Gwen Araujo, Nakia Baker, Tyra Hunter…names etched into the collective heart and soul of the transgender community. Stephanie Thomas, Ukea Davis, Nikki Nicholas…names and faces their families will never forget. More than 350 trans-identified individuals who were the victims of unconscionable violence and hatred are listed on Gender.org’s Day of Remembrance website.
These are only those murders about which we know. Many more, over the course of years, have taken the lives of persons who were merely expressing their individuality. They were not guilty of any kind of crime. They did not instigate murders, yet their lives were snuffed out violently. They just “were.”
Tuesday, Nov. 20, is the ninth annual Day of Remembrance. It is not a day for celebration, nor is it a day to politic. It is a day to mourn, a day to let those lives which have been lost illuminate us. It is a day to say “no” to the revisionists who would just as soon brush those deaths under the rug. It is a day to come together, to cry together, to work for a day without hatred together.
Gwen Smith, a dedicated trans activist, amongst others, is responsible for the fact that we mark this day on our calendars. Her love and passion for her community are also rooted in her belief that we must never forget those whose lives were needlessly discarded. There are those who say that we should look to the future, not let this day be such a “downer.” Ms. Smith cites the famous words of George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Yes, it’s true. Death is a downer. It’s a part of transgender history, a part of who we are. It is part and parcel of the issues which face this community. Were we to don the blinders of ignorance, our brothers’ and sisters’ deaths would be statistics. They were not merely statistics! They were people whose only difference was that they were gender-variant.
Inasmuch as we recognize the violence done to individuals within the transgender community, the Day of Remembrance also serves to remind us that death by violence at the hands of bigots is not the only way transgender people are lost to their community. The suicide rate is higher, by far, than the national average. Pressures from family, spouses, parents and friends; uncertainties regarding job opportunities; alienation from religious affiliations — these all contribute to an inability to “fit in” and often result in suicide as an alternative to the pain many trans-individuals live with regularly. Suicide is a tool of violence, which has been turned inward. It was forged in the fires of hatred, bigotry and ignorance. It is often the culmination of other violent events, which inexorably leads to tragedy.
We also recognize the travails many transgender people endure. The transgender community is constantly reminded, even by the LGB community at large, that the “T” must wait its turn for equal rights, that by some strange rubric of incrementalism, we will, some day in the future, be accorded the rights that most people take for granted. The events of the past six weeks, with respect to the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA), have clearly indicated the lack of support for and understanding of transgender issues by the largest LGB lobby (a.k.a. HRC) and by the Democratic Party. They serve as reminders that our community still exists as pariahs in the minds of many.
November 20th is our day to remember our dead, our own Veteran’s Day. Others may attempt to co-opt this day and use it for their own self-serving interests and machinations but the transgender community will not honor their endeavors. We will not use the deaths of our brothers and sisters as fodder to raise funds for disingenuous lobbyists. We decry the actions of HRC in this regard and categorically assert that their attempts to use the trans community for their own sordid purposes do not garner support from our community.
It is our hope that communities across this nation, as well as in trans communities abroad, will observe Nov. 20th as a Day of Remembrance. It is our wish that those lives lost will serve as reminders — beacons, so to speak — for the path that lies before us. As long as we are able to remember their names and faces, they will still survive in our minds and hearts. They will be the prod that keeps us involved and intent, as well as the goad that pushes us forward. Much work remains ahead of us but we will not forget our history, what lies behind us, who blocks us or the stuff we have within us.
I encourage everyone to take a moment on Nov. 20, 2007 to reflect on what it means to not have equal opportunity, to live one’s life within the strictures of alienation and marginalization and, ultimately, what it means to lose one’s life at the hands of some hateful bigot whose abbreviated ability to understand and feel love has become arrested. Is this the world we wish to perpetuate? Are we, as a society, nothing more than cretins and bullies? I hope that, as we remember Gwen, Tyra, Nakia, Stephanie, Ukea and Nikki, we also remember our humanity and reflect upon what it means to live free!
info: To see a more complete list of transgender victims of hate crimes, visit www.gender.org/remember/day/who.html.
