The Mutual Aide Virus

As COVID-19 spreads across our community there is something else spreading: mutual aide. 

Mutual aide may be a new term for some of us. It is similar to charity and generosity but with a twist. Charity can be patronizing. Generosity is generic. Mutual aide is rooted in the belief that your wellbeing is intricately tied to my wellbeing. It honors that all of our lives are woven together. 

As prison abolitionists, the Boston chapter of Black and Pink has long recognized that mutual aide is essential to create a beloved community; one without prisons. We envision a community in which all people are resourced and have what they need to be safe and healthy regardless of zip code, the color of one’s skin or sexual orientation. While we wait for that day to arrive we must continue to stand with incarcerated people. 

Even in the best of times incarcerated people receive less than adequate healthcare, housing and food. At other times, the system itself becomes the architect of abuse and brutality. Experience has taught us that we cannot put our full faith in government. Instead, we can turn to one another. 

For these reasons, the Boston chapter of Black and Pink and Deeper Than Water co-created a mutual aide project specifically for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated LGBTQ people or living with HIV. We raised over $20,000 to redistribute to 515 LGBTQ people, people living with HIV, women, sex workers, and ICE detainees throughout New England. 

When all of this is over, we hope the community will maintain this level of interest in each other’s wellbeing. We needed it before and will certainly need it after.