TDOR 2012 Musings

The Transgender Day of remembrance has become an international event observed by trans people around the world and the 2012 event is no different. 

We're adding another 173 names to a depressingly long 2012 list of people who were murdered around the world between the conclusion of the last TDOR in November 2011 and this year's event.   

Perusing the list reveals events happening in the United Kingdom, Greece, France, Italy, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Romania, Scotland, and Sweden in addition to the ones occurring across the United States and Canada.   Hope there will be others somewhere on the continents of Africa, South America to go along with the ones taking place in North America Europe and the Asian-Pacific Rim.

I also hope that somewhere in the Caribbean, the Middle East and Latin America there will also be a TDOR held, even if it's just a few people gathered at a friends house or in a double secret location and prayers are said for the people we lost.

Texas will be well represented on the US TDOR memorial event list with events taking place in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and possibly Lubbock.

If you have information regarding your 2012 event please send an email to Ethan St. Pierre and Marti Abernathey transgenderdor@gmail.com and follow updates on twitter: http://twitter.com/Transgenderdor

When you considering the persecution that our sisters are battling in Malaysia and Russia, it's cool to note that TDOR's are still happening in Kuala Lumpur and St. Petersburg.   I was hoping to see an event taking place in Brazil considering there has been far too much anti-trans violence visited upon my sisters who live here. .

There's also been far too much trans feminine blood shed in Turkey, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala. 

In Guatemala the anti-trans hatred had gotten so bad trans activist Fernanda Milan had to flee her homeland for Denmark where she endured even more suffering and is facing deportation back to Guatemala    

And yes, hope the Transgender Day of Remembrance events are as diverse as the lost trans sisters we'll be memorializing in them.  

When you contemplate the fact the TDOR was created to honor Rita Hester, a Black Boston metro area transwoman whose 1998 murder still is unsolved, and 70% of the Remembering Our Dead list is comprised of Black and Latina trans women I shouldn't have to say this every year.

I also hope and pray that someday it won't be necessary to have TDOR's to remind the world of the obscene levels of violence aimed at us.

But until the world considers a transperson's life to be as valuable as any cisperson's life, circling November 20 on the calendar every year and remembering our lost sisters will sadly be something we engage in as part of our trans human rights struggle.