2024 Remembrance Report
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Founded in 1999, the purpose of TDOR is to ensure that the lives and deaths of trans people would be honored and recognized with dignity and respect. The loss of Rita Hester and Chanelle Pickett became a catalyst for the trans community to record and memorialize the victims of violence who were misgendered, deadnamed, disregarded, and ignored as they deserved to be remembered – as their whole and true selves. A list was created, and a vigil held. The names of our slain trans friends were read out in candlelight, a solemn commemoration of the deadly impact of hatred and transphobia. Nothing could bring those we lost back to us, but a small group of activists could ensure that their deaths did not go unnoticed.
Nov. 20, 1995, premiere of “Boys Don't Cry.” Photo © Rink Foto.
The small flame of those first candles grew. More vigils were held the next year; more activists – often trans women of color – began keeping their own lists and sharing them with others. What began a quarter century ago continues today. Activists and organizations around the world work collectively and independently to honor and remember our dead. We share names and stories, talk to loved ones, scour news and police reports, and build networks in our communities. Still, the work is never done, and the list is never complete.
Despite our best efforts, the names on our list are only those who had the privilege of recognition, the fortune of discovery, or the extraordinary courage to leave indelible proof of their true selves for us to mourn. So many unknown and uncounted people remain that even years from now we will learn the names of people in our community who died this year without the recognition they deserved.
In anti-violence work, proximity to whiteness often buys visibility. The deaths of Nex Benedict and Pauly Likens made national and international news. Searches for news on Kenji Zemonta Spurgeon and Tayy Dior Thomas are anemic in comparison. Black trans women are shouting for their lives, and it’s time to pay attention. Surveys suggest that Black trans women make up less than 8% of the US trans population, yet they make up over 30% of our U.S. list and 50% of the losses from violent crimes. This year, 86% of all deaths due to violence were BIPOC community members.
Black trans women are more than the victims of anti-trans violence; they have always been at the forefront of the movement – building community, advocating for policy change, and organizing to protect our rights. The ways in which Black, indigenous, and other people of color’s lives and identities are policed both in a social and literal sense compound the discrimination they face and are inextricably entwined with their transness.
If you are foundering, Ashlee Marie Preston’s article “The Anatomy of Transmisogynoir” is a good place to start.
Both history and the present show us that attacks on the trans community, no matter how narrowly intended, harm everyone. Lawmakers have written themselves into tangles to withhold gender affirming care from trans children while carving out exceptions for cisgender children and encouraging intervention for intersex children in an attempt to “fix” something that was never broken from the start. In this country, which holds the freedom of speech and expression as the lifeblood of our democracy, what could be more fundamental to that freedom than the names and pronouns we use–the expression of our very identities and character.
Last year, we outlined the progress we have made in the struggle for equal protection and basic human rights for transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people. We have made hopeful strides in the past 25 years in access to healthcare, identity documents, housing, employment, and education. This year, hate, corruption, misinformation, and fearmongering have given us a painful reminder of how precious and hard-won those strides have been. Numbers and facts are on our side; statistics are on our side. This month we are reminded that reality is not always enough to counter discrimination and alternative facts.
Trans people have always been here, but the progress western society has made in accepting diversity is at a delicate tipping point, and safety feels very fragile.
We have entered a new chapter of advocacy. As our lives become more visible, our loved ones’ hearts become more open, and families are choosing love over rejection. Trans+ representatives are winning elections and stepping up across the country to represent all people. We are smarter and wiser than we were in the past, and we are fighting for our very lives. Trans-led organizations and trans activists are stepping forward to protect this community in fights from the school board to the Supreme Court. Though we are facing the specter of dark times, our hope is resilient and our will is strong.
Twenty-five years ago, a small group of activists lit a candle in the dark and moved a community to remember our dead.
We come together again to grow that light, mourn our loved ones, and ensure that nobody is forgotten.
“TDOR: Until the Violence Ends.” 1977. via Digital Transgender Archive
LEARN ABOUT THEM
Memorial List of Names
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