Queercommie Girl
21st November 2011, 09:32
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/20/transgender-remembrance-day?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038
The balancing act of Transgender Remembrance Day
Commemorating the horrifically brutal deaths of victims of transphobic violence is difficult, but vitally important
The Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony (http://www.transgenderdor.org/), held annually on 20 November, was started in 1999, when it became clear that trans people were being murdered in particularly large numbers. It is a day marked by sombre ceremonies in cities around the world.
I have been part of the team organising the London ceremony this year, and it has been a difficult to get right. Our aim is to remember the lives of the trans people who have been murdered – as well as those non-trans people who have been killed as a result of transphobic hatred – in the previous 12 months. But the increasing brutality of these crimes, and the fact that some young trans people attending can be traumatised if the ceremony gets too gory, has given us a difficult balancing act.
Nearly 200 transphobic murders were painstakingly recorded last year by the Transrespect vs Transphobia project (http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/). These are widely thought to be the tip of the iceberg: there are still large parts of the world where little or no data is available, and this number also does not include those driven to take their own lives. We need to remember their lives – but also not forget how they died. The manner in which trans people are being murdered, and the places they were killed, may also be a clue to the people who may ultimately be responsible for this carnage.
The countries with the most transphobic murders last year were Brazil, the US and Honduras. So far, statistics in for this year suggest that more than half of the transphobic murders worldwide occurred in Brazil. Yet the country where trans people are most likely to be murdered is Honduras: between 28 November 2010 and 9 January 2011, trans people were being slaughtered there at the rate of one a week, in a country with a population smaller than London.
An analysis of the data from Honduras is revealing; this small central American country has had a very high level of transphobic murders since the autumn of 2008, but only one recorded before then. Trans human rights campaigners in the US have pointed out that this coincided with a surge in "missionaries" being sent there by rightwing religious groups from the American midwest.
Some suggest a systematic targeting of trans people there by these groups, since one of the first victims was Cynthia Nicole Moreno (http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-hell-to-be-transgender-especially.html) (warning: graphic picture), a prominent trans human rights campaigner in the capital Tegucigalpa, who was executed in the street on 9 January 2009 in broad daylight, shot at point-blank range with three bullets in the chest and one in the head. In addition, one of the main concerns among trans human rights campaigners is to prevent the 2014 World Cup being used as an excuse for the Brazilian authorities to collude in the murder even more trans people, doubtless egged on by religious bigots as they "clean up" the country for foreign football supporters.
The way some trans people were killed – in apparently frenzied, vicious knife attacks, or by being stoned to death – further suggests not only a religious motive but organised executions, and appears to be as the result of particularly psychotic, manic hatred on the part of their killers. The ages of some of the victims is also a cause for concern: this year, we will be mourning the death of 14-year-old Erica Pinheiro de Siqueira, who was shot 11 times on Christmas Day in Maceio, Brazil. Last year we had to read out the name of 16-month-old Roy Antonio Jones III, beaten so hard by his babysitter that his little body suffered a massive cardiac arrest. His killer said he did this because the toddler was not acting "manly" enough.
The results of transphobic hate crime in the worst countries are plain for all to see, the causes of much of it may be getting clearer: organisations that pretend they are there to spread love and understanding but are actually sowing hatred and vicious intolerance. For us, the balancing act is between showing the horror of the killings, remembering those who have died because of transphobic violence, and making the occasion one which can be attended by all.
In the end, it is not just religious-excused bigotry, but social exclusion, systemic violence and official indifference – and in some cases connivance – that we are fighting. Yet the fact that trans people exist suggests that no amount of threats, from any source, are going to get rid of us.
The balancing act of Transgender Remembrance Day
Commemorating the horrifically brutal deaths of victims of transphobic violence is difficult, but vitally important
The Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony (http://www.transgenderdor.org/), held annually on 20 November, was started in 1999, when it became clear that trans people were being murdered in particularly large numbers. It is a day marked by sombre ceremonies in cities around the world.
I have been part of the team organising the London ceremony this year, and it has been a difficult to get right. Our aim is to remember the lives of the trans people who have been murdered – as well as those non-trans people who have been killed as a result of transphobic hatred – in the previous 12 months. But the increasing brutality of these crimes, and the fact that some young trans people attending can be traumatised if the ceremony gets too gory, has given us a difficult balancing act.
Nearly 200 transphobic murders were painstakingly recorded last year by the Transrespect vs Transphobia project (http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/). These are widely thought to be the tip of the iceberg: there are still large parts of the world where little or no data is available, and this number also does not include those driven to take their own lives. We need to remember their lives – but also not forget how they died. The manner in which trans people are being murdered, and the places they were killed, may also be a clue to the people who may ultimately be responsible for this carnage.
The countries with the most transphobic murders last year were Brazil, the US and Honduras. So far, statistics in for this year suggest that more than half of the transphobic murders worldwide occurred in Brazil. Yet the country where trans people are most likely to be murdered is Honduras: between 28 November 2010 and 9 January 2011, trans people were being slaughtered there at the rate of one a week, in a country with a population smaller than London.
An analysis of the data from Honduras is revealing; this small central American country has had a very high level of transphobic murders since the autumn of 2008, but only one recorded before then. Trans human rights campaigners in the US have pointed out that this coincided with a surge in "missionaries" being sent there by rightwing religious groups from the American midwest.
Some suggest a systematic targeting of trans people there by these groups, since one of the first victims was Cynthia Nicole Moreno (http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-hell-to-be-transgender-especially.html) (warning: graphic picture), a prominent trans human rights campaigner in the capital Tegucigalpa, who was executed in the street on 9 January 2009 in broad daylight, shot at point-blank range with three bullets in the chest and one in the head. In addition, one of the main concerns among trans human rights campaigners is to prevent the 2014 World Cup being used as an excuse for the Brazilian authorities to collude in the murder even more trans people, doubtless egged on by religious bigots as they "clean up" the country for foreign football supporters.
The way some trans people were killed – in apparently frenzied, vicious knife attacks, or by being stoned to death – further suggests not only a religious motive but organised executions, and appears to be as the result of particularly psychotic, manic hatred on the part of their killers. The ages of some of the victims is also a cause for concern: this year, we will be mourning the death of 14-year-old Erica Pinheiro de Siqueira, who was shot 11 times on Christmas Day in Maceio, Brazil. Last year we had to read out the name of 16-month-old Roy Antonio Jones III, beaten so hard by his babysitter that his little body suffered a massive cardiac arrest. His killer said he did this because the toddler was not acting "manly" enough.
The results of transphobic hate crime in the worst countries are plain for all to see, the causes of much of it may be getting clearer: organisations that pretend they are there to spread love and understanding but are actually sowing hatred and vicious intolerance. For us, the balancing act is between showing the horror of the killings, remembering those who have died because of transphobic violence, and making the occasion one which can be attended by all.
In the end, it is not just religious-excused bigotry, but social exclusion, systemic violence and official indifference – and in some cases connivance – that we are fighting. Yet the fact that trans people exist suggests that no amount of threats, from any source, are going to get rid of us.