We gather here again this year to mourn, to remember those of our communities who have been slain - those who have lost their lives violently, who have suffered death at the hands of murderers, some of these killers will use their faith to justify their bigotry and these hateful atrocities - I declare that there is no God in these acts of savage violence.
We grieve those who have been murdered tonight. I also lift up those who have been lost to non-violent death and to suicide. I lift up those families – spouses, children, siblings and parents who have told us that we are dead to them, therefore rendering their active love and kinship dead to us.
Today, even in our sadness we must strive to make our losses cause us to be stronger and more cohesive - not just cause us to cry, but to cry out for justice!
I declare to you tonight that we, we who may be identified as cis-gender, transgender, multi-gender, mixed gender, we are all in the likeness of our Creator.
Even as we count our losses, we give thanks for those who love us, stand with, for and by us – those family members who continued to show us love and support, those who have become family to us, those who have taken in our wounded, frightened hearts and held them gently, reverently, lovingly.
I claim, here and now, in the midst of the Ancestors and the All, that love is a many-gendered thing. And that the love of God is also a many-gendered thing. I ask you to join me in living in to that truth by reaching out to the many who are not here with us in this room, that in the coming year none may fall without someone there to support them and none may perish without witness to the crime.
May the One who has created us in all of our diverse magnificence watch and keep us all, until we meet again.
Amen.
Louis Mitchell on the occasion of Transgender Day of Remembrance, 2012
holding on
I believe in trans people because, above all, we know something about the great and terrible worth of the truth. ... And we, as a people, surrounded by those who do not believe us and want us to pretend for them that they are right, chose that truth knowing it might cost us everything.
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The Speech I May Yet Give (trigger warning)
The truth is, the Trans Day of Remembrance is a day of political grand standing, using the deaths of trans women of colour as a numbers game to buy someone else’s pet project sympathy for votes, dollars, or attention. It’s a day where trans women of colour have greater value dead than we do alive.
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Virtual 2012 Transgender Day of Remembrance Service
Sponsored by the Standing On the Side of Love campaign of the Unitarian Universalist Association, this virtual Transgender Day of Remembrance service has been archived.
[more]
Prayer of Confession for Transgender Day of Remembrance
Today we ask forgiveness
for our complicity with this violence / Forgive us /
Awaken us /
Remind us /
Transform us /
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Remember: Faith Communities Can Save Transgender Lives
Much of this violence is fueled by a sentiment that it is tacitly and explicitly reinforced by narrow understandings of gender, as well as outright transphobia and homophobia expressed in the name of a Christian God. Too many of us have not only heard "God condemns you" -- but also "It would be better if you were dead."
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2012 Summary - Trans Respect vs TransPhobia
Sadly, this year there are 265 trans persons to be added to the list to be remembered, mourned and honoured as an update of the preliminary results of Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring project reveals.
[more]
Keeping Your Self Safe
Violence is always the
responsibility of the perpetrator and never the fault of the victim. Although we cannot control
the behavior of others, there are some simple precautions that can be taken to reduce the
risk of some types of violence.
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