While we gather at the table . . . .

A note to subscribers and to friends -- and a call to speak out for Brittney Griner

Nov 24, 2022

Digital collage image: Juno Rosenhaus, 2022.

11.24

Dear all of you — subscribers, readers, random folk who may stumble on this page….

Mea culpes first. I had hoped to post my latest Spotlight Conversation already, but the gawds of technology and time put down two fingers on the pages of my past week and inserted a parenthesis to allow for last-minute interruptions, insertions in my planned daily agenda and more (my dog ate something bad on the street, and was ill; one daughter got Covid, is all better; I responded to an unexpected job opportunity; I searched and eventually found a missing segment of a taped interview…and more). So, I do apologize for that, but it’s a-coming, and it’s a great conversation: funny, dishy, serious and thoughtful. Hopefully by the weekend, maybe Monday. I run all the portraits by the subjects to assure they really meant what they said when they threw shade at someone. JK. But that review process also adds to the bit of delay here. Alors, petit pardon.

I also spent time every day recenty doing something I’ve wanted to do for the past two months, which is to take some action related to Brittney Griner. Two weeks ago, I put out a general Facebook call to other lesbians and other queer activists, in particular, because as a broad and global community, we have been largely silent, apart from some #FreeBrittneyGriner and #BringBrittneyHome online expressions of solidarity.

That was because her lawyers had appealed her sentencing in Russia for a negligible amount of liquid pot in a vape and they asked for everyone to respectfully give them a chance to release her. So people didn’t take to the streets, or do an action at Russian embassies worldwide. But the appeal didn’t work. Instead, it’s been almost a year and Brittney has begun a long sentence at a freezing Russian penal colony several hours from Moscow. The prison is known for its inhumane conditions.

Her situation and detention is horrible. And criminal. It’s cruel; it’s frightening; it’s a form of mental torture and it’s unacceptable to allow it to continue without the strongest forms of protest from all Americans and others who see, plain as day, that Brittney Griner, a 6’ 9” openly lesbian, supremely talented Black American athlete and celebrity, is being used as a political pawn by Putin and Russia. Biden and his administration have spoken out, but nothing had yet yielded an inch of freedom for Brittney.

Now that the appeal has failed, it’s critical for all of us to speak out loudly, to let our administration and our civil society, and Russia’s government and people know that we will not stay silent, that we will push to act until she is free.

My interest is in helping to mobilize lesbian and queer activist America, with my sisters, with our queer family. And the feminists, and the Black activists who clearly see the racial and misogynistic elements of this political prisoner saga.

On Monday, I cohosted a first call (with Marlene Colburn, and Juno Rosenhaus helping, too) with a dozen largely veteran lesbian and queer activists. Former Lesbian Avengers (well, we never stopped being Avengers) and Act Up - NY, and some now in Rise and Resist and Black Lives Matter and other protest groups. I spent the prior week doing outreach and research to find out who has —and has not— spoken out, mobilized, and, most important of all, what could possibly help support Brittney now, and what might possibly harm her case. The answer to these questions is that silence is what Putin and the Kremlin want: they want Griner out of the public eye. Members of Pussy Riot who have been in the penal colonies say that prisoners are told that they are forgotten, or will be, that they might as well give up. Some do; suicides are not uncommon in these horrific prison colonies. Silence plays into Putin’s hands, while speaking out, and keeping Brittney Griner and the issue of political detention and the treatment of LGBTQ by Putin’s regime is what is needed. Brittney needs to hear from us. Directly. And so do our leaders and civil society.

On our call, we agreed with the key public ask that Brittney’s wife and the NBA and her lawyers have shared: to communicate with her, via letter and other forms. These can be sent to her agents and lawyers and I will be posting the address for this on Facebook, too. The message, we agree, is LOVE. That is what we’re expressing for Brittney Griner. Love and Free Brittney Griner Now! These are the key messages we want to send her, directly, and publicly, globally.

We also want to send a message and call to action and share it with our fellow queer and feminist Americans and are starting work on that. We are exploring our allies and targets. This is a larger coalition effort, and we are but one group of many who care, who want to act.

We also agreed that any actions we take going forward will be done with and after consultation with Russian LGBTQ activists, and those working on prison detainees in Russia, so that our voices will help build upon the existing activism and solidarity that exists there. We want informed activism. Informed solidarity. That’s who I’ve been reaching out to, as well as American human rights agencies, Black activists, Brittney’s legal team, her agent and NBA representatives and activists working on prison rights and abolition issues. It’s a long list.

I’ll be posting updates on my Facebook page, and the OG Lesbian Avengers FB page, so watch for that. Our nascent group plans a weekly Zoom update, so you can join in any time.

Sarah Josefa Hale. Photo: Hulton Archives/Gerry Images.

NOW, on to the day at hand: Thanksgiving… or better, Indigenous People’s Day….

