Let me tell you about Sasha. Sasha is 18 and goes to high school in California. When Sasha was born, other people decided Sasha was male. Some time over the last 18 years, Sasha started identifying as agender – neither male nor female. Sasha uses “they” as their gender-neutral pronoun of choice. Sasha’s gender expression varies, and over the last year or so they have occasionally worn skirts. A couple of weeks ago, on November 4th, Sasha was on a bus on their way home. They had fallen asleep. They were wearing a skirt.
Sasha’s skirt was set on fire by a 16-year-old kid. Sasha was hospitalised with second- and third-degree burns and will require several surgeries to recover.
Let me tell you about Jane. Jane Doe (anonymised for safety) is a high school student in Colorado. Jane is transgender. As a young woman, she used the girls’ changing and toilet facilities in her school. Back in October, a so-called Christian organisation claimed that there had been complaints of harassment against Jane made by other girls in her school. The story was picked up by the Daily Mail (later taken down from their website) and Fox News. It turned out that the claims were entirely made up, but not before Jane was subjected to vicious and persistent bullying.
Jane has had to be put on suicide watch as a result of this bullying.
The tragedy here is that Jane and Sasha are the lucky ones. They are not among the 238 people, predominantly non-white, whom we know to have died violent deaths since November 20th 2012 just for the crime of being transgender. Sasha and Jane’s names will – luckily – not be among those read out at gatherings around the world tomorrow commemorating the trans* community’s dead of the last 12 months. Just skimming through the causes of death on the Transgender Day of Remembrance website makes for harrowing reading.
Six gunshots.
Beaten to death with stick.
Stoning.
Multiple stab wounds, tied with a rope to a block of concrete and thrown in pond.
Blugeoned to death with a hammer.
Tied up, beaten with fists and other objects, choked with a chain, had a bag taped over his head, shot, set on fire, and discarded into a dumpster.
As for the 15th year the trans* community mourns, I hope those of us who have the privilege of an identity that matches the gender we were assigned at birth can take a moment to consider what we can do to ease the suffering and to consign to history the need for more and more names to be read out every year on Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Edited to add:
Some amazing trans* voices speaking about this on Twitter last night and today. Here are a few:
Of those 238 murders, 95 were in Brazil. That's almost 40% of all murders recorded by TDOR.
— Panda ♥ Badger (@bezukhova) November 20, 2013
Victims are disproportionately trans women, and trans people of colour, with trans women of colour at the highest risk.
— Panda ♥ Badger (@bezukhova) November 20, 2013
Living at the intersection of misogyny, transphobia, and racism is dangerous. Often poverty is also a factor.
— Panda ♥ Badger (@bezukhova) November 20, 2013
Most reported trans* murders consistently in Brazil (95 this year). Puts the hurt around @suzanne_moore's comments into context. #TDOR
— Faridah (@FaridahNewman) November 20, 2013
As trans women of color our lives are on the front lines in the battle for equality, and yet we press on #TDORUnite #GirlsLikeUs
— Angelica Ross (@angelicaross) November 20, 2013
And finally, Ariel Silvera, current curator of @TwkLGBTQ, talks about privilege and remembrance: