With all the protests this past weekend, one could easily conclude that the ban on same-sex marriages is the single greatest affront to LGBT civil liberties today.
And yet, many of us are still being violently attacked and sometimes killed simply for being queer or transgender. Last month, in little over one week, three Washington State University students were assaulted on campus. Two were trans masculine identified while the third was an openly gay student so brutally assaulted that he suffered a collapsed lung.
These attacks are not isolated incidents. According to the FBI, which released its annual Hate Crime statistics a few weeks ago, while racial and religious-based attacks were down between 2006 and 2007, crimes against gays and lesbians increased by six percent. And that might only be the tip of the iceberg.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP)—which collects its own statistics—argues that the FBI consistently underestimates the number of attacks on queer and trans individuals. First, the FBI relies solely on law enforcement data, rather than including reports to victim service organizations. Second, the FBI doesn’t include statistics about violence against trans or gender variant individuals.
In contrast with the six percent increase the FBI describes, NCAVP reported an alarming 24 percent escalation in victims reporting incidents of anti-LGBT violence last year. With some indication that violence against the LGBT community erupts during anti-gay campaigns, those numbers may be set to rise even higher in 2008, a year that saw multiple anti-marriage ballot measures including California’s Prop 8.
Richard Juang, a genderqueer, Taiwanese-American, male-born femme who contributed to National Center for Transgender Equality’s Responding to Hate Crimes argues that these violent acts are meant to relay a message to the entire community that “our existence is deviant and of no value.”
Thursday, November 20 is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance honoring those who’ve been killed by anti-trans violence. International vigils will pay tribute to this year’s dead, including 15-year-old Lawrence King from Oxnard, California who was shot to death by a classmate allegedly in part because he liked to wear girl’s clothing.
In addition to King, at least fifteen other Americans were killed in the past year (and 400 since 1970) for their non-conforming gender expression or identity. As violence against the trans population goes woefully under-investigated, many of their murders will never be solved.
The Day of Remembrance was started by columnist Gwen Smith to remember the murder of Rita Hester, a highly visible transgender activist in Boston, who was stabbed to death Saturday, November 28, 1998. A decade later her murder remains unsolved.
Smith founded Remember Our Dead to memorialize those killed by anti-trans violence. Last year, TransFM’s Ethan St. Pierre co-founded The International Transgender Day of Remembrance (transgenerdor.org) to further Smith’s work.
“I can’t tell you enough about the work that [Gwen]’s done on our behalf;” contends St. Pierre, who says it’s a difficult job. “I work on that website for half a day and I’m bawling my eyes out. Lives…snuffed out for no other reason than they’re trans or different.”
While some communities, like Chicago, Ill. and Oakland, Calif. hosted Trans Remembrance events this past weekend, Columbus, Ohio honored the dead Wednesday and still others will do so this Thursday and Friday including:
San Francisco’s observance begins Thursday at 6 pm at 815 Hyde Street offices of Trans: Thrive (transthrive.org) and will feature community speakers, a reading of names of known 2008 victims and concludes with a march to City Hall. Special tribute will be paid to King and Sacramento area trans woman, Ruby Molina, whose body was found floating in the American River this September.
Friday, November 21 at 7:30 PM San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’ar Zahav (shaarzahav.org) will hold a Transgender Day of Remembrance Shabbat with special liturgy, music, sermon and reading of names.
In Denver the Gender Identity Center of Colorado (303-202-6460) will be holding a service Thursday at the Washington Park United Church of Christ from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.
In Portland, Oregon a candlelight vigil will be held Thursday 6:30pm-7:30 pm in the Park Blocks and will feature speeches by trans author Reid Vanderburg, Spirit of Pride award winner Laura Calvo and Executive Director of TransActive, Jenn Burleton.
A show by award winning trans performing artist Scott Turner Schofield (Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps) follows the vigil from 8-9:00 pm in the Portland State University Smith Memorial Center Ballroom.
New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (gaycenter.org) hosts the 7:00-8:30 pm Thursday event , featuring a candlelight vigil, speeches from community leaders; and a display of quilts, collages and other meaningful items honoring the dead.
In tribute of the tenth anniversary of Rita Hester’s death, Boston will hold a candlelight vigil Thursday night, retracing the original route past Hester’s home. Community members are invited to share their feelings at a 7 pm reception at Saint Luke’s and Saint Margaret’s Church (masstpc.org/dor).
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Trans author Jacob Anderson-Minshall co-hosts the radio show Gender Blender on Portland’s KBOO. Download the November 18th episode on gender-based violence at kboo.fm.
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Jacob Anderson-Minshall co-hosts Gender Blender on Portland, Oregon’s KBOO 90.7 (streaming live at kbooo.fm). The next episode is November 18th. Jacob also writes the syndicated column TransNation, co-hosts Portland’s QLiterati!, freelances with Just Out & KBOO radio news and co-authors the Blind Eye Mystery series. Blind Curves and Blind Leap are available through boldstrokesbooks.com and bookstores nationwide. Discover more at anderson-minshall.com or myspace.com/blindeyemysteries.
