It's Time to Put Black trans women first

[Photo via The House of Rebirth] — *[Photo via* *The House of Rebirth*]

Two Black transgender women, Muhlaysia Booker and Chynal Lindsey, were killed in Dallas in 2019. While horrific, their deaths are not stand-alone incidents. They’re indicative of an epidemic of murders of trans women, primarily women of color, nationwide.

In response, a group of Black trans women decided to build a new space that would help them protect and support their community. “We needed somewhere to place [women] so they didn’t have to deal with the stigma, abuse and discrimination in normal shelters,” Robyn “Pocahontas” Crowe, a Black trans activist, and one of the founders and co-directors of the center, told me.

That place is the House of Rebirth, an innovative nonprofit resource center and transitional home that opened in Dallas last year. It provides sustainable housing for its residents, functions as a safe space for non-residents, and is built around a nine-month program, which allows people to choose what topics to get help with – mental health, medical health, education, political awareness and more.

It’s based around a three trimester “rebirth” process, said Niecee X, who is nonbinary and another founder and co-director of the center. The first trimester is focused on introductions, like setting up regular meetings with health practitioners; the second trimester is for setting goals; and the third is about preparing for the future, like finding an apartment and work. Currently, the House of Rebirth has five residents and 15 women who regularly receive resources, like therapy and health education, though many services have moved online during the pandemic.

The key is providing services that the women want, Pocahontas told me, not what the house thinks they need. Above all, they don’t want the house to feel like a shelter or a medical facility, where women lack control and are forced to settle for having their basic needs met without kindness or community.

Pocahontas brings some personal experience to this realm. She began sheltering young queer people over a decade ago, and compares her experience to that of the character Blanca in Pose, the popular FX series about queer ballroom culture. (Blanca is a trans woman who leaves one “house” – a chosen ballroom family that competes in dancing, modeling and other events for trophies and recognition – to create another. She also takes in several “children” of her own.)

While trans communities have practiced this kind of social care for one another for decades as a means of survival, Niecee said, The House of Rebirth is unique in that it’s sustainable at a community level.

Last week, Dallas declared May 18 as Transgender Visibility Day, one year after Muhlaysia’s murder. Niecee called it a kind gesture, but wondered what it would look like if “we build resources, instead of having to constantly put people on the back of a T-shirt.”