I came home late yesterday afternoon and checked Twitter, to see if there were any trending hashtags I wanted to use in my next posts there and here. And saw “Monica Roberts” trending under Politics, with more than 2,000 Tweets. I hoped -- against hope, especially at this point in 2020 -- that it was good news. And then I clicked -- and saw that “our” Monica Roberts had passed away on Monday. She was only 58. I don’t yet know what happened.
And I don’t yet remember if she and I ever met, offline or on. Maybe at the Philadelphia Trans Wellness (formerly Health) Conference? I know we were in a few on- and offline spaces together, over the years. And some of my closest colleagues were close to her, and I mourn with and for them. And of course I knew Monica through her truly amazing work, as a Black trans leader for social justice, and oh so much more.
Like so many, I especially appreciated her blog, TransGriot. Which I read particularly to better understand the lives and deaths of my many trans siblings murdered in this country (and the rest of our world) every year -- most of them young Black women. (The photo here is the one Monica used for her blog, and her profile picture here on Facebook -- Eric Edward Schell’s Pride Portrait of her.)
She had a feature there called the Shut Up Fool Awards, featuring foolish politicians who especially needed to shut up, due to their transphobia, racism, and other foolishment. And of course many of us were looking forward to that feature more than ever this month and week! At least we can laugh about that, imagining what she would have written!
And as glad as I am to see how much Monica is being appreciated in death, I have to say that more of that should have happened when she was alive. Including from myself. Most Black trans women are appreciated little if at all during their lifetimes. This is also too true for Black trans men and Black nonbinary people. And other trans people of color -- especially our Latinx and Native/Indigenous siblings, and other intersectionally oppressed trans people. And this is all true to a large extent within the trans community, as well as without.
“Give us our roses while we’re still here!” Our living and our dead call out to us, every day. Reminding us that the Transgender Day Of Remembrance (November 20th) is not nearly enough. (Neither is Trans Week or Month (both also November), or our other annual trans “holidays”.)
You were a rare rose, Ms. Roberts. And you inspired many of your sisters, brothers and other siblings into leadership and other roles in this vital work. May even more of we your extended family answer your call to pursue justice, at the intersection of trans and racial and other oppression. Speedily, soon, and in our time. Amen!
