Lizzo puts her money where her mouth is. She just gave $50,000 to a Black trans org

Lizzo has donated $50,000 to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, an organization that protects and defends the human rights of black transgender people. The institute is named after the transgender Stonewall veteran.

In a video posted on Tuesday, Lizzo announced the donation as part of her fourth annual Juneteenth Giveback campaign. The campaign donates to five Black-led grassroots organizations and the reproductive healthcare organization Planned Parenthood in the hopes that fans will also make their own donation to these organizations.

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“The Marsha P. Johnson Institute was founded in direct response to the nationwide and vastly underreported epidemic of the murders of black trans women,” Lizzo said. “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.”

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The institute was founded in 2019 by a Black trans woman who wanted to eradicate systemic, community, and physical violence against Black trans women. This LGBTQ+ demographic is among the most vulnerable and persecuted. The group helps locate culturally competent resources for Black trans women who need help obtaining housing, food security, legal services, healthcare, financial assistance, employment opportunities, social support, and more.

The institution was named after Marsha P. Johnson, a Black sex worker, drag performer, and activist for LGBTQ+, HIV, and other causes in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. She played a role in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, and co-founded the organization Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which supported young trans, non-binary, and queer youth in New York City. She also advocated against police harassment and for community support of imprisoned trans women.

“Thank you so much to the people at the Marsha P. Johnson Institute,” Lizzo said. “You deserve this, and I hope that this helps you so much as you help protect our black trans family.”

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Lizzo’s comments about Black trans women are correct. At least 12 trans people have been murdered in 2023 so far, according to the Human Rights Campaign — most have been Black trans women. The epidemic of violence against Black trans women compelled social justice activists to hold “Black Trans Lives Matter” protests amid the racial justice and police reform protests of 2020.

Trans people who become pregnant have trouble finding culturally competent medical care, and a lack of U.S. firearm reforms directly hurts Black trans women. According to Everytown for Gun Safety’s 2017-2022 Transgender Homicide Tracker, 73% of all confirmed homicides against Black trans women involved a gun.

This isn’t the first time that Lizzo has advocated for trans people.

In January 2020, after receiving eight Grammy nominations, Lizzo told Rolling Stone magazine that she wanted her music to make Black, transgender women feel good.

“As a Black woman, I make music for people, from an experience that is from a Black woman,” she said. “I’m making music that hopefully makes other people feel good and helps me discover self-love. That message I want to go directly to Black women, big Black women, Black trans women. Period.”

In her acceptance speech at the 2022 People’s Choice Awards, Lizzo spotlighted two advocates for transgender equality.

Lizzo’s 2023 Juneteenth Giveback campaign will also benefit the mental health organization Black Girls Smile, the creative diversity program Sphinx Music, Black educational efforts at the University of Houston, and the Black women’s support group Save Our Sisters United.