Transgender Day of Remembrance
We live in a sick society in a lot of ways. It allows racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia… The list goes on! However, today is the day when we remember a segment of society which our culture views as disposable. Trans people.
Per capita, there is no other group of people with a higher rate of murder. Between 20th November last year and 12th November this year, there were 162 trans people murdered, and that is only those officially reported as a murder of a trans person. It doesn’t count those who were hounded into suicide, it doesn’t count the ‘effeminate men’ who were murdered nor does it count those murdered in countries where the death of another trans person is of so little importance it doesn’t even make the news.
I want to use an example from Christine Burns who tweeted the following today:
If trans ppl are (say) 1 in 10K of the population then 200 trans murders equivalent to 2 million in wider population
Just think of that… If any other part of society had a death rate that high, it would already be an outcry. But consider this: This is a murder rate we’re talking about! This is trans people being violently murdered because of being born with a condition which leaves them forced by society into a gender which doesn’t match their true gender.
What about that makes it acceptable to kill trans people? Percentage-wise, we’re talking about a culturally approved genocide, here, which gets no outcry from the press nor our governments nor the vast majority of supposed LGB(t) organisations (that’s a silent T, by the way). Our press reports on trans deaths for the titillation of the cis world, governments talk about it when they’re forced to remember we exist and a lot of LGB(t) organisations only remember us when they’re shamed into it.
It’s time for this horror to be given the attention it deserves. We’re getting murdered here and society at large just doesn’t care. Is there any other group of people facing such universal discrimination and violence? Is there any other group of people with as high a likelihood of murder?
Today is the 11th Transgender Day of Remembrance. Today we remember those of brutally murdered. Today, we hope that this is the year we finally won’t be seen as disposable.
Read more here:
TGEU – Transgender Day of Remembrance 2009
Bird of Paradox – 11th International Transgender Day Of Remembrance, 20th November 2009
Zero at the Bone - TDOR 2009 (with a good list to other TDoR posts)
Questioning Transphobia - the drowned and the saved
Womanist Musings – Transgender Day of Remembrance
Pizza Diavola – Transgender Day of Remembrance
Deeply Problematic - Eleventh Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance
FWD/Forward - International Transgender Day of Remembrance 2009
Feministe - Transgender Day of Remembrance 2009
Bad Hair Days – Trangender Day of Remembrance
Possibly Related Posts:
I do simpathise really I do but to me, although all these ‘hate’ crimes are evil, every murder is evil and there are far more non trans murders being perpetrated in the world than there are trans murders. To say that potentially there could be 2 million per annum is stretching it a bit. I mourn the loss of other trans people but I also mourn the loss of any person who loses their life at the hands of another. I pray for murderers, bigots and all those who sin. What I also think is really bad is the way people lack understanding and are intolerant of anyone else who is a bit different to themselves. It is human nature and the reasons behind the hatred go far deeper. Until that can be resolved we are going to continue to see these evil things happening. There is an answer but I won’t go down that road. In the meantime I pray and I will mourn the loss of my brothers and sisters. In love
Shirley Anne xxx
Shirley Anne´s last blog ..Nice surprise.
Thanks for your comment, Shirley Anne.
First of all, I didn’t ever say that there could be two million murders per year, I said that if the general population were murdered at the same rate as the trans population, that would equate to two million murders a year, assuming a prevalence of one trans person per 10,000 people. Think of the effect that two million murders would have on the general population… That is the effect that these murders have on the trans community, which is one of the reasons I feel this so strongly.
Every day, I mourn the deaths I read about, but today is the day that I mourn the death of people like me, murdered because they are like me. Were the world to treat the murder of a trans person with the same horror as they do the murder of a cis person, TDoR wouldn’t be necessary. However, because culture at large, the press and the governments of the world are not horrified by this, we need a day like TDoR to make people see how we are targets and how little people care.
well put.
Thank you, Heidi!
[...] Emily at Transkitten: Remembering those society allows to be killed [...]
Your quote: Is there any other group of people facing such universal discrimination and violence?
Yes there is, Christians are very much subject to this. Whether they get murdered for their beliefs is debatable but in some countries it is most likely, Nigeria, Indonesia for instance. Look at what has gone on in Northern Ireland, Catholics and Protestants killing each other because their beliefs don’t match.
Even if governments legislate and then turn a blind eye to what is going on in their countries no-one is going to step in and tell them. If anything is to be done it is the governments who need to be made aware and not simply the populace. When they do see what is happening they then need to stamp it out. However, what has ever stopped people comitting murder despite the penalties? Look how long we have tolerated what goes on in China because we don’t want to upset them! It is one thing telling people but another getting situations improved.
