20 Years Of TDOR's

Today will mark the 20th anniversary of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) events here in the United States and around the world.

They got their start in the wake of the November 28, 1998 murder of Rita Hester in Boston, who was grossly disrespected by the gay and straight media in that city, and in the wake of her being the fourth trans person in five years murdered in the city.

The person who killed Rita Hester still hasn't been brought to justice to this day.

The TDORs started in 1999 as protest events in Boston and San Francisco organized by journalist Gwen Smith.  They were also organized to help us remember the folks we'd already lost to anti-trans violence in the early 90's.

The TDOR in less than a decade spread around the world and became events in which trans communities across the planet and our allies memorialized the trans people senselessly lost to anti-trans violence.   

As the TDOR grew in importance to our trans community, events such as Trans Awareness Week were added in some communities in order to educate the cis population inside and outside the SGL community about our lives.   it also allowed us to hold events that expanded the ways we talked about the trans community and the issues that affect us beyond just the needed and necessary memorial services.

Trans Awareness Week in San Francisco has grown to an entire month of activities that lead up to the November 20 TDOR memorial day.

We have now been holding TDOR events for 20 years.   The murders are now focused exclusively on trans women of color, and disproportionately on Black trans women in the US.

In Latin America and Brazil, the murder rate is also unacceptably high, and the same is the case in Asia and Eastern Europe. 

Trans people are undeniably a part of the diverse mosaic of human life.   You can find us on six inhabited continents on Planet Earth and we aren't going away or back into the closet.

It's past time that people accept the fact we exist, and leave us alone so that we can survive, thrive, and be the best people that we can be.

We would love for these TDOR events to become obsolete so we don't have to gather every November 20 to observe them.   But as long as transphobic hate exists and is being stirred up by right wing politicians, conservative organizations, TERF's and fundamentalist religions, it looks like for the next few years we'll be gathering at venues around to world to remember the people we have lost.

Houston To Hold Three TDOR 2019 Events Tomorrow

The 20th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance is being observed tomorrow on November 20 with events around the world. 

Here in Houston, we have three events scheduled on that day, and it's also particularly a sad occasion because four of the names on the 2019 list of US names we will read are Texans, and two will be Houstonians.

The three Houston TDOR events tomorrow are:

TransGiving hosted by Organizacion Latina de Trans en Texas (OLTT) and Ana Andrea Molina

"Remembering our sisters who were ahead of us this year and raising the voices of those who continue to resist".

It also serves as the annual Thanksgiving dinner hosted by OLTT, and will take place this year at  Bering Memorial UMC.   The address is 1427 Hawthorne St, and will commence at 6:30 PM.  Parking for this event will be in the rear of the church.  

A Transgender Day of Remembrance event hosted by Dee Dee Watters is also taking place on this date at St. Luke the Evangelist Episcopal Church.   It's the event I have been invited to participate in.

The church is on the southeastern edge of the Texas Southern University campus, and its address is 3530 Wheeler Ave.   The event starts at 7:00 PM

"We will #SayTheirNames we will remember them all while acknowledging ourselves (those of the trans lived experience)"

The third event is the Transgender Day of Remembrance one hosted by the Houston Transgender Unity Committee (HTUC).

"...offering a safe and affirming environment to share stories and talk about those we have lost"

The venue for this event will be Brasil Houston, located at 2604 Dunlavy St in the Montrose area that will also start at 7:00 PM. 

Hopefully you folks in H-town can make it to one of the three events of your choosing to honor the people we have lost to anti-trans violence here and around the world in 2019. 

Harris County Commissioners Court Issues TDOR Resolution

Blue elections have positive consequences, and one of those happy consequences was after over a decade of GOP control, we finally flipped the Harris County Commissioners Court, our county's governing body to blue with the elections of Lina Hidalgo as our first Latina county judge and Adrian Garcia in the heavily Latinx Precinct 2.

