changes. But Johnson didn't get lost in the process. She said TAKE helped her as she navigated her way through the legal system to get her name changed on her driver's license.
She said TAKE helped Angela become Angela no matter what anyone says.
“We are human beings. We go through the same stuff that everyone else go through,” Johnson said. “Don’t look down on us just because you don’t know what we are going through. Transwomen go through racism, misgendering, drug abuse, rapes.”
Angela Johnson poses for a photo at the TAKE Resource Center in Birmingham. Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering (TAKE) is an organization that has been improving the quality of life for transwomen of color since 2013. The organization opened Alabama's first resource center specifically for black and brown transwomen about two years ago.
For the black transgender community, one issue bleeds into another. Racism coupled with transphobia leads to high unemployment rates. Trans people of color are three times more likely than the general U.S. population to live in poverty, the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) reported in its latest survey in 2015. About 42% of black transgender respondents reported being homeless at some part of their lives.
Duncan-Boyd said the problems affecting transwomen today are rooted in miseducation and discrimination - making it risky to come out as a transwoman of color.
"Everyone is saying homosexuality is a sin and isn't acknowledging that trans is not an act of sexual orientation," Duncan-Boyd said. "Being trans is an actual gender identity. They are not understanding that there is a complete difference."
"You're basically targeted because people don't understand who you really are," she continued. "When you are being targeted, you become a victim of a violent crime. You can be discriminated against while dealing with housing, employment, going into public spaces, restrooms and restaurants."
That's why the resource center is important. Duncan-Boyd said she wanted to provide transwomen of color an empowering and safe area to be themselves.
"This is a healing space. This is a safe space," Duncan-Boyd said. "This is a space governed by black and brown trans women who come and exhausts their energy and love on one another"
Since the majority of TAKE members don’t have transportation, Duncan-Boyd and other resource center staff members usually begin their weekdays crisscrossing the city in their personal vehicles to pick up the transwomen who want to come to the support group sessions.
Surrounded by walls painted with the pink, white and blue stripes of the Transgender Pride Flag, the transwomen refer to each other as sisters as they participate in different activities each week whether it be art therapy or fitness. They learn calming techniques during anger management classes by a life coach.
Through this space, Duncan-Boyd hopes the women will learn how to accept and advocate for themselves.
“I tell ladies over and over, ‘You don’t need society’s validation. You are woman because you say you are a woman. Affirm yourself,’” Duncan-Boyd said. “'Look in the mirror and become familiar with who this person is. It is the only person you owe something to.'”
TAKE members participate in a support group focusing on anger management at the TAKE Resource Center in Birmingham. Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering (TAKE) is an organization that has been improving the quality of life for transwomen of color since 2013. The organization opened Alabama's first resource center specifically for black and brown transwomen about two years ago.
As the youngest member of TAKE, 15-year-old Jayveona Frazier is known as the baby of the family. She’s only been here a month, but she said she has learned a lot from the older members who give her advice about how to navigate negative comments toward her gender identity.
Their conversations help Frazier with her anger, which caused her to act out and get expelled last school year. She said she is going to do better next year at her new school in Fairfield. Instead of lashing out or throwing objects at people who may tease her, she's going to walk away — maybe listen to some soul music, which is her favorite genre, or draw to distract herself.
"I'm not going to pay them any attention," Frazier said. "I am learning how to stop listening to what other people say about me and trust myself."
Frazier has been open about her identity for a few years now. She's a fan of tight pants and colorful wigs, but only around her sisters at TAKE or friends and family who are accepting. She says she isn't comfortable expressing herself when she is on the streets by herself. She has heard about the transwomen who have been killed this year. These days, you never know what is on a person's mind, Frazier said.
Despite the deaths, TAKE has made Frazier feel more positive about her future, especially when it comes down to school. She wants to get a medical degree from Alabama State University.
“At first I didn’t know if I wanted to go to college,” Frazier said. “But TAKE made me realize that I don’t want to end up like some of these people out here who don’t have an education doing who knows what for God knows what.”
Jayveona Frazier (left) and Angela Johnson (right) crack jokes at each other at the TAKE Resource Center in Birmingham. Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering (TAKE) is an organization that has been improving the quality of life for transwomen of color since 2013. The organization opened Alabama's first resource center specifically for black and brown transwomen about two years ago.
TAKE is working on expanding its footprint, both in resources and in space. The organization is connecting with a California-based nonprofit to start a prison correspondent program so group members can identify and fulfill the needs of incarcerated transwomen of color.
Duncan-Boyd is also eyeing another building — one that will be big enough to house an auditorium for fundraising events, a laundry facility, the resource center and the emergency crisis center, which would have beds and serve as a shelter for transwomen of color.
The crisis center would not only be for transwomen in the Birmingham area. It will also be a space where transwomen across the country can rebuild their lives if they are in extreme danger.
It's an opportunity she wished she could have given to Muhlaysia Booker, a 23-year-old black transwoman in Dallas who was beaten to the point of unconsciousness by a homophobic-slurring crowd. Booker survived and spoke against the violence after cellphone footage of her attack went viral.
About a month after the assault, Booker' body was found facedown on a Dallas street.
Almost 60 percent of transwomen who responded to a Southerners on New Ground (SONG) survey reported high levels of violence by strangers. Duncan-Boyd believes a place where endangered transwomen can relocate and rebuild their lives free of charge could save lives.
"If Muhlaysia Booker had a safety plan when she was attacked, and she was sent away from Dallas, she possibly could be still living because she wouldn’t be on familiar territory," she said.
The new building will also house the offices of Trans United, which is currently located in Washington, D.C. But Duncan-Boyd is resisting the pull to move up north and instead moving the nonprofit to her hometown.
"Usually when you become big and people see you your work, everyone is ready to pull you to D.C.," she said. "So when I applied for the job, I told them, 'Honey, I am not moving to D.C. They need me in the South.'"
Because not only is it home, Duncan-Boyd said she is built for the South.
“I don’t mind challenging systems, and I don’t mind breaking barriers because I am very unapologetic. When you say ‘no,’ I say ‘yes,’” she said. “If we keep running away from the South the folks will keep winning, but if we stay in the South, they will eventually lose.”