Community Reacts After Chauvin Is Found Guilty
Black LGBTQ leaders call on Americans to keep fi ghting for racial justice
BY MATT TRACY
Queer New Yorkers marched
through the streets and
LGBTQ groups, leaders,
and lawmakers spoke up
in response to the guilty verdict in
the trial of former Minneapolis Police
Offi cer Derek Chauvin on April
20.
Demonstrations popped up
across the city, including in Brooklyn,
where an emotional march
proceeded from Barclays Center
to Grand Army Plaza after dark.
Some signs read, “Stop Killing Us,”
while others called for an end to
NYPD violence. Paintings of George
Floyd were raised in the air on full
display.
While some folks were marching
through the city, others across the
nation were issuing calls to action
on a day when, just as the verdict
was announced, news emerged
that police in Columbus, Ohio,
shot and killed a teenager, Ma’Khia
Bryant. Earlier in the day ProPublica
reported that the NYPD would
not be disciplining offi cers involved
in the fatal police shooting of Kawaski
Trawick, a queer Black man
who was killed in his own home in
2019.
“Thankfully today, a jury affi
rmed that George Floyd’s life
matters,” David Johns, the executive
director of the National Black
Justice Coalition, an LGBTQ civil
rights group, said in a written
statement.
“Still, we must continue to guard
our joy, pray for those most impacted,
and remain focused on the
work required to ensure that all
of our Black Lives Matter,” Johns
added. “What we need is structural
change… Let the legacy of this
trial provide us with opportunities
to deal with the root causes that
led to this moment — that Derek
Chauvin thought it was appropriate
to engage in lethal conduct —
because he had no fear of his actions.”
Johns stressed that true justice
in the case would have only been
possible if Floyd lived to see the
outcome of the trial — a point that
CIVIL RIGHTS
Marchers make their way to Grand Army Plaza from Barclays Center in the hours after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd.
was echoed by other leaders, including
Imani Rupert-Gordon, the
executive director of the National
Center for Lesbian Rights.
“Justice would be George Floyd
with his family tonight,” Rupert-
Gordon said in a Twitter post. “It
may not be justice, but today is
proof that people in the streets
pave the way to victories in the
courts. I hope the Floyd family can
rest a little easier.”
Raquel Willis, an activist who
helped spearhead the historic
“Brooklyn Liberation” march for
Black trans lives last year, encouraged
folks to keep pushing for
change after the verdict.
“George Floyd’s murder pushed
many people to think more deeply
about how white supremacy functions
in our society,” Willis said.
“Regardless of the verdict and what
is said about Chauvin, we need
people to stay engaged and motivated
in the fi ght to end systems of
oppression.”
LGBTQ legal groups also responded
to the verdict by emphasizing
the need to maintain the
work to eradicate racism and police
brutality across the nation.
“We know… that there is more
work to do to ensure what we all
watched happen on video to George
Floyd never happens again,” Lambda
Legal said in a written statement.
“We will continue to work
with our sibling LGBTQ organizations
and other civil rights organizations
to fi ght to make sure that
police are properly protecting and
serving all the public, including
LGBTQ people and people living
with HIV.”
Out gay Congressmembers
Ritchie Torres of the Bronx and
Mondaire Jones of Northern
Westchester and Rockland County
both said the jury’s conviction
served as an example of accountability,
but they acknowledged the
broader work necessary to generate
change.
“I hope the outcome of the trial
represents not an exception but
the emergence of a new rule: that
no offi cer is above the law,” Torres
said. “Derek Chauvin never
would have been convicted had it
not been for the revolution in racial
consciousness that has taken
hold in America. Mass mobilization
matters in pursuing justice
not only on the streets but also in
the courtroom.”
DONNA ACETO
Like many others, Jones underscored
the message that “this verdict
is not full justice, for in a just
world, George Floyd would still be
alive.”
“In a just world, Adam Toledo
and Daunte Wright would be in
their mothers’ arms right now,”
said Jones, who voiced support for
the passage of legislation to end
qualifi ed immunity for police offi -
cers and called for an end to chokeholds
and no-knock warrants. “In
a just world, we would not be faced
with a near-daily onslaught of offi
cers assaulting, harassing, and
murdering Black people simply for
existing.”
Andrea Jenkins, a Minneapolis
councilmember who is the fi rst
Black transgender woman elected
to offi ce in the US, praised the jurors
in her home city for reaching a
guilty verdict.
“Today our city, our nation took
a step towards justice, a step towards
accountability, a step towards
equity,” Jenkins said. “It
continues to give us hope to keep
fi ghting for justice. They said the
world was watching; today those
12 jurors showed up. Thank
you.”
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