Trans Day of Remembrance

2022

slides: https://tinyurl.com/fp5ytx2z

The first Trans Day of Remembrance was in 1999 to memorialize Rita Hester, a Black woman murdered in Massachusetts the previous year.

Rita Hester

By 2010, TDoR was observed in 185 cities.


This is from the one in Ottawa in 2010.

Some of those killed in 2022

Source: https://www.hrc.org/resources/fatal-violence-against-the-transgender-and-gender-non-conforming-community-in-2022

Let's take a moment.

Disproportionately Black trans women

We'll revisit this

Nearly 1 in 5 trans and non-binary youth attempted suicide in the US last year

Source: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2022/#suicide-by-gender

There's 25 million 12-17 year olds in the US

1.4% of youth in the US identify as trans/nb

1 in 5 of those attempt suicide

1 in 25 of those will die

Sources: https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/
https://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/tables/pop1.asp

2,800 / year ?

No one tracks how many died - but everyone I know whose been out long enough knows one or more who has

Let's be clear about these last deaths

In this culture...

Those aren't self-inflicted...

...they're homicides.

To tackle what makes transphobia so deadly

We need to get away from the movie tropes of discrimination

the lone high school bully

the dark alley

the MAGA Karen

And recognize that the people who make it deadly look like this

Photo from Unsplash, not actual bigots AFAIK.

It's conservatives using the state to purge gender diversity from public view

It's liberals whose silence is deafening

It's those at "neutral" institutions disseminating transphobic disinformation

The director of advocacy of an anti-trans hate group is executive editor at The Economist

Source: https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/helen-joyce-joins/

It's apathetic school administrators

It's pundits arguing against social supports for low-income residents

It's police reducing safety for Black community members and those with mental health issues

It's tech companies removing avenues for sex workers to operate safely

It's social media companies censoring benign trans-related content or suspending creators for responding to transphobia

It's screenwriters and comedians teaching to devalue trans women and non-binary people's existence

Info: https://www.buzzfeed.com/meredithtalusan/25-years-of-transphobia-in-comedies

It's a history of laws by and for white people and a modern system that seeks to maintain that inequality

It's lawmakers voting against universal health care and against any gun control

...and that mismatch in the value of your bodily autonomy based off of what gender you're perceived to be

It's inaccessible tuition, it's those attacking women's health care, persecuting sex work, and promoting abstinence-only education

Taken in its ensemble, transphobia is not just about discrete acts of bigotry

 

It's everything leading up to that point and what made it more statistically likely to begin with, what undermines resilience thereafter, etc.
 

Much of what I mentioned too wasn't explicitly about being trans or non-binary

If you tackle the ways white supremacy manifests itself, if you stand up to patriarchal mores, if you push for poverty reduction, you'll help reduce what makes this culture so dangerous to gender diverse people

not least of which those whose lives are at the intersection of these identities

What can you do?

A challenge with these presentations is we're preaching to the choir

Look to amplify others

Donate to the work that trans and non-binary communities are already doing

Info: https://www.pledge.to/protect-defend-trans-youth-fund

Info: https://translifeline.org/

Fund creators

TransLash Media
Imara Jones
 

Info: https://translash.org/

One from the Vaults
Morgan M Page
 

Info: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/one-from-the-vaults/id1071270085

I Hope We Choose Love
Kai Cheng Thom
 

Info: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/44000539-i-hope-we-choose-love

Letters to Everyone in My Hometown Who Isn’t My Rapist
Cecilia Gentili
 

Info: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61629767-faltas

Pitch in for GoFundMe's

The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better.

 

My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say “that’s fucked up” and fix it. Fix society. Please.

- Leelah Alcorn, died aged 17

Thank You

On a personal note

I've been going to TDoR for a dozen years, and I don't think I can do that anymore

This will likely be the last TDoR event I lead

Because what's harming gender diverse people isn't fixed by advertising pronouns so much as long-standing issues around how we sabotage people who enter poverty, purity culture & male entitlement, etc.

But the speeches, year after year, are the same

It's always the same - which is focused on death and loss - rightfully so

But I just can't do it

At least in my area, it's the only time of year where hundreds of us will gather

TDoR is still important to many, especially baby transes and enbies

As for you, if you haven't gone to one before, I recommend looking up TDoR events in your area, and attending

Going forward instead of attending the speeches, instead of awareness raising, I'll attend or organize community potlucks

There's power in numbers

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