TransFaith-TPOCC TDOR Toolkit For Organizers

Just in time for the 15th anniversary of the Transgender Day of Remembrance 2013 is a toolkit that has been compiled by TransFaith in coordination with the Trans Persons of Color Coalition (TPOCC) as a Toolkit For Organizes that they hope to build on and expand

Here's the link to access the TDOR Toolkit For Organizers.

There are many questions that arise in the runup to the annual November 20 observance of TDOR , especially amongst our trans community allies.   The goal of the toolkit according to the website is to provide a resource faith communities and other Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) organizers and allies can use in planning TDOR observances

I'm also honored that the post I wrote about the circumstances surrounding Rita Hester's murder is part of this TDOR toolkit.

By gathering all of these materials together in one place, TransFaith and TPOCC hope to nurture the growing international community of solidarity that honors this important day.

And this toolkit will also help immensely in giving organizers some background info that will translate into a more successful event.

Attention TDOR Organizers-Unite With Us

TransGriot Note:  I definitely approve of this message from BTMI-BTWI

Attention TDOR Ceremony Organizers - Unite With Us! Invite and Include Black and Latino Trans people in your programming. Let THEIR VOICE be heard!

Thank you to the many TDOR Ceremony organizers for organizing TDOR services around the world on November 20 in acknowledgment of Transgender Day of Remembrance. Black & Latino Trans women are on each TDOR list every year at an overwhelming amount so for this reason there should always be a voice from this community invited in your programming every year. Celebrate Trans Lives!

TDOR directly affects the black Trans community. TDOR for our black Trans community is a time of memorial, spiritual and community support and activism. We are asking TDOR organizers to be mindful of what TDOR means to our community and frame your TDOR Ceremony where it is always inclusive of Trans people in African American & Latino American communities. Remember Our Deaths!

Look at your current TDOR program. Are you finished planning your ceremony? How many Black & Latino Trans women do you have as speakers? Are you paying for TDOR keynote speakers? How many of them are Black or Latino? Have you invited the families affected by TDOR to your ceremony, are they included? If you are raising money to "fund" TDOR ceremonies how many Black & Latino families benefit from this fund? How many Black & Latino Americans do you anticipate participating in your ceremony? How have your reached out to this community to ensure that they are invited to attend? The ceremonies should speak to the community it affects! Give Black & Latino Trans people a place for their voice to be heard.

Activism around TDOR also calls for continued support of black and Latino Trans communities. We need stronger alliances that will help to prevent disparities faced by trans communities including violence and the number of crimes committed against our community. End Trans Violence! Build with Black Trans Advocacy.

Having trouble in reaching the Black Trans Community? Black Trans Advocacy is represented nationally and you may access our community through our Black Transmen Inc, Black Transwomen Inc and Black Trans International Pageantry networks.

Need more help? You may partner with us directly or as a TDOR Unite! partner and use the TDOR Unite! logo in your programming as a sign of support for unity around the concern of violence against women and transgender people -- and that particular targeting of transgender women of color that is so evident on November 20 each year.

Thank you again for hosting TDOR in your local community. We need you and depend on you to help unite our community and to advance our mission of equality, advocacy, empowerment and social change.

Invite and Include Black and Latino Trans people in your programming. Let THEIR VOICE be heard!

What's Transgender Awareness Week?

Because the November 20 Transgender Day Of Remembrance is designed as a commemorative memorial service to remember and recognize the people we lost due to anti-trans violence during that calendar year, there have been calls to do an event that celebrates being us or sheds light on the issues relevant to being trans.

In Louisville, we would create a series of trans educational events to take place during the week leading up to our TDOR memorial service at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's Caldwell Chapel. 

Some of those events would take place on the LPTS campus while others would be scheduled during the week at other venues like the University of Louisville or MCC and other open and affirming churches.     

