A Eulogy for Trans Lives
Where do we go for comfort when the unthinkable, the unimaginable, has happened? We come together.
Whether it’s our families, or our communities, or just our cats, we come together to mourn. This beautiful person has died, and we feel so keenly the death of that joy in our life. We grieve together for the losses of the past year, and look for something to grab onto before they slip fully through our fingers. Why did this happen to us?
Almost every culture on earth has a creation myth. They are vessels for our values, guiding us to meaning and purpose. Fearful and unsure, we seek to make sense of our vast and incomprehensible world when no apparent answers exist. We find ourselves asking the same questions of death.
Creation myths give us more than the answers to the questions we ask. They reveal a drive that is at the core of our humanity – the creation of beauty and art. So great is the beauty of the natural world – trees, sunshine, the sound of rain – that it must have come from some deep truth that breathed life into it.
Our communities understand creation, and we are the divine artists of our world. We recognize the deep and beautiful truth within ourselves. We are built around art – a creation myth made real through our will and hope and the deepest truths in our souls.
We paint our canvas and sculpt our bodies and sing joy into our own lives. We are born clay, and mold ourselves to match our hearts.
Some of the people we lost were performers who used glitter and makeup to perform gender. Others poured soup and drinks like concrete to build the foundations of their community, making us stronger as we learned how to lean on each other for nourishment and support. They knitted neighborhoods out of the thinnest threads of hope. These are the people we cherished. These are the people who shared their art with us, and we learned joy by following their joy.
It's no wonder that mourning something so essential and beautiful can feel so dark and hopeless. Grief can test the bonds between us and shatter our lives into sharp and ugly pieces. It tells us that our beautiful worlds are as gone from us as the people who created them with us. But this feeling is a lie. It’s true that the person we loved has died, but they haven’t gone from our world.
We can look to other artists to remind us of this.
Kintsugi is the art of repairing pottery with gold and precious metals. It pulls the pieces together to reform the whole. It does not seek to hide the damage or make it “like new,” but instead highlights the broken places. Mourning can be an act of creation. We can put our pieces together, not without the people we’ve lost, but highlighting the impact they’ve had on our lives. By filling the cracks and spaces of their absence, we’re left with an indelible memory of them. That joy isn’t truly lost from us.
In coming together and healing, we have turned our grief into gold.
NOVEMBER 2023
Savannah Williams
Bernardo Panteleon
Pepper Mychel Peterson
Mariah Ruby Rachel Williams
F. L. “Bubba” Copeland
Lola Laperla Ebony McDaniels
Shandon Floyd
Tiesha McFarland
Kejuan Richardson
Amiri Jean Reid
Mya Finch
Travis Stimeling
DECEMBER 2023
Demita Jo Armstrong
Onteris Owens-Campbell
Jesse Viviano White
Star Possum
Jermaine Golden
Meghan Riley Lewis
Zoey Flye
Madison Montana
Care Hansen
Amber Minor
Ashlei Jasmine Colgate-Edwards
Fleetwood Mars Mozee
Shelby “Lexus” Riddick-Walker
Kimbella Blackshear
Easley Jeffcoat
Tripp Schultz
JANUARY 2024
Lady Fabian Sanchez
James Moen
Dana Randolph “Desiree A. DeMornay”
Quin Joy
Sasha Williams
Jennell Jaquays
Sarina Mihailoff
Sasha Washington-Cohen “Sasha Fierce”
Guelila “Gigi” Iyob
Videl Lombardo
Savannah Rose Rivers Amore
Kathy “Otter” Ottersten
Robin Valentina
Forrest Douglas Buckley
Giselle Stone
Tristan Michael Bustos “Tristyn St. Clair”
Kitty Monroe
FEBRUARY 2024
Natalia Skye
Teddy Reese Curran
Erick Krouse
Noah Jackson Chase
Ellie Walsh
Nex Benedict
Emma “África” Parrilla García
Blakely Hanson
Righteous TK “Chevy” Hill
Ashton Myles Clatterbuck
Madison Nicole Spann “Madison St. Claire”
Cecilia Gentili
MARCH 2024
Diamond Cherish Brigman
Elliot Ganiel
Fae Morganna Barbone
Aurelia A. Legassey
Alex Franco
Meraxes Medina
Ty Geissinger “Ty Holiday”
APRIL 2024
Andrea Doria Dos Passos “Maggie”
Yella Clark
Allister Matthews
Tiffany Azalea Monceaux
Tara Fable
Randy Dudley
River Neveah Goddard
Tee “Ace” Arnold
George A. Schappell
Starr Brown
Robbi Mecus
Basil Brown
MAY 2024
Tayy Dior Thomas
Kita Bee
Kamryn “Cantrell” Smith
Jazlynn Johnson
Daelicious O’hare Mizani
Darri C. Moore
Niomi Jenkins
Michelle Henry
Saanti Bonét Valentino
JUNE 2024
Pauly Likens
M. Tapia
Lynn Conway
Liara Kaylee Tsai
JULY 2024
Dylan Gurley
Griffin Shaun Sivret
Kenji Zemonta Spurgeon
Ev Smith
Shannon Boswell
Levi Castillo
Lily Autumn Rose
Monique Brooks
AUGUST 2024
Noelle Woolley
Indiana Grayson
Vanity Williams
Tai’Vion Lathan
Jhzara “Femmie” Williams
Baxter Zachary Hawk
SEPTEMBER 2024
Kassim Omar
Liam Johns
Mahdia Lynn
Cass Trystero
Chilli Pepper
Barbie Iceland “Redd China”
OCTOBER 2024
Honee Daniels
Serenity Birdsong
Adela Vázquez
San Coleman
Zeta Muirgen Seraph Haber
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