Greetings of peace, love, solidarity, and collective resistance.
This is Comrade Uhuru Rowe. Prison state number 1131545, speaking to you from the belly of the Virginia prison system on this third day of October, 2021. This speech is meant to express my formal declaration of support of – in solidarity with Ashley Diamond, members of her Free Ashley Diamond and Free Ashley Now campaigns, and all other oppressed and incarcerated trans people of color.
I was motivated to record this speech after a comrade with the Justice for Uhuru Coordinating Committee and college socialists and [inaudible] told me that an organizer with the Free Ashley Diamond campaign contacted her about doing joint solidarity work. This came after hearing a speech I delivered at a Juneteenth noise demo at a local jail in Washington DC, organized by DC Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee.
So, actually, who is Ashley Diamond? I have since learned that Ashley Diamond is a Black trans woman who is currently incarcerated in the belly of the Georgia Department of Corrections, where she has been unjustly housed in maximum security men’s prisons, and as a result, has experienced repeated abuse and neglect, including sexual violence from other prisoners and the denial of much needed hormone therapy. These are the same cruel and inhuman conditions that Ashley was subjected to during her first stint in the Georgia prison system in 2012, and is part and parcel of a larger problem, as is demonstrated by the U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that on September 24, 2021, that it will launch this state-wide investigation into a pattern of prisoner-on-prisoner violence, including sexual violence against queer and trans people in Georgia prisons.
So, the question then becomes: What does the plight of an incarcerated Black trans woman has to do with me, an incarcerated heterosexual Black man? In the speech I deliver at the Juneteenth event in DC, I pointed out that a little over a year after the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, a letter by Dr. Huey P. Newton, the Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party, was published in the August 15, 1970 issue of the Black Panther Newspaper, wherein Huey attempted to open dialog and build unity and collective struggle. This was because, as Huey evolved, as most revolutionaries do over time, he came to recognize that sexism, homophobia and transphobia were forms of oppression, and that the Panthers and New Afrikan people in general needed to work openly in coalition with these other marginalized and oppressed groups in order to deal with that issue and overcome our oppression. Unfortunately, because of COINTELPRO and the prevalence of sexism, heterosexism, and machismo in the party, this effort by Huey never resulted in concrete coalition building.
As a new generation Black Panther, it is my duty and obligation to continue in the true legacy of Dr. Huey P. Newton, the part of his legacy not recognized or acknowledged by many Panthers today and speak out against the oppression and violence directed against queer and trans people and the intentional abuse, neglect, mistreatment of incarcerated black trans woman like Ashley Diamond at the hand of the capitalist, patriarchal, white supremacist state, especially at a time when Black trans women are being targeted and murdered in the streets; are being harassed, beaten and in some cases, murdered by the police and are being targeted for increased incarceration, and the abuse and violence they face once they get to these modern day slave camps.
When Sylvia Rivera, a Latinx transgender woman who, as a teenager, participated in the Stonewall Rebellion, was asked by Leslie Sandberg if she participated in the rebellion because she was gay or trans, because of police brutality or racism, because of being an oppressed [unclear], or because she was homeless. She answered simply, “Because we were fighting for our lives.”
It is on that basis that I add my voice to the chorus of people speaking in defense of Ashley Diamond’s life, demanding that she be free, and that until she is free, she be treated with dignity and respect and given proper medical care, including hormone therapy, which the Constitution entitles her. Free our political prisoners. Free Ashley Diamond. Black Lives Matter. Black trans lives matter. All power to the people.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio
