Jun 1, 2026 · 6 min · 4 segments
The Elton John Impact Awards supports National Black Justice Collective for their work empowering Black LGBTQ+ voices, providing education, and fighting for the the liberation and equality for all…
Marcus Anthony HunterGuestHi, I'm Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, a board member of the National Black Justice Collective.
One of the things that I think is important is as the National Black Justice Collective, that we see one of our major priorities as educating the public about the presence of the community from the community's inception and also about the major contributions that the community members have made in the cooperation and struggle for overall liberation and equality for all people.
About two years ago, MBJC, along with a number of other organizations, joined together to unify around reparative justice and issues of equity.
And that led to the creation of National Equity Week, which happens for a whole week in June in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital.
in my part as a professor, I've brought now upwards of a hundred students from UCLA to DC to advocate for a lot of the public policies and legislation that we know is circulating, but doesn't always have a voice.
And that voice usually is not in the room with the members of Congress to advocate and champion for those things.
And so one of the major things is to drive home the idea that one, you cannot spell the word equality without spelling the word equity and And so we don't have equity, we're never going to have equality.
And when we think about the overall gay rights movement, the queer liberation movement, it's really been focused centrally on equality.
And we always look around and we see that there are gaps in the community, whether it be about race or class or ethnic origin.
And one of the ways that you close that gap is getting people to unify around the issue of equity.
And we also are not all holding our members of Congress and our legislators accountable for making our government reflect our existence.
And so National Equity Week has been a major, major, major initiative of the National Black Justice Collective to help unify the community within and outside of the LGBTQIA plus community so that people start seeing that equity is about everyone.
And when we're talking about everyone, we are not trying to exclude anyone.
We're wanting everyone to play their part because we know that the LGBTQIA plus SGL community is a minority community.
One of the first pieces of scholarship I ever wrote is an article called All the Gays are White and All the Blacks are Straight.
And that's something that MBJC really stands in a gap dealing with on the side of the multiple Black communities that we engage with is to also share that reminder there.
Because oftentimes one thing that happens is that if you care about gay people, queer people, trans people, the working assumption is that you therefore must be a part of that community or you must be one of them, quote unquote.
And that's a real problem because that creates fear for people within and across black communities to feel like an ally because now all of a sudden your care and concern for that community means that you are coming out as gay, but you're not, you know, and that's fine.
And in fact, That's a part of that distortion that happens, that only gay people are allowed to care about gay people.
And if you care too much about them, then you're telling us about your sexuality.
And what's also really interesting is, like, when we think about the LGBTQIA plus community, we know that there's racial tension within it.
Hi, I'm Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, a board member of the National Black Justice Collective.
One of the things that I think is important is as the National Black Justice Collective, that we see one of our major priorities as educating the public about the presence of the community from the community's inception and also about the major contributions that the community members have made in the cooperation and struggle for overall liberation and equality for all people.
About two years ago, MBJC, along with a number of other organizations, joined together to unify around reparative justice and issues of equity.
And that led to the creation of National Equity Week, which happens for a whole week in June in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital.
in my part as a professor, I've brought now upwards of a hundred students from UCLA to DC to advocate for a lot of the public policies and legislation that we know is circulating, but doesn't always have a voice.
And that voice usually is not in the room with the members of Congress to advocate and champion for those things.
And so one of the major things is to drive home the idea that one, you cannot spell the word equality without spelling the word equity and And so we don't have equity, we're never going to have equality.
And when we think about the overall gay rights movement, the queer liberation movement, it's really been focused centrally on equality.
And we always look around and we see that there are gaps in the community, whether it be about race or class or ethnic origin.
And one of the ways that you close that gap is getting people to unify around the issue of equity.
And we also are not all holding our members of Congress and our legislators accountable for making our government reflect our existence.
And so National Equity Week has been a major, major, major initiative of the National Black Justice Collective to help unify the community within and outside of the LGBTQIA plus community so that people start seeing that equity is about everyone.
And when we're talking about everyone, we are not trying to exclude anyone.
We're wanting everyone to play their part because we know that the LGBTQIA plus SGL community is a minority community.
One of the first pieces of scholarship I ever wrote is an article called All the Gays are White and All the Blacks are Straight.
And that's something that MBJC really stands in a gap dealing with on the side of the multiple Black communities that we engage with is to also share that reminder there.
Because oftentimes one thing that happens is that if you care about gay people, queer people, trans people, the working assumption is that you therefore must be a part of that community or you must be one of them, quote unquote.
And that's a real problem because that creates fear for people within and across black communities to feel like an ally because now all of a sudden your care and concern for that community means that you are coming out as gay, but you're not, you know, and that's fine.
And in fact, That's a part of that distortion that happens, that only gay people are allowed to care about gay people.
And if you care too much about them, then you're telling us about your sexuality.
And what's also really interesting is, like, when we think about the LGBTQIA plus community, we know that there's racial tension within it.
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