November 14th – 20th marks Transgender Awareness Week, a week where individuals and organizations around the country help to raise the visibility of transgender and gender non-conforming people, and take action by educating the public and advancing advocacy around the issues that transgender people face. The final day of Transgender Awareness Week is the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), an annual observance that honors the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
TDOR was first started by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor her memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence that year and began an important memorial that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Transphobic violence is largely targeted toward transgender women. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) reported a total of 18 anti-LGBT homicides in 2013. Nearly 72% of hate-crime homicide victims in the U.S. were transgender women, and 67% of the victims were transgender women of color.
In a recent press release, NCAVP said there is an undeniable epidemic of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-confirming women, specifically transgender women of color in the United States. This year at least ten transgender women in the U.S. — all of them women of color — have died after attacks or assaults (these are the ones that were reported – many incidences of murder and violence against transgender people go unreported, or get misrepresented due to errors in identifying a victim’s gender identity). Overall, transgender people of color are 28% more likely to experience physical violence compared to people who were not transgender people of color.
Trans* rights advocates say this week is a time to remember the lives lost, to lift up the needs of the community, to tell the stories of the living and the dead, and to highlight the work being done to battle transphobic violence.
This week WWAV is launching an interview series at our blog, sharing the stories of transgender women of color in the South, and ways activists are working together to stand against violence and discrimination to provide safe spaces and community. Our next transgender women’s circle, Girls With a Pearl, will also be held on December 3rd from 4-6PM at our offices at 1001 S. Broad Street, Suite 206, New Orleans, LA 70125.