Letter To … Te Te

 Dear Te Te Gulley,

You were found hanging from a tree. Lynched. Still, no autopsy, no cause of death, no records from the police. They say it’s an open and shut suicide case. But your family knows that’s not true. Everyone does. The police don’t care. They’ve never called your family, not even to tell them you’d passed.

Publications use your dead name, even now. As though being killed wasn’t enough, they bury you deeper with each misused pronoun. Everyone knows what happened, but the police have done nothing. They reduce you to a clandestine Black sex worker. To them, you did not deserve life. No one like us does.

To me, Te Te, you were a beautiful woman, a sister, a daughter, a lover and friend to many. You were a world of untapped potential. Born in the wrong place at the wrong time. I smile to think who you could have been a thousand years ago. Perhaps a spiritual figure of the dogon tribe, a person who embodies femininity and masculinity. Or a thousand years from now, in the post-gender society, where you could just be Te Te, free from the chains of prejudice.

Nonetheless, in this time, in this society, we are weighed down by labels of Blackness, queerness, and womanhood. We walk through streets as pariahs for being ourselves. This world wasn’t ready for you. For that, I am sorry.

Over one million signatures. Over one million people sending you their love. Over one million people seeking justice. One million hearts will hold you forever. But still, no change. One day there will be a change. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But there will be a change, and you will not be forgotten. We will keep fighting for you, Te Te.

Love,

Ryann Richter

Author: Ryann Richter

Addressee: Tete Gully