Transgender Day of Remembrance is one of the most important markers in the calendar year for transgender people– such as myself– if not the most important one. It sits beside Transgender Awareness Week, Pride festivals around the world, and other such internationally-recognised events with a transgender focus.
Now, what is Transgender Day of Remembrance? Well, in the UK at least, November is Remembrance Month, and the 11th of November is the special day allocated to transgender people. This has always existed for the purpose of remembering and appreciating people who have sacrificed the lives for us in conflict, with a particular focus on the First and Second World Wars.
There are very traditional and widely-accepted ways to honour conflict remembrance. However, although everybody in the UK buys paper poppies and takes two minutes in silence to think about those who have died for us, not many people outside of the trans community seem to know about Transgender Day of Remembrance. Even in the transgender community, we have plenty of people who aren’t sure of what it is.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is on the 20th of November every year. It is a day designated for transgender and cisgender people to think about those who have been killed as a result of transphobic hate crimes.
In 1999, Rita Hester, a transgender woman, was murdered in Allston, Massachusetts. In response to this disaster, Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded this special day. It originated as a project based solely online, but over time, it has become an internationally-known event promoted and acted on in many ways. Since then, Smith has also written numerous articles for the Huffington Post and appeared on the ‘GLAAD’ website, discussing transgender hate issues.
The day serves the purpose of commemorating all transgender people who have died due to transphobic hate, but it is particularly important to consider this: the majority of the people who are killed for being transgender in the US are African-American women. What’s more, regardless of race, there has been a particular pattern of transgender victims being women. Upon taking a look at all of the Wikipedia-recorded transgender deaths since 1999, you will find that the vast majority of them are female victims. According to Buzzfeed, ‘more trans women were killed in the United States in the past 12 months than any year on record.’ The article then goes on to discuss the recurring fact that the most-targeted transgender people are African-American women. On the official TDoR site, you can also find that transgender killings are more heavily focused in certain countries. For example, Brasil and the USA appear to be countries in which transgender murders have been common over the last year.
In addition to this, a pattern appearing in transgender deaths is that they get barely any coverage… anywhere. A prime instance in which this happened was earlier this year, when Turkish transgender activist and sex worker Hande Kader was kidnapped and brutally murdered, and it was hardly reported (I wrote an article about it here).
There is no single standardised act that has, like the conflict Remembrance Day two minute silence, been attached to the day. People choose to consider the lives of transgender people and the fragility of them in different ways. Some workplaces and educational sites have chosen to have an announcement and a moment of silence while others promote the day with posters. LGBTQ+ charities, especially ones specifically for transgender people, share information online and sometimes take donations for the cause.
Although many people decide to act on TDoR individually, there are group memorials (the locations of which can be found here) that people can attend. The majority of the time, these include reading out the names of people who have died in the last year due to transphobic hate crimes. The memorial services may also feature vigils, marches, and art shows.
Regarding the state of transgender rights (in the last 12 months specifically), 2016 has been a very unique and certainly eventful year for transgender people– especially those in North America. For example, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that he is exploring gender neutral IDs. On top of this, the US state of Oregon has now ruled ‘nonbinary’ as a legal gender.
On the flip side, North Carolina has been considering introducing a state-wide anti-transgender bathroom law in order to ‘protect people’ from transgender citizens who might apparently be harming others, physically or psychologically, by sharing a bathroom with them. This has resulted in cisgender people threatening to bring guns into bathrooms, violent public speaking, and other such public outcries in favour of the new law around the state and beyond. On top of this, Donald Trump has recently been announced as the United States’ president-elect, and he allegedly plans to ‘undo crucial protections for LGBTQ people in the United States’. In the last five years alone, the rate of transgender hate crimes in the US has risen by 170%, and with the news of the election results and new state anti-transgender laws, no one knows how much things could worsen from this point.
An exacerbating factor of transphobia all around the world has been the potential knock-on effect these negative factors will have on other countries. Since North America and its countries, the US especially, are seen as being very powerful, other places around the globe could suffer the effects of their influence.
“Being transgender in 2016 is both the easiest and the hardest time of my adult life.” says transgender male Jared, aged 18.“Easiest, knowing all my past grievances and issues are behind me, but hardest because of the new-found unknown in America. While people are aware of trans people out in the world, it’s very different when one is directly under their noses. It’s becoming more and more difficult to be 100% me as time progresses considering where I live, Pennsylvania, is a majority red state. I fear retaliation. Currently, under Trump’s New America for years to come, I fear for my safety.”
Still, despite the negative turn of events that occurred for transgender people during the last 12 months, 2016 hasn’t been all bad. Tyler, a 16-year old with they/them pronouns, commented “I think being trans is a lot more widely accepted and understood (or at least, more attempts to understand it are made), and the struggles we face are brought more to the forefront of people’s minds.”
Jared also specifically referred to TDoR as a major factor in current transgender equality. “It has enabled many trans folks around the world to basically have a voice, even those who have died fighting for human rights,” he says. “It creates a platform for all transgender people, both living and dead. In addition, it allows cisgender people to realize that this is a growing issue that real people face.”
Transgender people can recognise the bigger picture, whilst also finding possibilities and opportunities to make a change in daily life. Looking after yourself and ensuring that transphobic behaviour is prevented in the life of yourself and the lives of others is hugely significant. Tyler says they’ve ‘blocked a lot of transphobes on social media’, whilst at school, they’ve ‘established themselves as someone who is not to be messed with.’ Regarding how others can help to decrease transphobia as a whole, they recommend “finding people who support you no matter what. And if your friends are cis and say something transphobic, correct them calmly. Blowing up at them will only make them confused.”
At this point, I sincerely hope you feel informed and prepared for the idea of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and I hope you are ready to commemorate transgender lives unlawfully lost on the 20th in whatever way you wish to do so.
If you want to learn more about transgender killings, these resources are readily available to you:
Articles on GLAAD including this one
The Transgender Day of Remembrance Wikipedia page
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