BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum

Our BetterMost Community => BetterMost People => Topic started by: Kerry on November 20, 2009, 11:58:42 pm

Title: Transgender Day of Remembrance
Post by: Kerry on November 20, 2009, 11:58:42 pm

Transgender Day of
Remembrance

(http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o126/kez4oz/Album%202/transgender_button.gif)

http://www.transgenderdor.org

Transgender Day of Remembrance is an occasion in the LGBT community set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice (transphobia). The event is held on  November 20 each year. It was founded by Gwendolyn Ann Smith  to honor Rita Hester, whose murder in 1998 inaugurated the "Remembering Our Dead" web project and a  San Francisco candle light vigil in 1999. Since then, the event has grown to encompass memorials in hundreds of cities around the world.

(http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o126/kez4oz/Album%202/GwendolynAnnSmith.jpg)
Gwendolyn Ann Smith

(http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o126/kez4oz/Album%202/rita-hester.jpg)
Rita Hester

Title: Re: Transgender Day of Remembrance
Post by: Lynne on November 21, 2009, 12:10:29 am

Kerry,

Thanks for posting about this.

Wikipedia has an article listing people killed due to their transgender status:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unlawfully_killed_transgender_people

It's worth looking, just to see how many names you recognize and to remember the circumstances surrounding their deaths.  I'm sure there are countless more not listed.

Brandon Teena is probably the one most known (at least to me) because of the movie Boys Don't Cry with Hillary Swank.

Lynne

Title: Re: Transgender Day of Remembrance
Post by: Monika on November 21, 2009, 01:15:32 am

how very tragic.

Title: Re: Transgender Day of Remembrance
Post by: CellarDweller on November 21, 2009, 01:22:19 pm

Thanks for this, Kerry.

I've copied this to DCF in our MTF, FTM, WTF? thread.

Title: Re: Transgender Day of Remembrance
Post by: Kerry on November 21, 2009, 07:10:10 pm

You're very welcome, Chuck. So glad you've shared it at DCM. Sad though they are, I firmly believe that anniversaries such as these should always be commemorated. They are part of what makes us who we are as a community, tragic though these dreadful murders are. As one of the card-holders wrote, over at the Celebrating Diversity thread, "Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a society where there is no need for an Anti-Violence Project." Maybe one day. I'm an optimist.

Title: Re: Transgender Day of Remembrance
Post by: Front-Ranger on November 21, 2009, 08:39:45 pm

Thank you for letting us know about this day, friend. It could be my face in those photos, except for quirks of fate.

Title: Re: Transgender Day of Remembrance
Post by: Kerry on November 21, 2009, 10:11:32 pm

Quote from: Front-Ranger on November 21, 2009, 08:39:45 pm

Thank you for letting us know about this day, friend. It could be my face in those photos, except for quirks of fate.

You're welcome, Lee. Would you like to share your story with us?  :)

* Thank you also to Lynne and Buffy for your responses. *