Earlier at today's Commissioners Court meeting, Commissioner Adrian Garcia offered and got passed a resolution noting that this was the 20th anniversary year of the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

It was signed by the Democratic members of Commissioners Court in Commissioners Garcia and Rodney Ellis and County Judge Lina Hidalgo.  As you probably guessed, the signatures that were noticeably absent from the resolution were those of Republican commissioners R. Jack Cagle and Steve Radack. 

Radack is unfortunately my commissioner (for now), and has been on Commissioners Court since 1980.   He is thankfully up for reelection next year.   Cagle barely survived a challenge from Penny Morales Shaw for his seat in 2018.

Looking forward to firing Radack's disco era azz

Thanks to Judge Hidalgo, and Commissioners Garcia and Ellis for recognizing trans Harris County residents and the importance of TDOR to us.

20th Anniversary of TDOR Approaching

When November 20 hits, as many of you longtime readers are aware of, it will be the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR).   It is the day San Francisco based trans advocate Gwen Smith created in 1999 to memorialize the people we have lost to anti trans violence and remember the murder of Rita Hester, who had been killed in the Boston area just a year prior to the event.

The first TDOR events were held in Boston and San Francisco in 1999, and quickly became an international event observed by trans people around the globe.

As my national visibility as an advocate heightened, I started getting requests to speak at TDOR event outside of Louisville, where i lived from 2001-2010, and Houston. 

My first was being the keynote speaker for the inaugural TDOR event at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (LPTS) in Louisville. KY in 2002, and the very next year ended up at the LPTS delivering the 2003 TDOR keynote address. 

On the 10th anniversary of TDOR in 2009, I spoke at a TDOR event in Long Island, New York, and for the 20th, will probably be here in Houston speaking at another after being in Milwaukee for theirs last year and Tucson's in 2016.

We are now approaching the 20th anniversary of that original TDOR event, and it's sad to say that Rita Hester's killer still hasn't been brought to justice.   We are also looking at TDOR memorial lists that are overwhelmingly made up of trans women of color, and in the US, overwhelmingly Black trans women under age 30.

Internationally, they are disproportionately made up of trans women from Latin America and Brazil.

TDOR itself has in some places morphed to become part of a Trans Awareness Week that includes panels and other events before the TDOR itself.   In San Francisco, it is now part of Trans Awareness Month, and San Francisco City Hall was lit up in the trans pride flag color in recognition of it.

So who will we be honoring on November 20?   This is the list of names of people we have lost in 2019 so far, and I pray it doesn't get any longer between now and December 31.

It's also been a particularly rough year in Texas, where we've lost four people, two in Dallas, and two Houston, to anti-trans murders

***

Dana Martin, 31, Montgomery, AL
Ashanti Carmon, 27, Fairmount Heights, MD
Jazzaline Ware,  34, Memphis, TN
Muhlaysia Booker, 22, Dallas, TX
Michelle Washington, 40, Philadelphia, PA
Claire Legato, 21, Cleveland, OH
Paris Cameron, 20, Detroit, MI
Chynal Lindsey, 26, Dallas, TX
Chanel Scurlock, 23, Lumberton, NC
Zoe Spears, 23, Fairmount Heights, MD
Brooklyn Lindsey, 32, Kansas City, MO
Denali Berries Stuckey,  29, North Charleston, SC
Marquis Kiki Fantroy, 21, Miami, FL
Pebbles LaDime Doe, 24, Allendale, SC
Jordan Cofer, 22, Dayton, OH
Tracy Single Williams, 22, Houston TX
Bailey Reeves, 17, Baltimore, MD
Bee Love Slater,  23, Clewiston, FL
Ja'Leyah Jamar Berryman,  30, Kansas City, MO
Elisha Stanley, 46, Pittsburgh, PA
Itali Marlowe, 29, Houston, TX
Brianna BB Hill,  30, Kansas City, MO 

Stats Breakdown  

Female- 21  

Male-  1

Age 

0-19 -   1  

20-29 - 14 

30-39 - 5 

40-49 - 2 

50-59 - 0

Race-Ethnicity

White- 1 

Black- 21 

Latinx-0

Asian-Pacific Islander-0 

Rest in power to all the people we lost in 2019.   While some o the people who took you lives are in jail awaiting trial, there are others to which, like in Rita Hester's case, a person of interest or suspect hasn't been apprehended yet. 