That idea seems to have spread to other parts of the country to do the same, and it now has a formalized name in Transgender Awareness Week  

The dates are varying across the country for group that are organizing activities but it's generally falling in the period from November 13-22 this year with the TDOR occurring on a Wednesday.

The good thing about Transgender Awareness Week is its flexibility in how you can structure and format it. 

While it isn't and never will be appropriate to throw a party during that week, you can during the Transgender Awareness Week do things like have panel discussions on various trans themed topics, bring in trans guest speakers, have lectures, Safe Zone trainings, community town hall discussions, and viewings of trans themed documentaries and movies.

You could also use Transgender Awareness Week as an opportunity to partner with local law enforcement to discuss safety issues and help break down the mistrust and sometime animus that exists between the trans community and law enforcement.

It's an opportunity during that week while we have the media spotlight on trans people in some areas of the country for TDOR to partner with our cis allies.  We can use the runup to that day for discussing issues that are the underlying causes for the near-genocidal levels of anti-trans violence and come up with ways to fix the problem.

It's something to think about for next year if it's too late for you to organize a series of Transgender Awareness Week events for 2013.   

TDOR 2013-Initial List Of TDOR Events Is Up

There was concern in Trans World when our go to website for Transgender Day of Remembrance information at the beginning of October hadn't been updated.  It was even more of a concern considering this is the 15th anniversary of TDOR memorials being conducted around the world. 

With a month to go until the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, the dates and locations for the various TDOR events around the world are starting to be posted in this one centralized location so people can make the necessary plans to attend them or organize one if they don't see their town, nation or locale on the list. 

If you have organized a 2013 TDOR memorial service, please pass that informtion along to Marti Abernathey ASAP so she can post it to this growing TDOR memorial event list and folks who wish to attend them can know the dates and locations for these services. 

And speaking of these TDOR events and services, once again I would like to remind those of you tasked with or who volunteered to plan these memorial services to do whatever it takes to ensure they are as diverse as the people who have died that we are memorializing this year.

One of the complaints I hear far too often is that the TDOR events are strikingly monoracial, and diversity needs to be a focus item for TDOR 2013.    

Marti's email is Transgenderdor@gmail.com  You can also follow Twitter updates at http://twitter.com/Transgenderdor

November 20 will be here before we know it, so lets do everything possible to get the word out about TDOR 2013 events and properly remember the people we've lost this year. 

Trans POC Speakers Need To Be Seen, Heard And Paid At TBLG Events

Had an enjoyable two hour conversation with Tona Brown late Sunday afternoon.   It eventually turned to discussing the appalling and frustrating to us topic of lack of opportunities to do keynote speeches on college campuses, at TDOR's, trans and SGL conventions, seminars, community dinners, awards shows, rallies,  marches or LGBT pride events.

I've been blessed to have the opportunity to do a few trans conference keynote speeches along with three TDOR keynotes, some collegiate ones and participate in major conferences such as the 2012 Netroots Nation and two NBJC OUT on the Hill events.  I enjoy doing them and I and my trans POC colleagues would respectfully like the opportunity to do more of them.

As I mentioned before, the trans narrative in this country for the last six decades has been told from an overwhelmingly white trans feminine perspective with slightly more ink in the last few years for the white trans masculine one.   Our Black, Asian and Latino trans brothers get little if no media love period.

But yet, it is our POC trans world stories that need the most telling   From CeCe McDonald to the 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In and Protest to present day trans leaders and icons simply expounding on our transmasculine and transfeminine journeys, the stories of trans people of color need to be added to this overwhelmingly monoracial conversation about trans issues that could stand after 60 years to have some fresh perspectives injected into it.

There is the need for views on various trans and non trans issues with flavor it to be expressed by trans POC's in order to break down the trans ignorance that still persist in gay and straight elements of our own communities of color.  Just as you get to do, we want the ability to tell our own histories and discuss how the issues of the day impact us.  

We trans people of color deserve the opportunity to point out to all the communities we intersect and interact with we exist, are intertwined with and part of the diverse mosaic of human life.

