I feel I ought to say a few words about Transgender Day of Remembrance before the day actually ends. It's not going to be as epic as the Coming Out Day spiel, but still, it seems to fall to me to speak up about trans issues in the communities I involve myself in, so.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is not a happy holiday. As the name suggests, it is a day to recognise those who came before us -- and transgender history is rife with tragedy. Last year, we held a candlelight vigil for Lawrence King, who had been murdered the year before in an act of transphobia. We spoke about improving the future, working to prevent that kind of tragedy from happening again. This year bad weather prevented the gathering from occurring again, though I hear San Francisco had a great one.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is not just about remembering history. We remember first of all the people who have died or been injured in transphobic hate crimes. The list is always horrifically long.
But it's also about history. The transgender movement and use of the word is fairly new. Before the twentieth century, there were just as many individuals who indentified outside of the gender binary. The difference was that there was no community to speak of. There's little recorded history, so we can really only speculate about what it was like to be transgendered before the last century or so. But I suspect it was pretty bad. If only because sex reassignment therapy (hormone therapy, surgery, recognition that these people had a legitimate identity) wasn't developed until the twentieth century.
Transgendered people are often forgotten in the queer rights movement. Gay marriage being the rallying call lately, I guess it makes sense, though this affects all transgendered people; depending on a state's policy on the matter, any given relationship involving a transitioned (transsexual) transgendered person may be construed as homosexual or heterosexual from state to state. But it's harder to see transgender. There isn't an image or a stereotype, really. It's a bunch of us trying to blend in, and a few of us trying even harder to stand out. But Stonewall was a bunch of drag queens who decided enough was enough. That was us, too.
Anyway, that's what today's about. Just remember us. Remember the transgendered people who have been hurt and killed and forgotten and pushed aside and denied their identities, denied their place in history. Remember the transgendered people who have worked to make this world a better place. Remember that the work is never done, and that there are so many more of us working today, so many more of us who don't even know where to begin.
Please also take a moment to visit
gender.org's website, where they have posted a list of the people we are remembering this year.
Please take a moment to remember.
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