We won't rest in this community until this happens, and those wastes of DNA are punished and rotting for their rest of their miserable lives in jail cells. 

Another thing we won't rest until we accomplish this task is to create a world that is safe enough for trans people to inhabit.  We would like as a community for the TDOR become unnecessary to plan or for us to have to gather every November 20 to observe this memorial event in which we must mourn and remember our dead.

But sadly, we as a society aren't there yet.

Why Including In TDOR's People Who Commit Suicide Is A Bad Idea

We have just concluded the TDOR memorials for 2018 here and around the world.   Sadly we will be doing them again next year on and around November 20.

I'm hearing online chatter about the topic of including trans people who commit suicide in these TDOR memorials.  That's a bad idea, and I'm going to lay out the case why it;s a bad idea.

A trans person who is killed due to a murder doesn't have the choice of and control over when and how they die.   It is a random act of violence that deserves public condemnation, media attention when it happens, and focus to ensure the perpetrator of that murder is tried and convicted for it.

A suicide is not the same as someone who has been murdered by either a random stranger or somebody they know.   The person who commits suicide has the choice of whether to do so or not. and if they do make that call, how and when they die.

Suicide is a serious issue in this community.  I believe a large reason why it has spiked in our community is not only because of the right wing repression of our community, but because of the international media attention that Leelah Alcorn's 2014 suicide got. 

If we are seeking to reduce suicides in the trans community, glamorizing them at a future TDOR is not the pathway to accomplish that goal.   We need to be as a community unequivocally encouraging people to live their best trans lives, not take them. 

As leaders in the trans community, we need to be possibility models encouraging trans people to choose life.   We also need to as leaders be pointing out that one of the powerful ways to send society the middle finger for hating on trans people at is to unapologetically live your life.

Laverne Cox recently revealed in an interview that she once considered over a decade ago committing suicide.   I and the community are glad she didn't, because we now get to witness her groundbreaking award winning acting talent and have the benefit of her advocacy. 

She is also a role model to many in our community, and I get to call her a friend.   But all the fabulousness of Ms. Cox we get to witness would have been lost forever to us if she had followed through 17 years ago on those thoughts of suicide.

Every trans life is a precious one.   By committing suicide, every trans life lost that way makes the TERF's and evilgelicals smile.  It also denies us the opportunity to get to know your amazing self. and deprives us and the world of your talents and future contributions to our community.

TDOR's are and have been for 20 years memorializing the people we lose around the world to anti-trans murders.  The reason the numbers are universally accepted by the media is because founder Gwen Smith set up a strict standard on what gets included on a TDOR list so that we aren't accused by our detractors of inflating them.

It has worked for 20 years.  If it ain't broke, it doesn't need to be fixed or altered without a compelling reason to do so. 

What I will suggest is that if people want to discuss trans suicides, they are welcome to do so in a conversation or event centering the subject that is held during Trans Awareness Week from November 12-19. 

TDOR At 20

Today is the official date of the Transgender Day of Remembrance.  It's been 20 years since Gwen Smith created the TDOR to remember the people that we have lost due to anti-trans violence.

And it's also been 20 years since Rita Hester was murdered, and her killer not being brought to justice.

We have another 22 people who were murdered in 2018, and as per usual in the States, they are disproportionately African American trans people.   Internationally Brazil depressingly leads the pack in being the most dangerous nation to be trans.

Say their names.   Their trans lives mattered.

