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‘We Have To Lift Each Other Up,’ Pete Buttigieg’s Response To the Trans Activist Who Ambushed Him at the AIDS Memorial

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When Pete Buttigieg went to New York City’s LGBT Community Center last Friday to discuss HIV/AIDS policy, he wasn’t expecting to be ambushed by Black, ACLU, Trans activist LaLa Holston-Zannell.

LaLa Holston-Zannell

Mayor Pete had left the Center to walk to the NYC AIDS Memorial a few blocks south to pay his respects to the hundreds of thousands of victims of the AIDS Epidemic.

Back2Stonewall says Holston-Zannell went for Mayor Pete, yelling, “It is your responsibility to let [queer and trans people of color] know that you will have their back and that you understand police brutality,” she said. “Stonewall 50 — that’s what we fought for, six days [really four] against the police, and today we’re still doing it. Fifty years ago, it was a girl like me that fought for six days. Black trans women are the most targeted—”

A gay man in the crowd told Holston-Zannell, “With all due respect, it wasn’t just you there,” he said, confronting her about erasing white gay people from the Stonewall narrative.

And he wasn’t the only one. After one of the other activists said that “Black trans lives matter,” a white woman in the crowd countered that “all lives matter.” Later, another white woman, who thought she’d never see “a married gay man running for president,” thanked the mayor for “working for all of us, for trans, for LGBT—”

“You can’t say that,” said Holston-Zannell. “If you’re not Black and trans you can’t say that.”

“You know what?” the woman responded, frustrated. “My wife worked for marriage equality.”

“Which means nothing for Black and brown trans people,” Holston-Zannell replied. “We care about living. We care about not being killed.”

Buttigieg‘s response about the confrontation afterwards was perfect:

“One thing I’m very mindful of is that I couldn’t be doing this if people hadn’t fought for me before I was born, Some of them Black, some of them trans, people whose lived experiences were totally different than mine. But we’ve got to be lifting each other up. If you’re going to press me on doing a better job of lifting people up, I welcome that challenge.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

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