We also wish to point out that as people of color of trans experience, we are concerned about the success of the greater communities we intersect and interact with.  We strive to and want to be the role models and thought leaders providing the visionary leadership to inspire others to do just that.

Even when we do get the e-mail or the phone call, when we tell you what our fees are, it's upsetting to us to note that you balk at paying us what we're worth, but will pay the Dan Choi's and white trans women of the world large fees to do so without blinking.  

Black trans musicians and performers are also upset about Pride events that won't hesitate about paying the $50-60K it takes on average to get a well known cis female musician to perform at their event but haven't (or won't) consider having a trans musician or keynote speaker or color in order to keep that GLB cash or T-bills circulating in our own community.   

Black Pride orgs not only do the same thing, but infuriatingly will claim poverty or attempt to play the Black solidarity card when they call us to possibly perform and we ask for fair compensation of our time and the work we put in on our ends to make their event a successful one.  

They'll also claim poverty when they want trans activists to speak but we know and see it on their Pride promotion websites are charging covers of $15 a head or more to get into many Black Pride events.

That lack of trans POC speaker diversity is at its most infuriating best when it comes to Transgender Day of Remembrance Events.  The overwhelming number of people dying are Black and Latina transpeople, but when it comes time to have the events, you walk into a TDOR memorial venue and see an event that because of its glaring lack of diversity frustratingly reminds you of a Republican Party convention. 

And naw, it's not just Moni noticing that.  Our SGL and African-American cis allies are noticing it, too.

I don't know how others feel about TDOR's, but I'm willing for that event to forgo my speaking fee if you cover my transportation to get me there and back to H-town and I get a place to stay.  I am that serious about being willing to lead by example and have people from trans communities of color being part of the TDOR's helping memorialize our fallen sisters. 

Frankly it's past time we had more non-white transpeople participating in TDOR events and talking about the people we've lost.

Of course, if you slide me a down low check for that TDOR speech I'm not going to turn it down either.  Like I said, I have bills to pay and a blog y'all like to read to maintain.


As I said in a previous post on this subject and that point still remains true a year later, non-white transpeeps have bills to pay and need to replenish our bank accounts like just like our white trans community counterparts do.  

So for those of you in decision making positions, don't forget there exists a vast qualified pool of non-white trans and SGL people who can confidently and competently speak or perform at your various events.

You just need to take the initiative to call them and once you do, pay them for their time.

Strange Fruit-Racial Divisions & The TDOR

As a former Louisville resident I've been keeping up with WFPL-FM's latest show Strange Fruit, hosted by Niece and Nephew. (AKA Dr. Kaila Story and Jaison Gardner to the rest of y'all).

They were discussing on this latest show their experience of attending the local Louisville TDOR, noting that the names of the people being memorialized were Black and Latina, but having an event that was overwhelmingly white.  

All thirteen of the US transwomen killed in the November 2011 to  November 2012 period that we tracked for TDOR were Black or Latina.

So guess who they called to discuss the nature of race and class in the trans community and who was happy to discuss it, especially in the wake of my own not so pleasant experience at this year's Houston TDOR?

Yep, the podcast is up for the latest edition of Strange Fruit and y'all can hear it by clicking on this link. 

It's Transgender Day Of Remembrance 2012

Today is the official date of TDOR, the Transgender Day of Remembrance.   We lost over 175 people this year around the world to anti-trans violence, and far too many of them were Black and Latina.

The bulk of the remaining TDOR commemoration events will happen today, including one organized by Houston POC transpeople at 6 PM tonight that I will attend. 

But one of the things I continue to be concerned about is the lack of POC participation in events organized by predominately white groups.  Once again I'm getting reports from around the country about TDOR events that are predominately monoracial down to the people who are attending them. 

That's unacceptable and it's something that either needs to be permanently fixed in 2013 and beyond or else you are probably going to start seeing as we do with the Black pride circuit now separate TDOR events.

