In 1970, Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton gave a speech in New York City outlining the organization’s position on women’s liberation and gay liberation – two issues most other Black organizations at the time left unvoiced.
And he didn’t mince words.
“I do not remember our ever constituting any value that said that a revolutionary must say offensive things towards homosexuals, or that a revolutionary should make sure that women do not speak out…” Newton stated.
He argued that LGBTQ+ and women’s liberation has never harmed Black liberation. But he also unpacked why.
Before discouraging his audience from using homophobic slurs, Newton described how white supremacy created “insecurities…that [LGBTQ+] are some kind of threat to [Black American] manhood.”
In other words, violence directed toward both women and LGBTQ+ communities came from a fear of emasculation created by white supremacy.
Today, Black LGBTQ+ people and women are still disproportionately and fatally affected at the intersections of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia – from within Black communities.
For instance, Black trans women are being killed more than seven times the rate of the general U.S. population.
Newton called for the crucial unification of ALL oppressed people as the only true path for liberation. We will never be free by oppressing each other the way white supremacy oppresses us!