I said this last year concerning diversity at community TDOR memorials, and this message bears repeating since we are rapidly approaching another Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial day and planning for them is either well underway or just getting started in many locales. I'm passionate about the Transgender Day of Remembrance for many reasons, and one of them being that it's African descended transwomen that are disproportionately being killed and the silence about it is deafening.
Since the majority of the anti-trans violence victims we will be memorializing November 20 or the weekend leading up to that day will predominately be non-white, can we have that diversity reflected in the people who are taking part in the TDOR ceremonies, too?
And it needs to be more than just one POC and call it a day.
How you accomplish that task of making your events diverse ones that reflect your community, that's on y'all. But the gist of this post is to plant the seed in the minds of those of you who are planning TDOR events in your towns or college campuses to ensure they don't end up as monoracial as a Republican Party convention. If we say the trans community is a diverse one, we believe that our community diversity is our greatest strength and the decisive difference between us and our oppressors, then we need to ensure that community diversity is reflected at Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial ceremonies as well.
It's vitally important they be as diverse as possible because it's one of the few times our community gets coverage from local news media. If that happens for your TDOR event, you want to be damned sure that the image being captured of your trans community by those HD TV cameras and the clicks of digital camera photos destined for your local newspapers and blogs is a diverse, inclusive one.
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