Pose actor Indya Moore put out an urgent call on Instagram last Friday asking followers to join bone marrow registry Be The Match. The call to action came as a personal plea in support of Moore’s close friend, Walela Nehanda, a south L.A.-based non-binary activist and writer battling leukemia.
On Friday, Moore took to Instagram Live to film a swabbing session for the Be the Match registry, urging others to join and raising awareness for Nehanda’s struggle.
“Please join me in supporting the preservation of Walela’s precious life, who also happens to be a black trans femme,” the 25-year-old said. “Because of their race, they only have a 23% chance of finding a match.”
Nehanda stopped responding to treatment recently, making their search for a donor that much more crucial.
Moore pled for LGBTQ+ community members to join the fight and help immuno-compromised artists like Nehanda fight the added oppression of being marginalized within the medical establishment. “Please show up for Walela,” Moore continued. “[…] I strongly encourage everyone to apply.”
Since Moore’s posting, more than 5,000 people have since joined the registry in support of the L.A. creative, including singer and queer icon Kehlani.
The Be The Match registry uses volunteer donors to create a potential “match” for patients in need of a marrow transplant. Although queer men are banned from donating blood unless they have been celibate for three months, there is no deferral period for LGBTQ+ marrow donors.
Finding a match isn’t always easy, though. Nehanda was only able to find one match in a pool of 35 million donors and that match has since postponed donation, leaving Nehanda still in need of a donor. According to Be The Match, Black patients only have a 23% chance of getting matched, compared to a 77% chance for White patients.
“The disparity in that statistic… is a testament to the constant [bullshit] that black people face when it comes to the medical-industrial complex,” Nehanda told them. “Everywhere we turn, we aren’t supported. You have a lesser chance of making it out alive in all these situations.”
Nehanda, a community organizer and writer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, The Guardian, Nylon, Vice, and SELF magazine, has been open about their struggle with leukemia in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. In a March post for the platisher Medium, Nehanda said that being immune-compromised means that they can’t work full time: “It’s obvious that a capitalist system views me as disposable on a daily basis to begin with.”