Christa Lee Steele-Knudslien, 47, North Adams, MA
Vickky Gutierrez, 38, Los Angeles, CA
Zakaria Fry, 28,  Albuquerque, NM
Celine Walker, 38,  Jacksonville, FL
Tonya Harvey, 35, Buffalo, NY

Phylicia Mitchell, 45, Cleveland, OH
Amia Tyrae Berryman, 28, Baton Rouge, LA
Sasha Wall, 29, Chesterfield County, SC  
Carla Patricia Flores-Pavon, 26, Dallas, TX
Nino Fortson, 36, Atlanta, GA
Gigi Pierce, 28,  Portland, OR
Antasha English, 38, Jacksonville, FL
Diamond Stephens, 39, Meridian, MS

Catalina Christina James, 24, Jacksonville, FL
Keisha James, 58, Cleveland, OH
Sasha Garden, 27, Orlando, FL
Vontashia Bell, 18, Shreveport, LA
Dejanay Stanton, 24, Chicago, IL
Shantee Tucker, 30, Philadelphia, PA
Londonn Moore Kinard, 20, North Port, FL
Nikki Janelle Enriquez, 28, Laredo, TX
Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier, 31, Chicago, IL

2018 Trans Murders Stats Breakdown
Female 21-Male/GNC 1)

By Race
White-3   (3 female-0 male)
Latina-3   (3 female-0 male)
Black -16  (15 female-1 male/GNC)
Asian- 0
Native American- 0

By Age
50+  1
40-49  2

30-39  8
20-29  10
10-19- 1

That's 22 people from ages 18-58 that are no longer here with us, simply because they are trans.  When will it stop?   When will we finally be able to as a community to phase out this event? 

And a question that I ask for my Black trans siblings, when will the cis Black community and our legacy organizations care enough to say our Black Trans Lives Matter?

We're still waiting to hear those words from an NAACP president, the Congressional Black Caucus, and Black faith leaders.

And sadly, we're still waiting to hear them.

Moni's Marvelous Milwaukee Weekend

Got my 'I've arrived' phone call done to my mom last night after I arrived, and I'm in the state of Wisconsin and in my nice hotel room overlooking the Milwaukee River at the A Loft Milwaukee Downtown.    I'm also a mere two blocks from the new arena here.

The best part is I'm still in the Central time zone, so no jet lag issues. .

I'm chilling in Wisconsin's largest city, and woke up to snow on the ground to start my busy weekend that melted as the day wore on.    I was also on deadline for my OutSmart column and had to finish that column up

As for the weather, the last two days in Houston already prepped me for it since on Tuesday and Wednesday we were in the mid to low 30's temp wise.

Since I love to when I travel check out the local restaurants and food I can't get in Texas, Ian's Pizza is definitely on my foodie radar, along with Kopp's Frozen Custard.  Also looking forward to exploring the area near the hotel.

I spent part of today at the Milwaukee LGBT Center being this month's featured speaker as part of  their ongoing Stonewall Stage Talk Series.    I got a chance to do what I love and talk about trans history, current political developments, and what got me into my now 20 years of activism .

As soon as the link comes up for that talk, I'll post it.

Tomorrow is the more serious part of why I came here.  I'm the featured speaker for their TDOR that will take place at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at 7 PM

Hope those of you in the Milwaukee area will check it out.

Moni's Leaving On A Jet Plane To- Milwaukee!

Been a few weeks since I hopped a flight somewhere, and this time I'm headed to the upper Midwest and a first time ever trip to Milwaukee.

And I'll get to see some of my United-CAL family since I'll be flying through IAH on this trip.

I'll be heading up there to speak at their TDOR event at UW-Milwaukee on Sunday night.   I'll also be doing on Saturday from 2-4 PM CST a Stonewall Stage Talk at the FORGE/ MKE LGBT Community Center at 1110 N Market Street.

The TDOR event will be on the UWM Campus in Bolton Hall, Room 150.  Address is 3210 N. Maryland Ave from 7-9 PM CST.   

Looking forward to hanging out with the Milwaukee and Wisconsin TBLGQ community and our allies this weekend.   Hopefully I will get a chance to see the 'Bronze Fonz' before I head back home Monday. 

Milwaukee was the setting for not only the longtime ABC sitcom Happy Days, it was also the setting for several seasons of the spinoff series Laverne and Shirley.

