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Queer Liberation and Black Liberation are Inseperable

by Crystal Paradis June 18, 2021
written by Crystal Paradis

Originally published at: https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2021/06/18/paradis-queer-liberation-and-black-liberation-inseparable/7734383002/

This week, Somersworth became the first city in New Hampshire to raise the Juneteenth flag. Juneteenth, also called Liberation Day or the Day of Jubilee, marks the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation — two and a half years after it became law — in the final state of the union. Since it is also Pride month, and there are two flagpoles at Somersworth’s Citizen’s Place, the Juneteenth flag now waves next to the rainbow Pride flag, where they will wave together for a week (the Pride flag stays up all June long here in the Rainbow City).

This visual symbolism of intersectionality — the flag of Black liberation flying next to the flag of Queer liberation — is not lost on me. It brings to mind so many justice seekers throughout our history who knew that the struggle for LGBTQ+ liberation and Black liberation were joint struggles.

Bayard Rustin was one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest advisers, and a major historic figure in nonviolent protest. Rustin was a gay Black man who often spoke of his joint identity as a gay man and a Black man — and as a Quaker, which informed his peaceful values.

Pauli Murray was a trailblazing Black and queer woman lawyer who also influenced Dr. King. Murray was the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, and was one of the first lawyers to argue that the Equal Protection Clause (which was written to address racial discrimination) should apply equally to gender-based discrimination.

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson were trans women of color who were leaders at Stonewall, two women who many credit with throwing those first bricks that brought the movement for queer liberation to the forefront in 1969.

Intersectionality is a framework or lens that we can apply to understand how various forms of oppression, when combined, result in not just an increased, but a fundamentally different experience for the people who hold those multiple marginalized identities. In short, it’s a recognition of humans as complex, whole people. Aspects of our identity cannot be separated from each other. And our fight for liberation should not be separated, either.

Audre Lorde, a self-described “Black lesbian feminist warrior poet,” in her essay, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” said, “To survive in the mouth of this dragon we call America, we have had to learn this first and most vital lesson — that we were never meant to survive. Not as human beings. And neither were most of you here today, Black or not. And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength. Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak. We can sit in our corners mute, forever while our sisters and our selves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned; we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid.”

I’m proud that we are not afraid to speak, that we are not afraid to raise these flags — that visibility which is the source of our greatest strength.

This month, we also mark two historic anniversaries of marriage equality: the passing of LGBTQ+ marriage equality on June 26, 2015; and Loving Day, celebrating the Supreme Court decision on June 12, 1967, that ended the unconstitutional prohibition of interracial marriages. Our struggle has always been a collective struggle.

It took two and a half years for the Emancipation Proclamation to be enforced in the final Southern state. This year, 156 years later, our governor is poised to sign into law a budget containing language that would prevent teaching our collective history. Attacks on trans students are unrelenting in our state legislature and across the country. Our Senate passed recognition of Juneteenth as a national holiday, but has yet to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act or the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

As we celebrate both Pride month and Juneteenth, let’s recommit ourselves to the work of ongoing emancipation — our collective liberation.

Crystal Paradis is a city councilor at-large in Somersworth, secretary of the New Hampshire Stonewall Democrats, and director of strategic communications and community engagement for the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation. The views expressed are those of the writer. She can be reached at cfparadis@gmail.com.

June 18, 2021
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lift each other up
FeminismValues-Centric WorkWriting

Lifting Each Other Up — Support networks are crucial to our existence

by Crystal Paradis December 21, 2018
written by Crystal Paradis

I had a vision a few years ago, while in a Kundalini yoga class. It wasn’t like an other-wordly revelation or anything, just an image that came into my head as we were in the meditation portion of the class. It was an image that simultaneously felt so profoundly truthful, while making little logical sense.

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December 21, 2018
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Writing

The Unphotographed Crêpe

by Crystal Paradis November 17, 2015
written by Crystal Paradis

I thought about photographing my crêpe

But then, I thought, then

It will no longer be solely mine.

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November 17, 2015
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PortsmouthLOVEWriting

‘Tis still the Season in Portsmouth

by Crystal Paradis March 5, 2015
written by Crystal Paradis

The tree is still up in Portsmouth
Though nary a jingle in sight
The calendar’s leaning towards Easter
But still Yule in the Square’s the sight

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March 5, 2015
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Writing

Handwritten Poetry: William Fogg Memorial Library

by Crystal Paradis November 24, 2014
written by Crystal Paradis

Here’s a handwritten/scrawled poem. Because a) it’s easier than typing it out, and b) doesn’t it just look better this way?

William Fogg Handwritten Poem

November 24, 2014
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Social JusticeWriting

James Foley, #NHFF, E-TEAM, and the Power of Storytelling

by Crystal Paradis October 20, 2014
written by Crystal Paradis

As the publicist for the New Hampshire Film Festival, the festival weekend tends to be a complete whirlwind for me.This was my second year in this role for the festival, since joining Vital, the festival’s official marketing partner, in August of 2013. With 123 films screening this year, and over 100 last year, there are so many great stories to tell leading up to and throughout the weekend.

But this isn’t just an event about eating popcorn and watching movies. As NHFF Executive Director Nicole Gregg points out, there is something about the festival that makes the film experience so much more than pulling up a movie on Netflix. More than just bringing great independent film to the Portsmouth audience, NHFF also brings them the storytellers—and the story behind the telling.

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October 20, 2014
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Writing

Inbox Zero

by Crystal Paradis October 13, 2014
written by Crystal Paradis

Prioritizations passed down
From leaders, peers and self
Trying to put in order
Of most to least likely
To cause a crisis
If ignored

But then I escape
Rediscover
That childhood secret refuge
Look up — up — up
And

Who am I to ignore
This tree’s priority
Of being looked at
Of being appreciated
For its gnarled bark
Its high, reaching limbs
Stretching — stretching

Who am I to say that
The contemplation
Of what caused
That bend — and
That knot
Is less crucial

Than anything sitting in my inbox

October 13, 2014
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Writing

Girls are Allowed to Like the Color Blue?!

by Crystal Paradis August 5, 2014
written by Crystal Paradis

I lost my grandmother in February.

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August 5, 2014
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Writing

Baby, it’s really, really cold outside.

by Crystal Paradis January 3, 2014
written by Crystal Paradis

I walked home from work swaddled in two hats, two scarves, two coats, two pairs of gloves, and two very toasty, sturdy boots. Foolishly, I only had on only one pair of pants.

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January 3, 2014
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Writing

Surviving NaNoWriMo 2014: Share Your Tips!

by Crystal Paradis November 25, 2013
written by Crystal Paradis

Before the kickoff of NaNoWriMo 2014, I wrote this guest article over on tanyagold.com: 

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November 25, 2013
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About Crystal

As a writer and organizer with a background in digital marketing, event organizing and community engagement, I help values-aligned individuals and organizations improve their message, online presence and reach.

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