Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR)

November 20th, 2017 marks the 19th anniversary of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). A day that was founded to memorialize  the deaths of transgender people due to hatred and prejudice. In 1998, TDOR began as a web project called “Remembering Our Dead,” and honored the unsolved murder of Rita Hester. Today, TDOR events are spread across the nation, and are used to raise awareness and visibility around the senseless acts of violence that impact the transgender community.

This event is one that brings mixed emotions. It is important to have a day where we can do more work to raise awareness around violence against transgender people, with transgender people of color being most at risk. It is a day to read the names of the lives we have lost, lives that were taken from this earth, families and friends. It is a day that we hope will continue to push our society to finding ways to end violence and increase protections for transgender people in our communities.

The year 2017 has seen an increase in violence against the transgender community. So far, there have been at least 25 reported murders, the majority of people murdered have been young transgender women of color. Unfortunately, the number of deaths may be much higher, but reports often misgender individuals after death, erasing their identity, their true selves.

There is a current quote that states transgender women of color have an average life-expectancy of age 35 in the United States. Age 35. TDOR is a day for us all to think about how we can play a role in ending this violence, in ending the list of lives taken too young, taken by violence. To do this work, we need to continue to explore ways to break down the barriers created in society that prevents transgender people from accessing support in their community. We also need to continually look at the role racism plays, and how we can continue to challenge systemic forms of oppression both around race and gender.

TDOR is a day to remember, but also a day to remind us that we can’t create change alone, we can’t create change in silos, we create change by working together.

My hope, is that in 2018, we see groups across the country join together and offer resources in order to create positive change for the transgender community and for humanity.

If you are someone struggling to find support, please reach out to local resources. For individuals who are trans women of color, a helpful resource may be the Trans Women of Color Collective (TWOCC). If you are feeling suicidal, or losing hope, please call the Trans Lifeline phone number 877-565-8860.

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