Transgender Day Of Remembrance: We See. We Remember. We Love.

Today, on the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, the head of the New York City Anti-Violence Project remembers those we’ve lost, and warns of the epidemic of violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people.

At the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) we have seen a disturbing trend in increased deadly violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people in past years. In 2011, 40% of all LGBTQ hate violence homicide victims were transgender women; in 2012 this number climbed to 54%. In September 2013, at AVP’s Courage Awards, Laverne Cox called the violence against transgender women of color “a state of emergency.” It is exactly that.

In New York City, these statistics became reality for us this summer with the death of Islan Nettles, a transgender woman of color in Harlem. We hear every day from trans and gender non-conforming people, many people of color, who talk about the ways in which they are harassed, taunted, mocked, threatened and assaulted, simply for being who they are.

This violence is an epidemic. It is targeting and killing people because they are transgender and gender non-conforming, because they are people of color, because they live at the intersections of transphobia and racism. It is killing people who are doing nothing more than being themselves.

The violence is complex and ugly, but the solution is simple: we need to see it, we need to talk about it, we need to remember it. And most of all, we need to believe that every transgender and gender non-conforming person is an essential part of and partner in our activism, our voice, our support and our outrage.

When we talk about safety, we often think safety from physical harm. But I want to challenge us to think of safety as something more: as freedom from violence, yes, but also freedom from racism, from poverty, from the indignities of being judged and mocked, and as freedom to be celebrated for who we are.

I want to challenge us to see the same urgency, and need for community, support and attention, in the lives of transgender women of color that we do for LGBTQ youth, for coming out, for protesting Russia, or pasta, or fighting for marriage. We have enough strength, enough time, enough bandwidth to lift up everyone’s voices.

And so today, we join with all of you marking International Transgender Day of Remembrance, and speak the names of all of those killed because of who they are. Islan Nettles. Gwen Araujo. Larry King. Duanna Johnson. Angie Zapata. LaTeisha Green. Domonique Newburn. The hundreds of other transgender and gender non-conforming people whose names we don’t know.

At AVP’s Courage Awards, Janet Mock dedicated her Courage Award to “the women who have the audacity to live in a society that tells them they don’t matter.” We, too, believe that this audacity needs to be loved and celebrated until it is no longer an act of daring to be who we are in this world.
 
 

Image, top, by Alesa Dam via Flickr

 
 

 
Sharon Stapel is the Executive Director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP).  AVP empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected communities and allies to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and support survivors through counseling and advocacy.