Today is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, when we stop and take note of the fact that transgender people are murdered at 10 times the rate of everyone else. And, as queenemily says, "Many of the dead lost their lives because they were trans women of colour, doubly disposable."
Please take a moment to read about the people we memorialize today.
At least thirty people, most of them women, were killed this year because of who they are, because of their gender. Cara points out that four of the people on this list were killed in the past 20 days alone. Writes Mercedes Allen at Bilerico:
What's more chilling is what those numbers don't include. That number doesn't include the unknown numbers of transfolk killed alongside gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in the ethnic cleansing that has been taking place in Iraq (Activist Peter Tatchell estimates the total number of GLBT casualties at around 300 people targeted by religious extremists since the war began). Bordering Iran, where a GRS-or-die policy has become a horrific distortion of the medical model and has caused many gay and lesbian persons to forcibly transition, Iraq may have a higher-than-usual trans (by birth or legally mandated) population.
But remembering these people and reflecting on their lives should not be a quiet process, as queenemily writes:
Few will respect our lives as they were, and few will mourn them, and they must be mourned. Their lives were meaningful, their names and genders were real and important, and they lost their lives from hate.Today we hold on to some memory, even if it only be a name and a photo, so that they are not as erased as completely as their killers would have.
Because the medical people treating them will have tried to erase them. The media. The police. The juries. Will try to excuse, to render less than real, the lives that have been lost. Because who would mourn? Who would bother?
We would. And we do. Today, when we say their names and remember them -- as individuals and as people, not "its" -- we reject that erasure.
Kellie Telesford. Brian McGlothin. Gabriela Alejandra Albornoz. Patrick Murphy. Stacy Brown. Adolphus Simmons. Fedra. Sanesha Stewart. Lawrence King. Simmie Williams Jr. Luna. Lloyd Nixon. Felicia Melton-Smyth. Silvana Berisha. Ebony Whitaker. Rosa Pazos. Juan Carlos Aucalle Coronel. Angie Zapata. Jaylynn L. Namauu. Samantha Rangel Brandau. Nikki Williams. Ruby Molina. Aimee Wilcoxson. Duanna Johnson. Dilek Ince. Ali. And two other Iraqi transgender women.
Again, I have to quote queenemily:
And yes, today we remember those of us still living-our fear, the fear that lives at the heart of every trans person, that someone will know that we are trans, and will kill us for it. Today we remember all the other times we murmured "oh fuck" as we read the news. Today we discover the deaths we missed, because we couldn't bear hearing about them anymore for awhile, even though we must. We must.
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This hit me so hard I opened up a comment, stared at it for fifteen minutes, had to go do something else, and I still don't know what to say. I'll light a candle for the lives lost when I get home from the office.
I have a lot of trans friends and I worry for them a lot. I never want to see any of their names on this list. I don't want to see anyone's name on this list. It's appalling what people will do to each other just because someone doesn't fit into a neat category.
This saddens me so much. This issue has definitely not gotten the attention it deserves.
If anyone here hasn't seen Jennie Livingston's Paris is Burning, you definitely should. It's a bit dated, but still a very interesting look at drag and transgender "vogue" culture. Parts of it deal with violence against the transgender community. I saw it in my Intro to Anthropology class last year and it has stayed with me.
I am going to attempt to make Sunday's in Tempe, if I can. I am reminded of a close friend of mine, whom I grew up with, who has run into many problems because she is transgendered. Sigh.
As important as Transgender Day of Remembrance is, I am consistently amazed at how sex work is almost never brought up when remembering those who have been killed due to violence against who they were.
Yes, these individuals were transgender (though to be honest we do not know how many of them actually identified) and many were women or people of colour (another fact that is often ignored). It is important to also note that a great deal of transgender individuals who are murdered are also sex workers, something that is rarely mentioned.
Speaking of victims (and survivors) of gender-based violence as though the only count against them was their gender or perceived gender erases the lived realities of many of these people as sex workers (of colour). While our society might view trans people as unimportant or wrong, it also views sex workers as disposable. We can't forget that.
I in no way want to belittle Transgender Day of Remembrance or pretend as though gender played no role in the deaths of many innocent people. However, I also want to ensure that we never forget the intersections of identities and oppressions, and that we do not continue to ignore and erase sex workers, people of colour, and anyone who does not fit neatly into the "mainstream"-friendly version of a transgender person.