I would like as a long time supporter of the TDOR for that split not to happen.  But neither can I ignore the vanillacentric privileged nature of the events that have been taking place with Gay, Inc org stamps all over them.  I also must point out the rising anger of Black and Latin@ transpeople who see these orgs popping their collars about what they do (or don't do) for the community on the backs of our dead.   Neither are we happy about not having a say in how these events are planned, executed or much less not being invited to participate in them.

But that's a fight for tomorrow.   Today is about focusing on the more than 173 people we've lost.

We have work to do on that front to change hearts and minds so that a transperson's life is considered just as valuable to society as a cis person.  We have work to do to ensure that transgender inclusion happens in all aspects of society.  We have work to do to spread the message that transpeople don't want tolerance, we want unconditional love and respect as fellow human beings on this planet.  We have work to do to reduce the unacceptable murder rate of our transsisters around the world so that having TDOR's will become unnecessary

And to those of us transpeople who are living, it's time for us to redouble our efforts in the spirit of this solemn day to ensure this happens as expeditiously as possible.
 
 

Houston Remembering Our Own TDOR Event Tomorrow

I was not a happy camper after Saturday's Houston Transgender Day of Remembrance Event concluded.

An incident happened to moi during that event that incensed me to the point I almost left (and I'm still pissed off about)  but was talked out of leaving the UH TDOR event by a friend who was also there.  

Needless to say I was not happy with another HRC rep getting to speak at a Houston TDOR once again (and frankly I'm tired of that)   I believe that since it is one of the few trans centered events that the community created and one of the few that does get media attention, we need to spotlighting trans leaders and transpeople at it in addition to having trans voice front and center in running thangs. 

I was also not happy that we had no African-American transperson out of the eight selected to do so reading the list of 173 names that were predominately survey says Black and Latina

That vanillacentric Houston TDOR once again reminded me that the trans (and GLB one) community in this town is far too vanillacentric and too eager to kiss up to HRC.  The lack of non-white transpeople in attendance Saturday night at the AD Bruce Religion Center was telling in terms of the racial divide that is ominously opening up between the non-white and white trans community.  

I want to help bridge that divide and have done so in multiple ways since 1993 such as serving on the board of TATS and participating in several Texas lobby days in 1999 and 2001.  I'm contemplating participating in a Texas Lobby Day in 2013.   

But if I keep getting disrespected like I was Saturday night, I'm eventually going to have to say frack it and work towards building Houston POC transpeople and our SGL community the same level of community support and infrastructure that they desperately need and white transpeople in the Houston area currently enjoy.  That includes doing our own POC oriented TDOR ceremony in Houston to honor our fallen sisters.

Enough venting.  Time to discuss what this post is about. 

I was contemplating organizing one as I stewed this weekend and was glad to hear that a local group of African-American transpeople did precisely that and organized a TDOR event that will be taking place tomorrow 

The 'Remembering Our Own' TDOR event will happen starting at 6 PM CST and will take place at the MSociety building, 1116 Jackson St.  Houston TX,  77006.  

Hope people come and show their support for it.   I know I'm definitely planning on attending this one to compare and contrast the observances.    

Where Y'all At For TDOR And Beyond, GLB Community?

Cheryl Courtney-Evans at her abitchforjustice blog wrote a post entitled 'Paying REAL Homage to Our Transgender Fallen' that discusses a recurring problem in the rainbow community.

When events are centered (or supposed to be centered on) the "T" end of the community, far too often the people predominately in the room when said event is scheduled to happen are trans with little or minuscule representations from the GLB end of the community.

Even the Transgender Day of Remembrance is not immune from this phenomenon, and that's galling since it's an event the trans community created.  For those of you who profess to be our allies, the least you can do if you're able to do so is show your support for our community on a day we created that transpeople all over the world are memorializing the people we've lost due to anti-trans violence.

Even if the GLB allies are well intentioned, it can still leave the transpeople in attendance feeling left out, as Cheryl points out in this excerpt from her post.:.