A Ten Point Post TDOR Plan

TDOR 2017 is over.  The memorials are done and the last tear has been shed.  The sun is shining on this November 21st day.  So what do we do over the next 365 days to not only help decrease the number of names we read at the 20th anniversary edition of TDOR in 2018, but make the world better for Trans kind?

You just knew I'd have a few suggestions for the question I just asked.   It's not just a few suggestions, either.  It's  a Ten Point Post-TDOR Plan.

First one is collective community self defense.   By that I mean not just self defense courses or arming yourselves with guns or tasers, but employing the buddy system whenever possible.  Have one when walking in neighborhoods, or when going to our cars or public transit stops in the wake of leaving clubs or our community events.  Let trusted people know where and when you're headed out and make it a point to call certain people on a regular basis.

The second one is working with the media and the police to get them to understand that deadnaming our fallen people is not acceptable.   Doing so whether by accident or accidentally on purpose to trans murder victims delays their ability to apprehend the perpetrators of those crimes and get justice for the victims.   Many times we don't know or don't care what the person's deadname was, so if you come to us citing that deadname, we'll look at you with blank stares. 

We also know that the most critical time to solving a crime in in the first 48 hours of it.

Third is continuing the ongoing education of the moveable middle toward unconditional acceptance of our humanity as trans people.  We're not going to flip hardcore Trump voters or doctrinaire Republicans.  But we do have a large population of people who wish to be on the right side of history and do what's decent for trans people.   Let's get to work converting them to supporters of our community.

Fourth is punishing our enemies at the ballot box, rewarding our friends, and running our damned selves for public office.   You gleefully sponsor an anti-trans ballot measure or unjust law aimed at us and out kids, expect swift retaliation at the ballot box in the next cycle.  You work hard to defend our community, expect to reap the earned political reward of unwavering community support.   And if a cis candidate doesn't step forward to take on the transphobe, we do the job. 

If a qualified trans person is running for office help them get elected.

Voting is a trans revolutionary act, and we must do so strategically as trans people in every election cycle. We cannot afford to be politically aloof or ignorant.

Fifth is pushing back hard against people who wish to disseminate anti-trans propaganda like TERF's, fundamentalist 'christians', the Republican Party and any assorted hater by not allowing any anti-trans speech or facts free comment to go unchallenged.  Ignoring them and their hate speech is not an option.  It must be challenged, and we don't have to be nice when we do it either..

Sixth is ensuring our trans kids grow up with healthy self esteem by not only making them aware of the history that people like them helped make, but working with the Mama and Papa Bears to ensure they can just focus on their educations as we battle with the transphobic teachers and administrators to ensure our kids are treated with the dignity and respect in the educational setting

Seventh is ensuring that we trans adults love ourselves.  We need to role model that sixth point I made in our own lives by looking in the mirror and repeatedly telling ourselves that we ARE the amazing men and women we see staring back at us.

Eight is build your expanded family.  If you still have loving and supportive blood family members, that is a bonus in this case.   If you don't have blood family, create one.  While they won't help you totally alleviate the pain of being separated from blood family,  they can go a long way toward helping you fill that vacancy where your blood family once was. 

Nine is get involved in building our community.   Whether it's attending a monthly trans group organizational meeting, getting involved with a non -trans specific cause you support,  or just going out on a regular basis with people you love and care about cis or trans, just do it.

Ten is love one another.   We trans folks are all we've got in many cases.

Moni's 2017 TDOR Thoughts

Today we mourn the people we lost.   Tomorrow we prepare to do what we always do and fight for our very humanity.   And yes, we will win.  Yeah I know I said that in 2007, but I believe it, and I'm going to speak it into existence today.
-Monica Roberts, Moni's 2016 TDOR Thoughts

Another 365 days have passed since last year's commemoration of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and this one is quite different from the TDOR we observed last year.

