TDOR 2009

It’s that time of year again. In just a couple days, Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremonies and activities will be taking place everywhere. This is probably the most depressing queer action/activism day ever, but it’s something that many transfolk and their allies view as important and necessary, and consequently, take very seriously.

Transgender Day of Remembrance—TDOR for short—is a day that focuses on transgender people who lost their lives because of prejudice. Every year, an untold number of unique gender-variant lives are lost because of bigotry. Sometimes, people are victims of hate crimes; other times, they take their own lives because they are victims of depression, bullying, harassment, sexual assault, violence, or other forms of hatred. Other times, the death is a long, horrifying story; for example, some transgender people have died due to complications with AIDS after being refused treatment from several medical facilities based on their gender identities and presentations. Being transgender in itself is NOT DANGEROUS; hatred is.

The point of TDOR is to honor the unique lives that were cut short by hatred, and also to protest the fact that we lose human lives for such a ridiculous thing as transphobia in the first place. TDOR events come in many forms, but all of them incorporate a way to remember the people who died unnecessarily in the past year. My college gay-straight alliance is going to hold a “die-in” in our school cafeteria in order to raise awareness of the issue during the day; at night, we are going to hold a Reading of the Names Ceremony. During this Ceremony, participants spend a moment in the shoes of those that have been lost, reading their life—and death—stories in the first person aloud in front of everyone. The experience is very powerful for everyone attending, especially the reader. These are two activities that are widely used in many organizations’ versions of TDOR events.

Chances are, you can find a TDOR event near you using the internet. TDOR is generally held in late November order to honor Rita Hester, a 1998 hate crimes victim, but there are TDOR events on many different days. Look for a way to get involved and for more information—and of course, if you care to share your story, you can do so on this blog!

2009 names list.
TDOR info, courtesy of Connecticut’s Transadvocacy Organization.

National March for Equality

So, about a month ago, there was a big huge march on Washington for queer rights. People wanted gay marriage legalized, of course, but there were a bunch of other things brought up over and over again—repealing the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy of the army, calling for support for ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would make it illegal to fire transfolk or disabled people on the basis of those traits), and so on. Transgender rights may not have been at the top of the bill, but they were definitely on there, including everything from ENDA to healthcare to further educating the queer community. There were even several transgender or transgender-ally speakers at the rally at the end of the march, although their names escape me because everyone from Judy Shepard to Lady GaGa took a turn at the microphone. It was great to see the National March for Equality be so trans-inclusive.

At least on the surface. Although the organizers certainly did their best to include *everyone*, I couldn’t help but notice some discrepancies in the representation of the queer community that day. Sure, everyone and their mother—literally—had a sign that read “LGBT RIGHTS!” or something to that effect. But how were people reacting to transgender issues REALLY?

A pair of people near me in the beginning of the march started up a chant about not forgetting the T in LGBT. My roommate and I picked it up for a few turns, but no one else did, and the four of us soon died down until the next chant—something about marriage, something that the whole crowd joined in on. What was that about? Was it just my imagination, or were people paying far less attention to the transgender speakers—less fists in the air, less cheers, less rainbow flags waving their approval? The thing that really made the entire issue stand out for me was a kid about my age with a sign with the transgender symbol on it. The sign read simply, “what about me?”

Whether you’ve been a transgender ally for years, or you’re just reading that phrase for the first time today, you’ve probably noticed that transgender issues and ‘gay’ issues are different. Are the communities just different, or are they entirely separate? Is the queer world as inclusive of transgender issues and interests as we would all like to think? Have you ever had an experience that would make you answer these questions one way or the other?