Transgender Day of Rememberance 2009
This post is a bit late because a friend died the same week and her memorial service was the same day as this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) – November 20th.
TDOR is an annual event that memorializes those who died due to transgender related hatred or prejudice. This year, 143 people were murdered all over the world for being themselves (and these are only the murders that were reported as such). The International Transgender Day of Remembrance website lists the names, locations, date of death, and other information for those who passed away each year due to transgender related bias .
One listing from their website reads (warning, graphic):
Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado
Location: Cayey, Peurto Rico
Cause of Death: decapitated
Date of Death: November 14, 2009
Jorge was found on the site of an isolated road in the city of Cayey, he was partially burned, decapitated, and dismembered, both arms, both legs, and the torso.
Jorge was 19 years old.
Sources: http://www.365gay.com/news/murder-suspect-thought-puerto-rico-gay-teen-was-a-woman/http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2397832/hate_crime_gay_puerto_rican_teen_george.html
http://www.towleroad.com/2009/11/gay-puerto-rican-teen-decapitated-dismembered-and-burned.html
http://www.towleroad.com/2009/11/man-arrested-in-horrific-murder-of-puerto-rican-gay-teen.html
It has been really important to me in the past two years of being out to attend/participate in TDOR events. At my university last year, I was responsible for organizing the TDOR demonstration that was held on campus. This year, I attended the TDOR event in Atlanta, GA.
The event this year was two part, one indoor version with people speaking (very conference style), and the other was an outdoor candlelight vigil on the state capitol steps while each name was read aloud followed by the single chime of a bell.
This is a picture of me and my girlfriend at the Atlanta TDOR service.
It was a good service, but TDOR always gets me down. It’s like going to a funeral (and that particular day it was my second one). Not to mention I have some criticisms (surprise, surprise). For instance, NOTHING was said about how an overwhelming majority of the names called out were 1) trans women, 2) people of color, 3) from Central and South America. WTF. There was some serious white privilege going on at this event (or plain ignorance).
Dually, I was annoyed at the first portion of the event (the conference style) that failed to call to action change encompassing an intersection of oppressions – racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, abelism, ect – and instead took way too much time honoring and recognizing the multitude of politicians and faith leaders in the audience.
There was just too much that went unsaid and too much that needed to be said again. Our community faces this kind of violence as a whole, but as a COMMUNITY, we must also recognize that we all face this violence differently. Does being white protect me from transphobia? Maybe, maybe not. But it is my duty as a trans person and an ally to people of color to at least acknowledge (I would hope do more than just that) that the death statistics are overwhelmingly trans women who are people of color and who live in what our nation calls “third world countries” (fuck that phrase) and who likely are working class or sex workers (or may not have a job at all).
So listen close my trans friends and allies. Recognize the stats, and fucking call them out. Stop being an ally only to the trans portion of people’s identities, but start being an ally to the entire person.
Filed under: All Posts, Social Justice, Transphobia
This is an interesting post…man, we need to hang out sometime soon.
I understand you’re not comfortable with the term “third world country;” however this term is used by many PoC feminists who would say they practice or adhere to third world feminism(s). I can see how the phrase, when used by white people in the West, can sometimes rub people the wrong way.
@Samia My resistance to “third world country” is less based on race and moreso rooted in the fact that I don’t like how our government views itself as above other countries for reasons of 1) race 2) economics 3) political relations. Similarly, I don’t like the term “Middle East” because it implies that that particular region is middle of the Orient and east of the New World. I just avoid the terms all together if possible, but sometimes it’s hard to get around.
I can understand that. I would simply urge against an aversion to everyone who uses the phrase, as many eminent feminist theorists (esp from South Asia in my experience) use it quite liberally to distinguish their feminist ideologies from mainstream Western/white/colonialist ones. It can be kind of weird to hear it, though, especially speaking as someone who’s kind of railed against this kind of categorizing for a large part of my life.
“I would simply urge against an aversion to everyone who uses the phrase, as many eminent feminist theorists (esp from South Asia in my experience) use it quite liberally to distinguish their feminist ideologies from mainstream Western/white/colonialist ones.”
Good point! Noted. <3