I attended one such dinner two nights ago, presented by an LGBT HIV/AIDS prevention organization. While it was enjoyable, with a mime performance by a transman of my acquaintance, a beautiful rendition of "Wind Beneath My Wings" sung by a personable young gay man and a small local 3-piece band, I left it feeling entertained but empty. There was a great, entertaining presentation about "Stigma Surrounding HIV/AIDS Infection" given to us by a terribly charismatic transgender woman (she really "took us to church"), and the food was good.... Don't get me wrong, I had a good time, but at the bottom of it I still felt empty. 

I felt this way because I knew when all was said and done, the only reason we were 'entertained' so well was because this LGBT organization was getting funded by a  pharmaceutical company who paid for the dinner so as to give the presentation (no word of our fallen, past the fact that the event was titled "Transgender Day Of Remembrance Celebration"). No mention was made of what we're going to do about changing the position of the transgender  community in the future, although there was a "humanitarian award" given to a doctor known for her attendance to HIV positive transgender individuals, with a couple of honorable mentions for young gay men who worked with this organization (the young singer among them). I had to wonder, "What's the point?" and "Would this event even have taken place without the pharmaceutical company's funding?" as well as "Who is this helping?" Okay, so we got out for a couple of hours, ate some good food and chuckled for a minute...but what next? Out of an audience of maybe 50 people, I'd say 30 were transgender (including the presenter); nothing was learned, no future plans for transgender advancement made or real homage paid to those of us who have died due to murder, abuse or neglect.

We not only want and need you there as our allies during this emotional time, but as my trans elder Cheryl pointed out, we also need your support on the days of the calendar beyond November 20.

I'm going to echo Cheryl by stating that being a trans ally doesn't begin and end on that date.  It's a 24/7/365 journey and 366 days in a leap year like this one.   You honor our fallen trans sisters by resolving to be the type of GLB ally that doesn't pay lip service to the idea.  

We need you to stand with us and in some cases be front and center when we push for trans inclusive legislation and initiatives that help the trans community move forward.  Remember when we gain human rights coverage, your human rights expand as well. 

We need GLB people calling out and taking to task those in their ranks who spout the divisive words that trans people aren't part of 'their' community and calling out their fellow GLB people who actively work to oppress trans people.  We need lesbian and bisexual women pushing back against radical feminists and cis women who denigrate and disrespect the femininity of trans women.

We need GLB peeps to be just as fierce advocates for trans human rights and issues as we have been for your issue concerns for decades.  But most of all, we just need you GLB folks to show up and show out on our behalf.. 

.

Texas TDOR 2012 Events

As you TransGriot readers know, I am a huge long time supporter of the Transgender Day of Remembrance events and have had the honor and privilege of being the keynote speaker for TDOR's in Louisville (2002, 2003) and the Long Island TDOR in 2009. 

Just wondering when it will happen for me in my hometown and my home state (hint, hint)

This is the link to find a TDOR memorial near you in the US, Canada and around the world, but I'm focusing this post on Texas and when, where, what date and what time the Lone Star State TDOR's will take place.

Austin, Texas
Will be holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance event on Tuesday, November 20, 2012 at 6:30 PM CST at the Austin City Hall Plaza
—–
Dallas, Texas
Will be holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance event on November 18, 2012 from 6:00-8:30 PM CST at the Cathedral of Hope, 5910 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas,TX., 75235
For more information contact: Oliver at olblumerdc@aol.com
—–
Houston, Texas
Will be holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance event on Saturday, November 17, 2012 at 7:00-9:00 PM CST at the UH Main Campus, A.D. Bruce Religion Center
parking in lot 13A
website: https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/146252865521389/?fref=ts
—–
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock's first Transgender Day of Remembrance to be held Thursday November 15, 2012 from 7-8:30 PM CST at Metropolitan Community Church  4501 University Ave, Lubbock, Texas 79413-3615
 —–
San Antonio, Texas
Will be holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance event on Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.
at the Metropolitan Community Church Sanctuary 611 E. Myrtle St.
San Antonio, TX 78212

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.

