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WHERE WE STARTED

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The Marsha P. Johnson Institute was officially founded in 2019, although the groundwork for the organization began several years prior.

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In 2014, as Elle Moxley sat in a jail cell after being arrested, she realized she wanted to do something different to change the experience she was having as a Black TRANS woman. And she realized she could improve the experiences that all Black TRANS women were having in Columbus, OH. She imagined numerous ways she could shape a better world for people like her and for women like her. Women from the ghetto and single-parent homes grew up on Section 8 and welfare, but never gave up believing they could have more for themselves.

Elle could not have founded the organization without her struggles; they set the stage and familiarity in a unique way so that she could identify ways to center BLACK Transgender people and provide joyful, affirming resources to lift voices.

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FOUNDER’S MESSAGE

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1666634790200{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”22289″ img_size=”large” css=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text css=”” font_size=”13px” line_height=”20px”]I founded the Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI) in direct response to the nationwide—and vastly underreported—epidemic of murders of BLACK TRANS women. The violent and preventable nature of these deaths directly connects to the exclusion of BLACK TRANS people from social justice issues; namely racial, gender, and reproductive justice, as well as gun violence reform.

As a BLACK TRANS woman who grew up in midwestern America, I have lived through many of the key issues MPJI is working to eradicate: employment discrimination, physical violence, incarceration, survival sex work, homelessness. These were my realities, and I know they are shared by many; I founded this organization to center these needs and lived experiences.

Prior to launching MPJI, I had worked to broaden the scope of the organizing networks I was a part of: I led campaigns such as Raise The Debate and the #SayHerName National Day of Action for the Black Lives Matter Network and I organized the first-ever National Day of Action for BLACK TRANS Women in 2015. But after years of work on the ground, I left these networks that I helped to build in order to create a space that imagines a world that centers the most marginalized, with a specific focus on BLACK TRANS women.

MPJI was established to protect and defend the human rights of BLACK Transgender people. Our communities experience disproportionate rates of systemic violence and economic discrimination and BLACK TRANS women are among the most vulnerable populations in our country. MPJI seeks to eradicate the systemic, community, and physical violence that silences our community from actualizing freedom, joy, and safety.

The work of MPJI involves advocating, organizing, offering fellowship opportunities, creating coalitions, establishing a trans-centered membership platform, and executing digital and on-the-ground campaigns. It is my dream to use MPJI to create national resources for the BLACK TRANS community and to start a new conversation—to enact a true culture change—so that we may all be free.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”19648″ css=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1666634790200{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}”]

Rather than calling on the penal system to right this, I’m calling on people. I’m calling on the policymakers. Provide safe, stable housing for the trans community. Establish a network of resources to assist us in protecting our humanity, so we can celebrate our innate joy and connection to our truest selves rather than enduring the indignity of homelessness and jobs that force us to make gut-wrenching decisions to stay alive. Show that you really believe Black TRANS lives matter.

Elle Moxely

MPJI Founder

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Illustration by Amika Cooper for Refinery29

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