Jussie Smollett outburst: Black LGBTQ community members explain why actor yelled ‘I am not suicidal’

WATCH | Jussie Smollett’s outburst in courtroom

Jae Rice, the communications director for Courageous House Alliance, mentioned Black queer folks aren’t protected in jail.

“He was making an attempt to say if something was to occur to him in jail, like what occurs to so many Black queer and trans people, he needed the remainder of the world to know that it wasn’t suicide,” Rice mentioned.

SEE ALSO | Jussie Smollett begins serving 150-day sentence in Prepare dinner County Jail in protecting custody

Courageous House Alliance is a Black and trans-led LGBTQ+ heart on the South Aspect.

Rice believes Smollett’s 150-day sentence for mendacity to Chicago police about an anti-Black and anti-gay hate crime was extreme.

WATCH | Choose scolds Jussie Smollett at sentencing

“If we’re speaking a couple of supposed hoax right here, a supposed lie…150 days in jail, that may be a loss of life sentence for Black queer people,” he mentioned.

Shakur Silas, this system supervisor for the Chicago Black Homosexual Males’s Caucus, mentioned many within the Black and Brown LGBTQ+ neighborhood have been already distrustful of legislation enforcement and the felony justice system.

“Lots of people are in all probability watching this and experiencing some sort of trauma from experiences they’ve had with the authorized system,” he mentioned.

LGBTQ+ activists say irrespective of one’s opinion concerning the Smollett case, hate crimes do occur every single day.

Haquann Chavours, this system assistant for the Chicago Black Homosexual Males’s Caucus, mentioned they’ve first-hand expertise.

“I even have been focused earlier than, a couple of occasions. I do not essentially have a worry of it as a result of it’s one thing we realized to dwell with,” Chavours mentioned.