MOSAIC, in collaboration with BSU and QTPOC, invited local activist Stoney Roberts to discuss Blackness and its intersections with the queer community.
The March 4 talk encouraged participants to consider new perspectives on intersectionality, race, gender and sexuality.
According to Roberts, the conversation about intersectionality “starts with empathy, and also knowing what’s possible.” Being unafraid to engage with others and challenge personal beliefs is the most effective way to advance an understanding of intersectionality and to begin to address the needs of the LGBTQ+ community. “We have to get over the possibility of making a mistake, because you don’t know until you know,” Roberts said.
Roberts believes that conversations of intersectionality are important to understanding the experiences of Black queer people. “It’s a lens I think we should all apply and walk with in the world,” they said.
Intersectionality refers to the perspectives created by overlapping or intersecting aspects of identity. Race interacts with gender and sexuality to form varied experiences across communities. Intersectionality “affects all of us,” Roberts said.
For Roberts, intersectionality became a part of their conversations at a young age. Roberts said that intersections of identity are often phrased like choices: “Are you Black, or are you queer? And oftentimes those things are not synonymous.”
Roberts hopes to counteract this idea by starting conversations about what it means to be queer in Black spaces, and Black in queer spaces. Roberts also wishes to distance themself from conversations of queerness from an entirely white perspective. “That was a barrier between me and realizing myself,” they said.
Roberts discussed their experience as a masculine-presenting person through the lens of intersectionality. “There’s a power and privilege that I can glean from that, and I can try to figure out what I can do to shift that perspective and forward the conversation of intersectionality,” they said.
Roberts is the acting site director for PRISM Community Collective, an organization committed to providing support for the LGBTQ+ community. PRISM fosters connection, promotes advocacy and offers resources to Colorado Springs’ queer community through public events and meetings.
Before joining the PRISM Collective, Roberts worked as a volunteer at voting booths and as a musician. In 2019, the police killing of De’Von Bailey motivated Roberts to join the Empowerment Solidarity Network, a grassroots organization speaking out against police brutality.
“It was a time where a lot of that was repeating, over and over again, and there wasn’t any infrastructure [for advocacy in Colorado Springs,]” Roberts said. They got involved with community organizations to try to address violence against Black and queer people in Colorado.
In 2020, Roberts continued their work as a field organizer for One Colorado, an advocacy group involved in legislative work, to uplift LGBTQ+ Coloradans and their families. There, Roberts came to recognize that Colorado Springs’s limited Black and queer populations have created “a historic kind of marginalization and experience of queer folks in this region.”
Colorado Springs is 5.8% Black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With Colorado’s total LGBTQ+ population sitting at just 4.6%, Roberts identified a lack of supportive social infrastructure for both groups.
Following the Club Q shooting in Nov. 2022, the Community Health Partnership organized a community advisory board and facilitated the formation of the PRISM Community Collective. PRISM originally started as a temporary resilience center to address under-resourced communities in the region and provide support to survivors.
PRISM’s continued action is based on creating spaces for people to connect and have conversations about their lived experiences, advocacy and intersectionality.
The collective’s biggest ongoing project is improving their services based on community feedback. The organization is expanding its disability and language resources to reach more people.
On PRISM’s website, there is a Provider Directory, which is a searchable database of healthcare professionals who specialize in services tailored to the needs of LGBTQ+ individuals. According to the Provider Directory website, this database is a part of PRISM’s continued mission to fill a “crucial gap of care” for the LGBTQ+ community.
PRISM hosts talks specifically for healthcare providers. These talks share inclusive approaches to sexual education and introductions to gender affirming care. They hope to serve as many members of the LGBTQ+ community as they can, regardless of need.
PRISM hosts public events including movie nights, support groups and an upcoming book club. More information about PRISM events can be found on PRISM’s website.
Roberts’s talk was a part of MOSAIC’s Intersectional Legacies series. The event was attended by 10 UCCS students and one faculty member. Free food was provided.