This 19th annual observance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance has some elements of it that are depressingly familiar to it.   Once again we are reading off a list of names of the people who were taken from us due to anti-trans violence that is overwhelmingly Black and Latinx.. We lights candles in their memory    Once again many of the people we lost are under 40.   When we not how they died, we are aware of the fact that many of them experienced horrific violence in their last moments on the planet.   And we sadly note that Brazil led the pack in terms of being the most violent nation for trans people 

What's different is that we went from an administration that was unapologetically on our side in fighting for justice for trans people to an unjust one hellbent on oppressing us.

But what these misguided people and transphobes fail to understand is that when you are a people who have to fight tooth and nail just to exist, we're going to fight oppression aimed at us even more tenaciously because it is literally a life or death situation for us. 

In that stark scenario with those kind of stakes for the trans community, we have no other option but to prevail mo matter what kind of challenges are presented to us.

In Texas, we killed the odious SB6/SB3 twice in a regular and a special oppression session.  The attempt to ban us from the US military is being fought out in the federal court system. 

And far from eviscerating us from everyday life and force us back into a closeted existence as our opposition is trying to do,  we are becoming even more visible and more of an integral part of it from media to politics.   We will also have when 2018 dawns trans folks repping their constituents and out community in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Minneapolis City Council. 

So yes, while we trans people, our families, friends and allies on this day think about the over 275 people around the world we lost to anti-trans violence, TDOR is a day more so for those of us who mourn them.   Once we leave the various venues holding the memorial services around the world, we steel ourselves for the challenging at times task of fighting for the humanity and human rights of the people who to borrow the words of Miss Major, are still f*****g here.

The best way we can honor those we lost is to fix society to the point that we make the TDOR obsolete.   We aren't there yet and may not get there in my remaining lifetime on this planet.   But we still have to keep fighting to reduce the number of anti-trans murders in the US and around the world, and ensure that the perpetrators of them do hard time when they are caught..

How fast will that day happens?   Good question.  But I can guarantee that won't happen fast enough to keep me from writing another TDOR post 365 days from now.

2017 TDOR at the PODCC

One of the things that has bothered me at times is that when we have TDOR events, the lists of the people who we memorialize are predominately Black and Latina, but the people speaking at and taking part in the memorial services have been predominately white.

I shared that disconnect in a conversation with Dee Dee Watters not long after I met her in 2010, and it was one of the things that prompted her to organize a Black trans person centered TDOR event that for the last several years has been hosted by her radically inclusive church Progressive Open Door Christian Center. (PODCC) on the TSU campus.

I have had at this TDOR event the honor of being a keynote speaker, a name reader and for the last two years, as the community historian, talking about why the TDOR exists.

Last night at PODCC the 2017 edition of the TDOR Dee Dee organizes was held.   In addition to yours truly breaking down the history behind the event, BLMHOU members Kandice Webber and Brandon Mack were there reading the list of names as event attendees lit candles in memory of the people we lost in 2017 to anti-trans violence .   

One of the moments at this TDOR that also drove home the point of how serious a problem anti-trans violence is was when Mia Lopez came from the audience and discussed an attack that happened to her on Halloween night in the Montrose area, the same night that Candace Towns was killed.

PODCC Pastor Marvella Walker was also in the house to offer prayers, and Dee Dee did another one of her powerful dramatic pieces before the event concluded with the a capella singing of the Stevie Wonder classic song 'Love's In Need Of Love Today'

One of the things I would love to see for next year's PODCC TDOR is more public officials from our community in attendance for this. 

It would be nice to know that you stand for your trans constituents as well, especially in light of the fact that the names we read every year are overwhelmingly trans people of color.

TDOR 2016 Snapshots

DOR 2016 is one for the history books, and as this 18th anniversary observance of it across the globe happened,    I wasn't at home for the ones in Houston because as you know, I was tapped to be on the opposite end of I-10 as the keynote for the Tuscon TDOR on the University of Arizona campus.

On this November 20 date here and around the world, in addition to the event that happened during Trans Awareness Week and Month in the runup to TDOR itself, there were speeches given. and panel discussions held.

