It’s a very special day in Gayville: Transgender Day of Remembrance: a solid 24-hours of commemorating our gender bending allies who have fallen on the road the freedom. In honor of this honorable day, the National Stonewall Democrats would like to share the following thoughts:
Whenever transgender citizens are told that their inclusion hinders the advancement of the LGBT movement, our own history is ignored and strategic lessons forgotten. As we remember the lives of those we have lost, we must work to secure equal protections for our entire movement. We owe a special duty towards those whose contributions have already led to legal protections for many in our community but not for themselves. If we are to reduce violence against transgender citizens, we must reduce attempts to marginalize transgender Americans within the law and, when necessary, within our own community.
Human Rights Campaign also delivered a trans message: they’re not holding a memorable event. They are, however, encouraging their supporters and staff to attend a vigil at DC’s Whitman Walker Clinic. Pawning Transgender celebration onto another organization?
Why are we not surprised…
Matt
I suspect this is a lose-lose for HRC around here, though: Had they gone ahead with their own trans observance, Queerty would likely have mocked it as an empty and disingenuous gesture. Had they done nothing, Queerty would have heaped on the condemnation as further evidence of HRC’s overall badness. As it is, they encourage their staff and members to join in a scheduled observance, and they are mocked for failing to do the other things they could have been mocked for. I should really quit reading HRC-related postings on Queerty, since I love the other stuff and those just make my head hurt.
praenomenal
Matt.
HRC should have just shut up and hid. Many transgender people are still reeling from the events of ENDA and HRC is not trusted very well at the moment.
Politically they should really just be holding off on sounding buddy buddy with transpeople at the moment because it just feels cheep to us right now.
Ash
HRC had a big day of remembrance planned but the trans community got mad because it was corporate-sponsored and not genuine. Calling off the event is a wise move on HRC’s part. This post was too snarky for my taste. The Day of Remembrance is a sad, sad day.
Matt
I think it’s wildly shortsighted of our entire alphabet soup of a community here to be blasting away at our allies, refusing to speak to those who may have fallen short of our expectations of utterly pure, idealistic perfection, or ostrasizing anyone who may take a different strategic or political approach to a shared goal. Kinda ironic for a “community” that speaks so loudly for inclusiveness and tolerance and celebrating diversity. But this is an issue that’s had about everything there is to say said about it, so I’ll sit down and be quiet.
Lena Dahlstrom
Different strategies is one thing. Being lied to is another. Even Joe Solmonese admits he “misspoke” when he promised at the largest trans convention in the country, only a few weeks before HRC’s 180 began, that HRC would only support an ENDA that was inclusive and oppose any non-inclusive version. That’s a little different than “falling short of expectations,” so I hope you can understand why the trans community is pissed off at HRC (especially given HRC’s past history of trying block efforts to include gender identity/expression to be included in ENDA in the first place). And why people might be upset that HRC was planning to use ToR as a _fundraising_ event.
Frankly, it’s another example of the political tone-deafness HRC has been displaying lately — such as its celebratory emails talking about how ENDA was a victory for the _entire_ LGBT communities.
Zoe in Remembrance
i Think it’s great to have a day where we can light a candle and give these light to the world.
David
Matt:
What’s shortsighted about pressuring our allies to step up? And no, it’s not ironic: queer rights does not include tolerance of discrimination.
Bill Perdue
“I have no doubt we shall win, but the road is long and red with monstrous martyrdomsâ€.
Oscar Wilde
Wilde was a hero because he accepted himself.
They victimized him for it just like they victimize many GLBT folk who accept themselves including Shakia Gunn, a young lesbian, Matthew Shepard, a young gay man, and Gwyn Araujo, a young transsexual. The Transgender Day of Remembrance makes us remember why we stand together, even if we come from different communities. We stand together so we won’t fall together.
GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, a member of UnitedENDA, says in their 2005 National School Climate Survey that 75. 4% of students heard “faggot” or “dyke” frequently. 37.8% were physically HARASSED because of sexual orientation and 26.1% because of their gender expression. 17.6% OF STUDENTS WERE PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED BECAUSE OF THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND 11.8% BECAUSE OF THEIR GENDER EXPRESSION.
The US Department of Justice, in its report Hate Crimes on Campus (DOJ Publication NJC187249) says that campus hate crimes usually go unreported. They state that “students report hearing degrading language about women, gays and lesbians on a daily basis…†and that “the use of such language creates an atmosphere that permits conduct to escalate from mere words to stronger words, to threats, and ultimately to violence.â€
Young GLBT folk aren’t the only victims, just the least protected. Violence and harassment against LGBT people as a whole is on the rise again according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, also a member of UnitedENDA. Political and religious bigotry is the immediate and primary cause of violence against GLBT folk. The usual suspects are the Republican-christian totalitarian axis of evil and Democrats who pander to bigots. Hostility to same-sex marriage is a flashpoint in encouraging violence. When San Francisco briefly allowed same-sex marriages ceremonies violence in that city rapidly spiked with a 14% increase.
In 2007-8 with the elections generating higher levels of hate speech by politicians, priests and preachers these figures and the stats for hate crimes will rise in parallel. We’re all going to have to remember to watch out for each other a little more in the coming months.
The NCAVP’s and FBI’s counts are just indicators. They don’t include unreported incidents or those disregarded by homophobic police and DA’s.
Malcolm X, before he was murdered, discussed taking the case against racist violence in the US before the UN and the World Court. We’d be doing ourselves a favor stealing a page from his book. Especially since UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour says that “violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons is frequently unreported, undocumented and goes ultimately unpunished. … This shameful silence is the ultimate rejection of the fundamental principle of universality of rights…†The UN and UnitedENDA want everyone in the LGBT equation protected from violence and discrimination even if Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi can’t stomach the idea.
Whatever the numbers, these beatings, murders and other kinds of abuse are intolerable. These aren’t the Dark Ages and we shouldn’t have to live with that fear.
T. Trist
In addition to memorializing the people lost to senseless hate and violence, I would like to honor the women and men who courageously live their lives in truth everyday.
It makes me so angry that much of the hate and degredation against the GLBT community is embraced by religion!
Everyone in our community should know that there’s a documentary film soon to be released about two lesbian women who set out to fight against religious bigotry by posing as a straight couple in an evangelical church… and they have proof.
You can see Faith of the Abomination movie trailer on YouTube, or go directly to FaithoftheAbomination.com
Females on Shemales
I envy your country for having things or celebrations like this. because here in our country? they don’t acknowledge things like this
ZoeB
This one time, HRC did the right thing.
To besmirch the TDOR with the presence of an organisation that had just backstabbed T’s would have been just too much.
Whether they couldn’t bring themselves to do it, or realised there may have been actual violence had they attempted it doesn’t matter. They did the right thing under the circumstances.