#WeWillNotBeErased

About

#WeWIllNotBeErased, or We Will Not Be Erased, is a slogan and hashtag used to support the civil rights of transgender people.

Origin

The earliest known usage of the phrase in relation to the rights of transgender people was posted by Orange Is The New Black-star Laverne Cox on March 31st, 2017. That day she posted a photograph of herself on Instagram. ^[1] At the end of the post, she wrote, "We acknowledge that when trans folks are misgendered and disavowed this is yet another attempt to stigmatize and erase us. We acknowledge that folks at the intersections of multiple identities being targeted must be lifted up.
On this Trans Day of Visibility we reassert that we will not and cannot be erased." The post received more tahn 100,000 in a year and a half (shown below).

Spread

On July 27th, in response to President Donald Trump's proposed banning of transgender people in the military, former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer turned activist Chelsea Manning wrote an op-ed for the New York Times^[2] in defiance of the decision. She ended the essay, "We are neither disruptive nor expensive. We are human beings, and we will not be erased or ignored."

Later that year, on December 19th, the Human Rights Campaign held protests against the Trump administration's banning of the word "transgender," as well as several others, from the Center for Disease Control outside the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. The protests included a projection of the words as well as the expression "we will not be erased" onto the hotel. The Human Rights Campaign tweeted a video of the projection, which received more than 4,200 retweets and 7,800 likes in less than one year.

Title IX Controversy

On October 21st, 2018, the New York Times^[3] reported that the Trump administration was considering rolling back such protections in a memo that would define gender as "based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth."

Following the report, many online showed their support for the trans community, which would be removed from many civil rights protections under this redefinition, by using the hashtags "#WeWillNotBeErased" and "WontBeErased" (examples below).

GOG Tweet

On October 22nd, 2018, the @GOGcom Twitter feed posted a tweet saying "Classic PC games #WontBeErased." In response, many criticized the company for making light of the hashtag #WeWillNotBeErased.

The following day, the @GOGcom^[4] Twitter feed removed the tweet and posted an apology, saying they "should focus only on games" (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References