Media interviews were granted by us in which we delivered the crystal clear message that our lives and humanity matters, and we along with our allies read the names of over 300 trans people around the world who lost their lives to anti-trans violence.

Far too many of those lives once again were trans people of color and in the US, African-American trans people under age 40.

We lit candles for those souls we lost, mourned them, comforted each other, and walked out of those venues more determined than ever to ensure that these people didn't die in vain and that we the living would ensure that trans rights would prevail here and around the world.

Here's just a few snapshots of TDOR 2016 ceremonies and events around the world.  I'll add more as I receive them.

Karen Kendra Holmes speaking at a TDOR event hosted by Stetson University

Jevon martin at the White House Transgender Community Briefing on November 17

Moni's TDOR 2016 Thoughts

We will lose more transgender people to violence. The Remembering Our Dead list will get longer. The anti-transgender rhetoric coming from their acolytes will get nastier and more hateful. They will try to spin and twist Bible verses to favor their immoral positions. But in the end the result will still be the same and the neo-fascists will lose. --TransGriot  June 14, 2007

Today is the 18th Transgender Day of Remembrance, in which we memorialize the people we lost due to anti-trans violence. here in the US and around the world.

This year's TDOR observance is coming upon the heels of a contentious national election in which an unqualified moron who told racist white people what they wanted to hear basically got himself elected to the presidency of this nation.  

That election has consequences for the country, and unfortunately our community and its fragile human rights will be the first in the crosshairs of this undemocratic regime that is Making America Hate Again and ramping up anti-trans animus for political gain.

Unfortunately, that anti-trans animus has resulted in the untimely loss of trans lives, with the vast majority of them being trans people of color.

Jazz Alford, 30 years old
Amos Beede, 38 years old
Keyonna Blakeney, 22 years old
Brandi Bledsoe, 32 years old
Veronica Banks Cano, 30s
Kayden Clarke, 24 years old
Goddess Diamond, 20 years old
Deeniquia Dodds, 22 years old
Shante Isaac, 34 years old
Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, 16 years old
Monica Loera, 43 years old
Skye Mockabee, 26 years old
Noony Norwood, 30 years old
T. T. Saffore, 20s
Jasmine Sierra, 52 years old
Demarkis Stansberry, 30 years old
Mercedes Successful, 32 years old
Rae'lynn Thomas, 28 years old
Erykah Tijerina, 36 years old
Tyreece "Reecey" Walker, 32 years old
Dee Whigham, 25 years old
Quartney Davia Dawsonn-Yochum, 32 years old
Maya Young, 24 years old

Say their names tonight and from now on.  
The majority of the American trans people whose names we will say and light a candle for tonight as part of our regrettable contribution to the international list of trans souls lost are Black and Latina.  

When will their Black Lives Matter, Black community?   When will these Latina lives matter to you, Latinx community?  

When will trans lives matter to this nation, period?

Once this day is over, it's nation time trans Americans and allies..  The  transphobic bigots are compiling unjust  legislation to oppress us that we must fight with every fiber of our beings.  We are going to have to come together as never before and fight the evil that wants to eviscerate our existence.  

We unfortunately have some vanillacentric privileged people in our own ranks who fell for the Trump okey doke and conveniently forgot that theirs and the community's humanity was on the ballot November 8.   They  gleefully voted for the guy with an openly transphobic vice president thinking that their lost white privilege and their wallets were more important than the human rights of the entire trans community, and their white skin would protect them from harm.  

They are about to find out it won't.   They failed us, and more importantly, failed our trans kids, who were depending on their trans elders to handle their electoral business and keep this unqualified man out of the Oval Office.

Today we mourn the people we lost.   Tomorrow we prepare to do what we always do and fight for our very humanity.   And yes, we will win.  Yeah I know I said that in 2007, but I believe it, and I'm going to speak it into existence today.   We have the moral high ground, our haters don't no matter how much Biblical scripture the radicalized faith based haters try to throw.

