How many of you knew this? Please be honest. I am betting not many. Even among our so-called allies we are, at best, an afterthought...and often completely forgotten about.
You never hear "black" or "Hispanic" or "Muslim" left out. You never see "gay" left out.
But all too often, I see "trans" left out and it really bothers me. It makes me wonder just how strong the support for us is...even among those who are supposed to...and claim to be our allies.
Every year, November 20 is Transgender Day Of Remembrance. This was started by a number of trans-activists...myself being one of them. I was actually pushing for August 7, the anniversary of the death of Tyra Hunter. But November 20, the anniversary of the death of Rita Hester was chosen. I liked August better simply because it was warmer...and Tyra's death was a special kind of gruesome, in that she was mocked while she lay broken and bleeding on the pavement...by the very people who were SUPPOSED to try to save her life! The last sounds she heard in this life were the laughter and joking of EMT's who were SUPPOSED to try to save her.
Rita's death in Boston was no less gruesome...she was dismembered, and she was found with a certain appendage chopped off and shoved into her mouth. THAT is what is done to people like me. So if any of you wonder why I fight...wonder no longer.
Lauryn Paige...murdered in Austin, Texas in 1999...her body was found in a ditch in Southeast Austin less than a mile from where I would later live...she was stabbed sixty times, one of those stab wounds a nine-inch gash that left her nearly decapitated. Her admitted killer, Gamaliel Coria...was convicted of SECOND-DEGREE MURDER...and sentenced to forty years in prison, eligible for parole in twenty (two years from right now) - Now...do you think that if Lauryn had been a cisgender woman...and was found like that...that Coria would have gtten the comparatively light sentence he got?? With The Texecutioner still hanging in as Gubnor of Texas back then??
Tomorrow, we in Wake County, North Carolina...will have our TDOR on the grounds of the State Capital. In hundreds of other cities across America, they will have their own gatherings as well. We will cry and we will read the names of those of our dear sisters and brothers killed this past year due to hate-related violence. We will light candles and lift up those who have been taken from us. We will remember. The list is never fewer than fifty names...and is usually more than 100. And every year the list seems to me to get longer.
As many of us do...after the list is read, I will pay special tribute to one very special to me, taken now fifteen years ago. Terrianne Summers was my mentor, my friend, my sister....my transmom. Everything I am today, much of my successes...I owe to her. She is the one who taught me how to fight. She was murdered on her front lawn in Jacksonville, Florida...in 2001. She was taken from me and from those who loved her (and there were many who loved her) - for no better reason than the fact that she was different. Her killer was never identified, and the Jacksonville Police NEVER EVEN TRIED.
So, please...remember us tomorrow. Remember us in the future. We are DYING. We are being murdered...our bodies mutilated post-mortem. We are being denied emergency medical service to save our lives. Our killers get off with comparatively light sentences...if they are apprehended at all, sending the message that our lives are less valuable. WE are being killed and it feels like nobody cares.
Especially in these times...and especially during Transgender Awareness Week (the week leading up to and culminating with TDOR) - it is especially painful to see trans not specifically mentioned in the groups that stand to lose our rights and otherwise be harmed by a Trump Administration, and by Trump supporters. Our rights are being Trumpled. Our lives are being placed in danger. Our spirits are being crushed, we are being murdered every day, in spirit...by a million paper cuts.
Every right denied; every dream deferred
Every injustice and indignity endured
Is one more paper cut
They are cumulative
And lethal as any gun or knife
(That is an original poem, penned by me, and shared HERE for the first time ever)
Please remember us in the future. You are suppposed to be our allies, so please BE our allies. Do not forget us. We are also under siege.
I will update this in the next few days with pictures from this year's TDOR in Raleigh, NC.