Event Honors Twenty-Four Victims since 2001 Memorial
In a year marked with two dozen reported anti-transgender
murders, members of the transgendered community will be holding events on
November 20th to honor those lost.
"Too often people want to make our dead into
forgotten people," said event founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith, "Now,
more than ever, we need to stand together and say that taking life from
anyone is not acceptable. Now, more than ever, we must remember, and let
those memories spur us to more education and more action to safeguard the
diverse character of our communities."
The event is designed to draw those from across the
community to come out and say that each and every human is valuable and
honored, that no one should ever be so marginalized that their death doesn’t
matter. From candlelight vigils to performance events and art
installations, each city finds a unique way to make the lives of those
murdered visible.
A total of 19 states and the District of Columbia will
have Transgender Day of Remembrance events, and four countries — the
United States, Canada, Chile and Spain — will have them within their
borders. In addition, several prominent transgender web sites will also be
blacking out their main pages on November 20th, as a show of solidarity
with the cause.
Events this year include a candlelight march down Market
Street in San Francisco, California, a rally in Washington D.C., the
dedication of a permanent memorial space in West Hollywood, California, an
on-campus event at Ohio State University, and a memorial service in
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance began in San Francisco
in 1999 as a response to the murder of Rita Hester, a transgendered woman
who was stabbed to death in her apartment. A murder that, like most
transgender killings, remains unsolved.
Through the work of the Remembering Our Dead project which
spawned the Transgender Day of Remembrance, it was discovered that an
average of one person is reported dead due to anti-transgender violence
every month. In 2002 this figure has doubled, with 24 cases since last
year's event. Organizers point to better reporting, rather than an
increase in crime, as a primary reason for this jump.
"Some might think that the rise in numbers points to
an increase in deaths this year," Smith said, "While I think
there may be some weight in that, I personally feel this points more to a
heightened sensitivity to these cases in the media and amongst our
community. The sad thing is that it could well mean that these cases have
always happened in numbers like what we are finding now — and that there
is a chance, perhaps a good one, that there are even more still out there
we are missing."
Although not every person represented during the
Transgender Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgendered — that
is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each
was a victim of violence based on bias against transgendered people.