I’m posting a link further below to a post by the wonderful historian Heather Cox Richardson that offers some historical context for this day, dating back to the Civil War and 1863. That’s when Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November to be a day of national thanksgiving (note the lower-cased t there.). But the real credit goes to Sarah Josefa Hale, editor of the popular journal Godey’s Lady’s Book, who lobbied Lincoln for years to declare a holiday to bring together a divided America. She suggested a ‘great Union Festival of America,’ to celebrate the defeat of the Confederacy — read slavery — and the civil rights of freed Black Americans. Knowing this makes me feel a lot better about gathering in thanks as we do collectively.

Letters from an American

I also feel somewhat better celebrating today because in 1998, Native Americans from many tribes and other indigenous folk, including descendants of ancestors who had migrated to the so-called new world, publicly reclaimed Columbus Day, renaming it Indigenous People’s Day. Some 2000 people joined the ceremony to highlight both the good and bad history of this national holiday. They extend that concept to Thanksgiving. They highlighted how Indigenous people taught the colonists how to cook much of the meal that makes up a classic Thanksgiving feast, including ibimi, or sour berry, that the colonists called crane-berry (now cranberry) because the flowers of the sour red berry bend the stalk of the plant and the shape resembles a crane. Richardson’s piece is a good read for today (see link at bottom).

Before I do, I want to express, again, my deep gratitude to you as readers, and as subscribers. I crossed the 100-subscriber mark recently, and more of you have stepped up as paid subcribers which is so great and appreciated. It helps support this work and my project and me as a writer. Thank you beaucoup.

I am hoping that, going forward, more of you will share your thoughts on pieces, and share with your greater community. I have already about two dozen planned portraits, with several in process, and they’re all inspiring to me, so I think you’ll dig them a lot. Can’t wait to write them up and share with you.

Happy day of gratitude to each of you. Je vous souhaite la belle journee. — AC

The crane-shaped cranberry flower.

[Repost from Facebook]:

As we gather to give thanks….

Today, as those of us who can, may gather with family and friends to share a meal and make note of the bounty of our lives, we are called to remember those who have been killed in shootings this week.

Our collective hearts grieve for the families and friends who lost their beloveds and friends at Club Q and at the Walmart and elsewhere: acts of violent rage, of thwarted pain. We are newly outraged, too.

I think of Brittney Griner, our lesbian sister, being subjected to a form of mental torture and physical privation in a Russian penal colony. Her spouse and family and community are going crazy with grief and fear. The global sisterhood of lesbians and the larger global queer family is also deeply worried, concerned, keeping her uppermost in our thoughts. Let’s translate that to more public action! #FreeBrittneyGriner #bringbrittneyhome

Michelangelo Signorile

Her imprisonment also illuminates the millions of Black and Brown Americans who vastly and disproportionately make up the American prison population. The many incarcerated who suffer from treatable mental illnesses. That fact reminds us that the carceral state reflects systemic and economic racism and has its roots in American slavery and that the Civil War formally ended slavery but left the roots of prejudice and White supremacy buried deep in our still-too divided land. The hatred has been seeded and reflourished, and is manifest in the the ideology of white America in Donald Trump’s MAGAland.

So, there is much sorrow and continued division in this country, but we gather still. There is much to do about the challenging project of love and equality and democracy. But what a worthy project indeed. Let us, let me, give thanks for the opportunity to live in a nation committed to freedom—imperfect and broken as the current system remains.

Let us remove the guns and the hatred and the killing prisons and fear of others and the deep alienation and loneliness that girds violence and stokes prejudice.

Let us invite into our homes and hearts today a greater understanding of these issues and above all, love and greater compassion and self-awareness, in our actions, minds and approach to one another, to that American project.

Let us bring greater joy and thanks and grace and gratitude to the table today, to the collective gathering, to the project of our own lives and this battered nation.

Let us build the cry for justice for Brittney Griner, and for the Americans killed by hatred, via gun violence, at Club Q, and Walmart and elsewhere. Let us send our love to Griner’s wife and family. Let us put our voices to the call to end mass incarceration and the ban assault weapons — yesterday already!

And finally, let us continue to express our deepest solidarity with the Ukraine people and with the Russian people who also oppose Putin and suffer his criminal war. That includes the Russian queer folks, and many activists, who have fled Russia in order to avoid being arrested and placed alongside Griner in Russia’s harsh prisons. As Americans, there are many people who really need assistance, and that includes Russian LGBTQ activists who are scattered, in exile, and seeking to help those stuck remaining in Russia, and to work in solidarity with Ukrainian activists of all stripes.

#WeAreAllBG and #WeAreAllUkraine

I also want to thank Heather Cox Richardson for providing some much-needed historical context for this holiday and the political battles of our day in her Substack. It’s been a great discovery — one I imagine many of you have made as well. I’ll cross-post to her letter here.

A peaceful day of thanks to all.- ac

Tell Me Everything

Discussion about this post