2012 Houston TDOR Next Saturday

Well, you folks in the Houston area will know where to find me from 7-9:30 PM next Saturday. 

I'll be on the University of Houston campus joining my fellow transpeeps and our allies in memorializing the trans sisters here and around the world we lost in 2012 to anti-trans violence.

The Houston Transgender Day of Remembrance event will happen November 17  It is sponsored by the UH LGBT Resource Center and will take place on the University of Houston main campus in the AD Bruce Religion Center.

If you're in the Houston metro area and can make it, hope you do so.   

2012 Houston TDOR Coming Soon To UH Campus

We have a date, time and location for the 2012 Houston Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial service .  It will once again be on the University of Houston main campus on November 17 from 7-9:30 PM and it will be returning to the AD Bruce Religion Center.

I'm planning to be there to remember our fallen sisters and I hope you Houston area transpeople and our allies will join me and the rest of the Houston trans community in doing the same.

Will definitely be giving you Houston area TransGriot readers more details as we get closer to the event.     

Make Sure You Have POC Trans People Participating In Your 2012 TDOR Events

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.

Houston 2011 TDOR Musings

The 13th Annual TDOR has come and gone for another year, and for the second straight year since I returned home I attended the Houston TDOR event on the UH campus.   .

This year instead of it being in the AD Bruce Religion Center's chapel, it was at Farish Hall

There were six speakers each making brief statements and one of them was HISD trustee Anna Eastman.  In a moving speech that garnered her a standing ovation, she surprisingly mentioned me speaking in front of the HISD board when they were proposing to add the gender ID inclusive policies back in June.

I was surprised to learn that my speech swayed the board into voting affirmatively for those policies.  Ironically I was pissed off when I left the HISD administration building that night because I felt it was the worst public speech I'd done in a while, but it did the job along with the several years of lobbying by Jenifer Rene Pool and Chris Busby to get us to that point.

The UH LGBT Advocates did a wonderful job in organizing the event.   We had to start it 15 minutes late due to the traffic exiting Robertson Stadium in the wake of the UH-SMU game but it ran smoothly.

I enjoyed seeing my UH younglings again in Marshella, LaKeia, Yesenia, and James.   Sat at a table with Lorraine Schroeder and Jo Tittsworth who shared some info with me about where the 2012 TTNS will take place, but I'll wait until the TTNS folks are ready to announce its location and dates before I post it.

Also enjoyed seeing various people in the Houston TBLG community.   Enjoyed finally meeting Tim Brookover in the flesh, and meeting fellow blogger Daniel Williams' sister Melissa.  I enjoyed seeing Judge Frye, Vanity Wilde, Lilly Roddy, Janet Logan and Jenifer Pool along with a long list of people who attended this event. 

I also got teased by Councilmember Jolanda Jones about the post I wrote about her on the blog.   She was there as one of the people reading the names of the people we memorialized on the 2011 list.  

But the thing that bothered me as I listened to the names being read and how they died is the same thing as last year.  70% of the people being memorialized on the Remembering our Dead lists are trans persons of color.  The one that really got to me was 14 year old Brazilian Erica Pinheiro de Siqueira who was shot eleven times on Christmas Day.

Obviously, hatin' on transpeople doesn't stop during the holiday season.  One of the speakers also mentioned that the GL community needs to clean up its own act internally when it comes to the anti-trans hate in the it's ranks a point which I wholeheartedly agree with and have been saying ad nauseum since 1998 along with countless other trans people.

As Rev. Abena McCoy said during the November 20 Washington DC TDOR, where they had a much more trouble filled year:

“You are unique, and the Creator loves you just as you are. You are not a mistake. God doesn’t make mistakes…We celebrate transgender today. Lord, you knew what you were doing when you created transgender.” Rev Abena McCray

That the Creator did.   It's past time the rest of the world and certain religious denominations got that message. 

