Transgender Day of Remembrance

November 17th, 2011

Written By Rashmi

Transgender Day of Remembrance or TDoR as its commonly called, is coming up on Nov 20. To those unfamiliar, it is a day dedicated to honoring Transgender folks who have died outside of natural circumstances. What started as a candle light vigil over the death of Rita Hester in 1998, is now observed across several cities and countries in the world.

I get together with some of my friends over a potluck, cloth exchange/drop-off and an open mic event, organized by my dear friend Paul. Over the past few years I have seen parents of Trans kids come along to show their support and talk about the success, struggle and the needed change. It is a day where emotions run wild for me. I am filled with sorrow over the numerous Trans folks who have been been murdered by bigots, killed themselves or have just disappeared from the radar. I am engulfed with anger when I see the media and the law enforcement agencies continue to use the wrong gender pronouns while describing their tragic death. Even in death, no one gets it. That said, I am happy I made it so far. I had come close to making stupid calls in my life. For once, I feel lucky enough to get past those with whatever strength I had.

This year has been particularly wild. The Nation’s capital, DC has rocked us with a spate of murders particularly against the community of color. There was the MCDonald incident in Baltimore where a trans woman was physically assaulted while the employees and most customers were busy recording the incident. There was someone close to my home who was assaulted and spent a week at the hospital and after a week the SF police called it a hate incident. And, there are so many more that get unreported. And if they do, one has to fight really hard to register them as hate crimes.