Transgender Day of Rembrance

The first DOR I ever attended was in 2002...four years ago. It took place about a month and a half after Gwen Araujo was killed, and about 3 months after I had started hormones. When Gwen's name, along with the story of how she was killed, was read, it was the first time I felt the overwhelming influence hormones had on the intensity of my emotions. On that night four years ago, I cried uncontrollably.

I believe this year is the 8th annual Transgender Day of Rembrance. There will be 19 names read off tonite...19 names of people who were killed because they didn't fit the gender binary. Most of them were killed by men or boys...most were born male...and they lived anywhere from my own backyard (Stockton, CA), to nearby locales (San Diego and Phoenix), to around the world. And these are the ones we know about. There could be countless other murders that just aren't tracked or recorded.

San Francisco did not have a march this year, so I have opted, instead, to attend the San Jose activities tonite.

Addendum

The ceremony at the Billy DeFrank Center went off quite well. I have to say, though, I still prefer the San Francisco march, though, since it usually brings out a lot of people. Since there wasn't one this year, though, this worked.

I chatted with the usuals....Rhonda who runs the LGBT speakers bureau for the DeFrank Center, Chris Daley from the Transgender Law Center (more on our discussion later), Jana Marcus who put Transfigurations together (more on our discussion later, too), Tiffany who runs East Bay transgender programs, and a whole host of others. I said hi to Aejaie who was staying quite busy, and caught up briefly with a younger T friend who many people used to get confused with me. We often joked with people that we were cousins. The funny thing is people used to believe us...quite often. We both met one another before either of us were full time. Wow...it's been like 4 years since I first met her. We've both come quite a ways since.

The reading of the 19 names continued after different speakers talked, and when they were running out of volunteers to read names, I happily grabbed a card. I feel DOR is an important part of the T world. I realize that many of the people killed were in rather risky lines of work, but still, it does not justify the murder of someone based on the insecurity of their own sexuality.

Still, the reading of the names is a very powerful event. I recommend anyone involved with transition attend a DOR at some point in their life.