Trans Day of Remembrance 2019

Trigger warning: contains detailed reports of violence against transgender people.

Transgender Day of Remembrance was first observed in 1999; a vigil to honour the memory of trans woman Rita Hester, killed the year before.

The first time I became aware of TDOR was last year. A memorial was being observed at a trans event in my LGBT centre. I walked into a cosy downstairs room and saw a couple of my friends sitting on the comfortable seats, silent and sombre. On two coffee tables sat a small memorial tree, messages tied to the branches with coloured ribbons; and the book of names of those killed in the last year.

I said a difficult hello to my friends and sat down. I studied the memorial tree for a bit, then pulled the book toward me and read the front cover.

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2018
369 reported murders of trans and gender-diverse people in the last year.

I didn’t really feel the weight of that number until I started reading through the book. It was laid out by country, and under each name is listed the person’s age, occupation, date of death, location of death and cause of death. Trans people of all ages and from all over the world – Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil…

Cause of death: shot; beaten; stabbed; decapitated; set on fire…

I took in some of the names and the details, pausing to think about the people I was reading about and how horrible it was that these people had suffered and been killed, just for being trans. I felt it important that I look at every page.

It struck me that some of the highest numbers of murders were in Brazil, Mexico and the United States. Some of the victims were just kids. Some of the causes of death were absolutely horrific. All of them unnecessary, and illustrative of the discrimination and hatred that many trans people suffer.

This year I’ll be volunteering at an event where TDOR will be observed. I’m not looking forward to looking through the 2019 book, but I’ll approach it as a kind of morbid duty. It’s important for me to remember these people and for us as a community to make sure that we stick together and look out for one another.

It’s easy to dismiss these deaths into extreme cases and that trans people, in the UK at least, are protected under the Equality Act. But legislation doesn’t protect you from jokes or harassment; from being misgendered or deadnamed; from being denied access to the proper changing facilities or bathrooms; or from violence.

The deaths reported are the extremes, but many of us go through discrimination every day. Having our identity challenged or denied, seeing near-constant anti-trans news reports, having to wait nearly two years for access to gender identity services – all of this wears us down.

The statistics from Stonewall are disturbing:

2 in 5 trans people have been attacked or threatened in the last 5 years
1 in 4 trans people have experienced discrimination at work
More than half of trans people have been diagnosed with depression at some point
Almost half of trans people in Britain have attempted suicide
More than half of trans people have been told by their GP that they don’t know enough about trans-related care to provide it

Media representation of trans and nonbinary people is getting better, with well-known people including Laverne Cox, Munroe Bergdorf, Fox Fisher, Owl Fisher, Laura Jane Grace, Kye Allums, Sam Smith, Miley Cyrus, Eddie Izzard, Lana Wachowski, Rain Dove Dubilewski and Stephen Whittle, all increasing our profile. However, negative reporting is much more prevalent.

I hope that on 20^th November this year you’ll spare a thought for those whose lives have been taken in acts of hatred. Not just trans people, but victims of any hate crime.