Transgender Day of Remembrance

On this Transgender Day of Remembrance we remember all those who have lost their lives because of transphobia.

 

We remember Rita Hester, whose in 1998 moved 250 people to attend a candlelight vigil after a wave of negative media coverage shook the local trans* community.

 

We remember Angie Zapata, murdered in 2008 at the age of 18 in Greeley, Colorado.

 

We remember Dwayne Jones, whose brutal murder this summer in Jamaica made headlines around the world.

 

We remember the death of Brandon Teena - a tragic tale of the hatred and violence that transgender and gender non-conforming people face all too frequently. Brandon, a trans* man, was murdered in cold blood on December 31, 1993 by two men, who had raped him a week earlier. The 1999 Academy Award-winning film Boys Don’t Cry  told Brandon’s story to many people that hadn’t heard it before, but the transphobia shown in the film was not the last of its kind.

Supporting Trans* Youth

 

We recognize that, as a country, we have made strides towards erasing fear and hatred of trans* people. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was the first federal law to protect trans* people, and California has a first-of-its-kind law protecting trans* students. However, those protections need to exist in every state and the need for federal employment protections remains.