Now that another TDOR is in our community's rear view mirror, what are we going to do so that when the calendar turns to November 20, 2012 we aren't reading names of people on the list from the Houston area?  

Will this community do a better job of ensuring the TDOR ceremonies reflect the diversity of this city and state we are all proud to live in and be better representative of a community that is responsible for writing some of the transgender community's history?

And the one thought crossing all our minds is how long will the list of names we read next year be?

Tona's TDOR Thoughts

From Tona's video blog.  Her thoughts about TDOR.

Let Each Name...

TransGriot Note:  This is Sass Rogando Sasot's speech to the 2011 Transgender Day of Remembrance event that happened in Amsterdam.

By Sass Rogando Sasot. Speech during the 2011 Amsterdam Transgender Day of Remembrance (Transgender Gedenkdag 2011) on 19 November 2011, 16.00-19.00, Homomonument.

As we recite the names of all those who we have lost to the violent hearts and hands of our fellow human beings, may we remember that these names don’t just represent another statistic in the growing number of people who lost the grace of their lives to the indignity of transphobia. These names represent lives, real lives of people who lived, walked, cried, smiled, and loved among us. These names represent lives that deserved to be treated with nothing less than dignity.

These names don’t just mean that we are losing people to transphobia in different regions of the world, in different countries of different cultures, and in different communities. More than a loss of lives, these names mean that countries, cultures, and communities are letting the darkness of transphobia reign over the light of compassion, care, and everyday kindness.

These names represent lives that matter and they should matter, for these names represent people who were somebody’s children, partners, friends, siblings, students, teachers, workers, citizens! So as we recite these names, we are calling on all institutions – from the families to schools to religions to governments, from Amsterdam to Ankara, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe - we are calling on everyone, everywhere to reclaim compassion from hate, to reclaim care from apathy, and to reclaim everyday kindness from transphobia.

Some of you here might feel the sting of hopelessness as you recite these names. But friends, I invite you to let that sting of hopelessness be transformed into a platform for a desire for change that cannot be tamed!

Let each name be our light and guide. Let each name be the wings of our hope that shall carry us to the Promise Land of a world that is more inclusive, respectful, and kind.

Let each name fortify the strength of our faith. Our faith that when we are united by the clarity of our voices and the urgency of our desire for change, we will prevail!

Let each name be a pressing reminder that we should use our lives to make a difference and live our lives as living testaments that one day the fierceness of our determination can triumph over the force of oppression.

Let each name be a monument of courage! Let this courage stir a restless defiance in our hearts – a restless defiance that would urge us to stand up for justice and dignity for everyone, everywhere! Let this restless defiance keep on awakening our enormous strength to face our fears about this world. And let’s keep on awakening this enormous strength so we can keep on touching the hearts and spirits of those who are afraid to understand and accept difference; so we can keep on expanding the field of social inclusion and acceptance; so we can keep on inspiring the minds and hearts that matter to craft social policies that are designed to facilitate the fulfillment of happiness!

And most importantly, let each name remind us to never ever forget that we have the right to be here and that we have the responsibility to express, claim, and reclaim, and to fight for this right every time, everywhere, for everyone! Thank you!

2011 Houston TDOR Later Today

The traffic from the UH-SMU battle at Robertson Stadium should be clear by the time that we get the 2011 edition of the local TDOR underway here in Houston .

Once again it will be held on the University of Houston's campus, but this time in the Stephen Power Farish Hall on Saturday November 19.   The TDOR will take place in Farish Hall's KIVA Room from 7:00-9:30 PM CST and will be hosted by the UH LGBT Resource Center.  

Closest lot to Farish Hall is Lot 13A on the Cullen Blvd side of the UH campus.  Closest buildings are McElhinney Hall to the west, and Heyne and Roy Cullen to the south.

Hope to see y'all there.