Topic: Transgender Day of Remembrance 2010

[Sandy]

I cannot fathom the depth of depravity that causes one human being to kill another in such a brutal way.  Of particular note is a 16 MONTH OLD INFANT!

I am sitting at my keyboard and I have finished crying for now.  I will attend the memorial service here in Chicago, and I encourage everyone to participate in remembrance events in your area as well.

I have compiled this list from the Transgender Remembrance website:
http://www.transgenderdor.org/?page_id=4

I have just posted the cause of death and not the names, because in some cases no identification could be made.

And this is not a complete list, of course.  In many cases, violent death is not reported as a transgender related death.

Nor does it include the incredibly longer list of those who have been assaulted, but lived.

Nor does it show any female to male assaults and murders, such as being "raped straight".

Nor does it show the casual acceptance of discrimination and hate toward the trans community.

Cause of Death: Burned to death
Cause of Death:Shot in the head
Cause of Death: Blunt force trauma to the head.
Cause of Death: Shot in the chest and the forehead
Cause of Death: Wong had stab wounds in the right side of the stomach and left side of the chest plus bruises in the right hand.
Cause of Death: Many wounds and defensive bruises.
Cause of Death: Stabbed to death
Cause of Death: Stabbed 17 times
Cause of Death:Stabbed and left in roadside dump
Cause of Death: Strangled
Cause of Death: dismembered and mutilated
Cause of Death: Beheaded
Cause of Death: shot to death
Cause of Death: Stabbed to death
Cause of Death: Shot in the back of the head
Cause of Death: Shot in the head
Cause of Death: Raped and shot 3 times
Cause of Death: Strangled with an electrical cord
Cause of Death:Shot in the chest
Cause of Death: Punched repeatedly and grabbed by the neck
Date of Death: August 1, 2010
Roy was 16 Months old.
Note: 20 year old Pedro Jones told police he had struck the infant several times with a closed fist. Jones said he was “trying to make him act like a boy instead of a little girl.”
Cause of Death: shot
Cause of Death: shot to death
Cause of Death shot
Cause of Death shot in the head
Cause of Death shot in the head
Cause of Death Drowned in her apartment
Cause of Death unreported by police
Cause of Death Brutally tortured and burned
Cause of Death Brutally tortured and burned


We cannot forget.  We can never forget.  And if a time comes that this list has no entries, we will still remember.

[K8]

Too many deaths.  Here are more (from the Standing on the Side of Love Campaign <love@uua.org>):

We remember Victoria White.

Last month, lying in a hospital bed three days after gender affirmation surgery, I read about a horrific murder. A transgender woman, Victoria White, was brutally murdered in her apartment in Maplewood, NJ. When they announced her death, the police used her birth name – a name she was no longer legally known by. They cited her as male, although Victoria had gone through the same surgery as me a few years earlier to proclaim her true gender. Victoria’s murderer has not been found.

The past few weeks have been marked by so many tragic losses. Tyler Clementi. Asher Brown. Justin Aaberg. You may have heard these names, but chances are, you never heard of Victoria White.

Join me in making sure that the death of Victoria White -- and other genuine, honest people trying to live as transparently as possible in an all too hostile country -- are not kept a secret.

Sadly, Victoria is just one of the many transgender individuals we have lost. Recently, in Eureka, California, Chloe Lacey, an 18-year-old transgender woman, died by suicide. She shot herself at home after “struggl[ing] with fears of harassment and abuse.”

On National Coming Out Day, October 11th, Stacey, a transgender woman, was strangled to death in Philadelphia. When reporting Stacey’s murder, the Philadelphia Daily News put quotation marks around her name. The NBC affiliate disrespected her memory even more, reporting, “The victim is Michael Lee, a 31-year-old man who lived his life as a woman named Stacey Blahnik.”

As October is quickly winding down, and November is fast approaching, a little known annual vigil is about to take place -- a vigil that remembers tragically those who lost their lives because of anti-transgender bias, prejudice, and hatred. Commemorate the 12th Annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) this November. It is a time where individuals who believe in equality for all gather and remember those that were murdered based on their gender identity or expression.

I vividly remember my first Transgender Day of Remembrance. My family had abandoned me, and I had just begun to live full time in my true gender identity. I was terrified and harassed everywhere I went. Teenage boys tried to run me off the road, family members threatened to kill me, and all I could think about was surviving in a very hostile world. I felt horribly alone. In the LGBT press, I read of hundreds of people that had been murdered or committed suicide who were transgender. I realized I had never read any mainstream news about the deaths, or for that matter the lives of a whole community of people. We were made to be invisible in society, simply by the media keeping our lives a secret. Our murders and suicides were simply swept under the rug, kept secret from the world.

In the name of justice, you can help elevate these tragic murders, and raise awareness of anti-transgender violence.

Around November 20th every year, the Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil is held.   Remember those whose voices were silenced, whose lives were cut short. Let the transgender community know that while everyone else may have forgotten, you will not allow our dead to remain a secret. Stand with me on the side of love by helping me remind others that every life matters.
 
Sincerely,
Allison Woolbert
Transgender Advocate and Gender Educator
New Jersey