But this time, we won't be fighting for our humanity and our human rights alone. We will have human rights organizations and allies working intersectionally by our side and at least until noon EST on January 20,  the power of the Obama Administration.

Transgender rights are human rights. and we will have legislators on Capitol Hill and across the country willing to do the right thing and stand up for us.   We will have trans parents standing with us and their kids.  We also have history to peruse that gives us insight on how to fight the hateful evil that has once again befallen this country and we are squarely in the crosshairs of.

Our vision of our community and a fair and just America is worth fighting for.

As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr once said, we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.   The progress that we have made gives me hope that we will get through this.

The Air Marshal Takes Flight To Tucson

I didn't get an invite to go to what will probably be the last trans themed event at the White House for at least the next four years yesterday, but probably just as well I didn't because I would have had to leave DC after it and immediately fly back to Houston so I could catch my flight to Tucson and speak at their TDOR on Sunday.

Assuming my Southwest bird leaves on time, I face the irony on this leg of flying at 35,000 over Tucson to get to San Diego for my connecting flight back to Tucson.   I'm also chuckling at the irony that 1-10, one of the interstate highways that runs through Houston and much of Texas, also runs through Tucson.

My first trip to Tuscon since 2012 is thanks to the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance, which has been in existence since 1998.  They are one of the groups that sponsors their local TDOR event that happens on the University of Arizona campus and I'll be speaking at on Sunday. .

It's also special to me because the late Alexander John Goodrum was a major leader here in the Tucson area until his untimely death in September 2002.    .

Looking forward to seeing everyone in the Tuscon and southern Arizona community

Houston TDOR Event At City Hall Sunday

I'll be 1000 miles down I-10 west in Tucson for their TDOR weekend, but will be thinking about my Houston homies as they gather at City Hall on November 20

It's a TDOR event at City Hall entitled 'A Night Of Reflection', and will start at 6:00 PM CST.

It's sponsored by Trans Women of Color United For Chance (TWCUC)  and hope that it gets the attendance from our community and allies it deserves.

Houston City Hall is located downtown at 901 Bagby Street, and once again hope people will shw up and support our community at this event.

Texas 2016 TDOR Events

The Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial events are taking place across the Lone Star State during this  Trans Awareness Week leading up to the TDOR itself on November 20.

It's been a rough year, and the election results didn't help matters for us.  If you can please support these TDOR events and others if you can.  The Texas trans community will be targeted for oppression in this upcoming Texas legislative session, and we need to know that you have our backs

We are also participating in event around the state and nation in advance of the TDOR to educate people about our lives and the issues we face.

This is just the short list of TDOR events happening across the state.   If there are others, let me know via e-mail ASAP so I can update the post.


Thursday November 17

San Antonio
1621 N. Main Ave.
San Antonio, TX 78212
Rear parking lot of that location
6-7 PM

MCC San Antonio
611 E. Myrtle St.
San Antonio, TX 78212
7-9 PM

San Marcos
Wesley UCM
510 N Guadalupe St
San Marcos, TX 78666
7 PM

Saturday, November 19
Houston
A.D. Bruce Religion Center
University of Houston
3841 Cullen Blvd
Houston, TX 77204
(hosted by HTUC)
6:30-10 PM

Fort Worth 
First Jefferson UU Church
1959 Sandy Ln
Fort Worth, TX 78112
7-9 PM

Sunday, November 20

Waco
Waco Heritage Square
311 Austin Ave.
Waco, TX 76702
5-7 PM

Dallas
Legacy of Love Monument
Oak Lawn Triangle
(at Cedar Springs)
6-8 PM

Houston
Houston City Hall
901 Bagby St.
Houston, TX 77002
6:30-10 PM

Austin 
City Hall Plaza
301 W. 3rd St
Austin TX 78701
6:30-9:30 PM

El Paso
Borderland Rainbow Center
2423 Silver Avenue
El Paso, TX 79930
6-7 PM

Houchen Community Center
609 Tays St
El Paso, TX 79901
5-8 PM