Shirley Anne xxx
Shirley Anne´s last blog ..Nice surprise.
I am a bit surprised that you would make this comparison. Christians are a majority in most of the Western world and Christians attacking Christians is deplorable, but it is not the same as violent attacks on a minority. Anyway, as a Wiccan, as a trans woman, as a bisexual woman and as a woman alone, I feel that a lot of the discrimination I get is from Christians and the Christian church. It is the Christian church who calls me a deviant both because I am transsexual and in a homosexual relationship. It is the Christian church which treats me as a devil worshipper because I am Wiccan. It is the Christian church which has created a lot of the sexism which women face. Yes, I know that it is not Christians like you who try to accept those who don’t believe as you do, but the Christian church has condoned a lot of violence against people like me.
No, I’m sorry. I don’t agree. I don’t see the comparison between hundreds of trans women murdered in cold blood in recent years without any outcry and the issues faced by a church with more than a billion believers and ingrained support from the vast majority of the world’s governments. Yes, some people do some horrible things to Christians, but Christians are backed by one of the richest and most supported organisations in the world (both Catholics and Protestants alike) and that organisation fights hard for Christians, and in many situations against people like me.
The Christian Church certainly does have a lot to answer for when it comes to oppression but a Christians’ belief must come first in their stance toward other faiths. Being anti-homosexual, anti-any other faith is an inherrent part of being a Christian simply because other lifestyles and beliefs do not conform to the Christian way of life and belief. We have to make a stance against anything that does not conform to what the Bible teaches us else we are believing in error. That said Christians should be loving and caring accepting and tolerant of those who are not Christians. That is a commandment and if not followed undermines how a true Christian should behave and that is Christ-like. They let themselves down (sin) if they don’t have the right attitude. The Church has sadly failed in this respect for many yeras. I make no excuses for that for there aren’t any. Being human we fail sometimes and pray forgiveness. Those who persist in not loving their neighbour are condemming themselves. We are supposed to love one another but we don’t have to agree with lifestyles which are not Christian. We are called to love but not necessarily like. Again having said that, all that we do should be done in love. Unfortunately as you have found out not all Christians are as loving as they should be. Is it any wonder that the Church is held in disrepute as a result? As an individual if I come against something that is said, written or shown to me it is because it opposes my faith and I must stand against it but I try to do that in love. I try to accept or tolerate the opposite view (which is extremely difficult as a Christian) as best I can. I don’t hate or dislike the person, quite the contrary, I love people as I should and if the disagreement gets too heated then I retire from the argument so that I don’t deliberately offend. However my involvement then is one of prayer only and I put my hope in leaving it all to my Creator. It is all I can do. In love as always
Shirley Anne xxx
Shirley Anne´s last blog ..Christmas prezzies.
My feeling is that Shirley Anne, Emily and I, all arrive at the same place via different routes. I admire Shirley Anne’s strength of faith, and I also admire the fact that she tries to understand the directions from which Emily and I come from. It is a crying shame that many others of faith do not follow her example.
However, Emily is correct in that you cannot really compare the treatment of Trans people to those of Christians. Being Transsexual is not a state of belief, or a true freedom of choice. I never desired to be transsexual, and, if I allowed myself to think about it, would become quite bitter and twisted at the sadness it has caused me throughout my life. Most Christians, I feel sure, are Christians by choice and desire to follow the faith.
Where I have issues with most faiths is the way in which they direct the minds of those that follow their creeds. I have no faith, but that does not make me a bad or objectionable person. I always try and see positives in people, and I do my best to treat people as I would like them to treat me. I understand the essential realms of right and wrong and I attempt not to denigrate others for their beliefs, views or looks. What right has anyone to state that homosexuality is a sin, when these are consenting adults showing love? I would rather see their love a million times over an act of hatred. Yet many faiths build in these interpretations of intolerance that belie the very source of their declaration of love and forgiveness. If I am transsexual, then why would a deity make me so? To test me and my devotion? To play with my life as if a test of membership or right of passage to a select clique? No, sorry, it does not wash with me.
You are so right, Shirley Anne. Every murder is despicable, but murder on this scale against a minority is a lamentable failure in the power of good and tolerance.
How very kind of you Selyna. Thank you so much for your kind words. Believe it or not though I didn’t want to become a Christian. I was a vehemently active atheist until I was about 44. I put my ‘conversion’ down to divine intervention. Bless you. Love
Shirley Anne xxx
Shirley Anne´s last blog ..Horrible.