Transgender Day of Remembrance 2009

by Katherine Cummings

(The Gender Centre advise that this article may not be current and as such certain content, including but not limited to persons, contact details and dates may not apply. Where legal authority or medical related matters are cited, responsibility lies with the reader to obtain the most current relevant legal authority and/or medical publication.)

Ten years ago I was a tough thirteen year-old tomboy running around the neighborhood with a relatively straight-identifying girlfriend. One night at a friend's house we watched "Boys Don't Cry". I have an extremely vivid memory of walking out of my friend's house and standing on the quiet suburban road staring at the sky and having a panic attack.

I identified with Brandon so much and my thirteen-year-old brain equated that with a fated life of hatred and violence and eventual murder. However, I lived in an inner city suburb, with open-minded parents, and plenty of older queer role models and loving straight people around, and a lot more access to the resources, ideas and community I would need to get me through my teenage years as an outspoken queer dyke / boy. The fact still remains that in some ways, all the difference there is between Brandon and me is the lucky circumstances of where and to whom I was born.

Very soon we will find ourselves at the Transgender Day of Remembrance again, an annual day that started eleven years ago in California, M.T.F. Previous to "transgender day of remembrance", a transgender activist group called Transsexual Menace held a series of regular candlelight vigils along with other protest actions between 1995 and 1997 for individual transmen and transwomen who had been killed.

They were mostly held outside courts, police stations, etc., as direct and explicit protests against the specific authorities that were mishandling or neglecting the investigations of transgender deaths. The first vigil was during the court case regarding a transman named Brandon (whose story is used in the film "Boys Don't Cry", and is consequently one of the most common pop culture trans-references for non-trans people). Brandon was killed in 1993 after a sheriff ordered the local police not to arrest the men whom the police already knew were beating and raping Brandon.

The annual Transgender Day of Remembrance candlelight vigils began in 1999, to mark the first anniversary of Rita Hester's death. Rita was an incredibly vivacious, outgoing trans woman who had been in the community for over ten years when she was brutally attacked and murdered in her apartment one night in 1998.

The Gender Centre is hosting a Transgender Day of Remembrance service on the 20th of November at the Metropolitan Community Church (96 Crystal Street, Petersham). For those of you who don't know the M.C.C. here is a quote from their website — "We believe all people are created in the image of God and thus are loved by God. And when we say all people we mean all people. Whether you are lesbian, gay, transgendered, bisexual, straight, seeking, come from any background, you are welcome in our community!". The service is at 1:00pm, with speeches by Connor Montgomery, and some special guest speakers and myself. Tea, coffee and cake will be provided. You are invited, as are all your friends, partners and family. We look forward to seeing you there.

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