midst the foliage of mid-
October, the shortening
hours of daylight and the
onset of winter, I made a promise to
myself not to look at this season as
an end of something, but as an
opportunity to begin something new.
It was more than a month until
November 20th, and a small commit-
tee convened to begin planning for
the Fifth Annual Transgender Day of
Remembrance — the second that will

  
 
  
  
 
  
  
 

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be held in Burlington, Vermont.
Those of us familiar with

the history of this event know this

occasion began as a way to honor the
unsolved murder of Rita Hester, a
transwoman who was stabbed‘ to
death on November 28, 1998 in an
act of anti-transgender violence in
Boston, Massachusetts. Others of us
are merely beginning a journey and
have not yet witnessed the list of
nearly 300 names and stories at
www.gender.org, a website created
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith to memo-
rialize victims of anti-transgender
violence from 1970 to the present.
There are 35 new names listed since
last year’s Day of Remembrance,
and with an average of more than
one murder per month another name
may well be added to that list before
this piece goes to press.

For the past three days, I
have researched and ingested a histo-
ry of the transgendered community.
The lives of our brothers and sisters
are unceremoniously delivered in
shocking and graphic headlines, their
preferred names and pronouns re-
scored to reflect previous names
incongruent with their gender.

Media accounts could tell
us the accomplishments of transgen-
dered individuals, who they will be
survived by, the vacancies they will
leave in their communities. Instead,
commemoration is traded for sensa-
tionalized stories of someone caught
in the “wrong” attire while truly har-
rowing phrases numb with repetition.
“Killed,” “strangled,” “shot in the
face ten times,” “stabbed in the back
121 times,” “hit in the head with a
sledge hammer,” “sexually mutilat-
ed,” “beheaded,” “run down by a
car.” ‘

These are the outstretched
hands we must clasp in introduction,
with fear, with resolution. These are
the hands of our history reaching out
before us for recognition, vindication
and deliverance.

Or perhaps it is my own
hand reaching and seeking because
the dead are the inheritance of the
living, and when their deaths go
unchallenged and unremembered this

 

 

too becomes our inheritance. ’In the
US, there are still no federal laws
against discrimination based on gen-
der identity. Only seven states and
the District of Columbia cover gen-
der identity under their hate-crime
laws. Many murder cases involving
the death of transgendered individu-
als are unsolved and will remain
unsolved due to failure by authorities

emembering Trans Dead,
Empowering Trans Living

whether or not they identify as trans-
gendered. For example, Willie
Houston was killed not because he
was transgendered, but because he
was perceived as being transgen-
dered, or perhaps gay, when he ‘
helped a blind man use the restroom ~
while holding his wife’s pocketbook.
Yet education on gender transgres-
sion is allocated to the transgender
community despite the unsettling
truth that all communities are affect-
ed by anti-transgender sentiment.

‘ Worse still, the lives and
stories of significant others of trans
people such as Private Barry
Winchell or lives that have gained
national acclaim such as Brandon
Teena are swallowed whole and rela- '
beled as “gay” and “lesbian” respec-
tively by media who claimed to
advocate on the behalf of the GLBT
community. Winchell’s death was
labeled an “anti-gay” crime for use

The lives and stories of

trans people are

swallowed whole and

relabeled as

“gay” and “lesbian”

by media who claimed to
advocate on the behalf of the”
. GLBT community;

to investigate possible leads or to
arrest known suspects.

Our inheritance is lack of
protection under law and prison sys-
tems that improperly house transgen-
der inmates and deny them continued

. use of hormones. We use and pass on

medical facilities that fail to provide
proficient service to transgendered

people, including adequate treatment

and preventative education for ,
HIV/AIDS. What is left for our
young are school systems that allow
students to be suspended for wearing
“gender inappropriate” clothing and
fail to provide non-harassment poli-
cies for the safety and comfort of
transgendered students.

Many feminine men and
masculine women feel the strains and
repercussions of gender transgression

against the military ’s, “Don’t ask,
don’t tell” policy despite the fact that
he never dated men and that he was
survived by his lover — a transwoman.
— Calpemia Adams. Such miscon-
structions erase the visibility of
transgendered people and transgen-
dered reality.

Likewise, when we .
remember our dead let us accurately “
reflect upon the reality of transgen- "
der violence. Many of the near-300, 
names belong to transwomen, man)’ i 5
to transwomen of color. many to sex ‘
workers, drug users, homeless peoplt
and people living with AIDS.
Mainstream media continues to
sweep aside such details or portrays
them as unsavory additions to a
transgendered identity. The remem-
brance of our predecessors is an
opportunity to reclaim. to occu-

_ _._./