trans gender day of rememberance

[jenniferinsf]

we have an event here in the city from 6-8pm then some informal mingling/network/drinks after

what is happening in your area?

[Sheren Kelly]

There is a TDOR at the DC MCC (474 Ridge St NW) from 6-8 that I will be attending.
There are also events in Fairfax, VA and Baltimore.

Kelly

Update: The TDOR service started late and went long (no surprise!), and was attended by the Mayor's brother (The mayor had a late return from overseas travel) as well as many local LGBT activists, most notably Sgt Jessica Hawkins, the first MPD officer to transition on the job. There were signed proclamations from President Obama, Mayor Bowser and the DC Council.

If you go to the DC Center facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/centertrans/photos_stream?ref=page_internal you can see pictures of the attendees, including one of me with Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, who is undergoing transition while on active duty with the Army.

[2B Natasha]

TDOR is mostly observed up here on the nearest Saturday. So this year it will be the 21st. Several area churches and the UW will be have events. I would suppose that the area transgender meet up groups and the like will also be having events this year as in the past.

My wife and I will be attending one of the gathering/events on Saturday. Which one will depend on the traffic nightmare that is Seattle and the weather.

[Rogina B]

The service is tomorrow night at the University of North Florida. It is pretty well attended both by students and those of us in the area TG community. Because we are pushing for Jacksonville,Fl to adopt an all inclusive HRO, most all of us know one another. So the gathering after the service will be lively in conversation.

[joanna4]

Large event here at CSUF in Fullerton, CA.

[Lauri K]

I found several event listings for the Houston metro area, feel free to add to the list as I am sure there are others I did not see easily in my search.

Believe it or not there have been several ceremonies held already this week, so I tried to narrow it down to current date / time and look ahead.

Will be lighting a few candles tonight in memory of those that have been killed by violence and hate.

I also plan to light a candle to show the way on just how much work there is to be done and how every voice counts in this fight to stop this violence and madness.

Please check your own local listings in case times / venues listed are not correct.


TDOR put on by VA Medical Center
Location: VA Medical Center
(4th Floor Auditorium, 2002 Holcombe Blvd)
Date: 11/20/15
Time: 10am-11am

TDOR March of Resilience
Location: Herman Park Conservancy
(Zoo Entrance, 1700 Hermann Dr)
Date: 11/20/15
Time: 6pm

TDOR put on by TFA/HTUC
Location: A.D. Bruce Religion Center
(at U of H - 3841 Cullen Boulevard)
Date: 11/21/2015
Time: 7pm-9:30pm

[jenniferinsf]

success and disappointment

success
we had quite a wonderful event here in SF. hundreds turned out to see performances, hear speakers and support each other. i met two others...allie and suzanna at the event. i was 1/2 hour late and all the chairs were gone...had to stand

disappointment
i am having shoulder issues and after about 1/2 hour it ached so bad i had to leave. had dressed up specially and was looking forward to drinks afterwards...alas by the time i got home the best i could do was sit/lay on the sofa to ease the pain

i had looked forward to the event for a long time. i am delighted it was so well attended but so disappointed that i was unable to stay and truly lend my support

i felt proud of ourselves for coming together in such a way....

jennifer

[Sometimes Steffi]

There is a TDOR at the DC MCC (474 Ridge St NW) from 6-8 that I will be attending.
There are also events in Fairfax, VA and Baltimore.

Kelly


I went to the TDOR in Fairfax last night at one of the local UU churches. It was a very nice event, and I met some old friends and some new girls.

[Mayo]

Went to the event at the 519 Church St. Community Centre in Toronto last night with my partner. I'd say there were at least 200 people there.

[samantha rogers]

Yesterday was Transgender Day of Rembrance and it had special meaning for us here in Detroit because we lost another girl here last weekend.... an accidental death, as it turns out, but tragic nonetheless. And the whole community is still reeling. We are having a wake for her tomorrow, mostly to just come together and remember her smile and her laugh. And today, the first snowfall of the season has me feeling a little emotional to say the least. Each of the women I know has become so special to me, and each in a uniquely beautiful, personal way. I wrote a blog about that this morning. If you want to read it, it's here...
http://blog.tgdetroit.com

[AllieSF]

It was nice meeting you Jennifer, all 3 minutes or less of it. Too bad about your pain acting up. This was my first time at this 15 year old annual event started here in San Francisco. There was an interesting and diverse group of trans people who talked or performed, including a couple a drag lip sync ones. The highlight for me was when the mother of one of the to be remembered victims of violence against trans people talked. I fortunately had the opportunity to give her and one of her daughters a tearful and almost wordless hug (couldn't speak much for the emotion inside). Yes, we matter and the repeated theme last night that we must all unite to make things happen. So, even if you consider yourself outside that spectrum umbrella, please step under it when you can to lend your support in whatever manner you can.

[TinaZ]

Below is what I wrote on my facebook page to commemorate the day:



Dartmouth and Princeton are both Ivy League schools founded in the late 1700s, so naturally they have a deep and long rivalry. That rivalry reached a peak in 1951 when the two schools played perhaps the bloodiest and dirtiest football game in history. The brutal injuries stacked up, as did the penalties.

In the days following the game, two psychologists (Albert Hastorf at Dartmouth and Hadley Cantril at Princeton) noted how their respective schools' newspapers - which were supposed to be unbiased - reported incredibly different versions of the same game.

The psychologists wondered whether they were dealing with false memory, or whether something different was happening.

They gathered students from both schools who had attended the game and had them watch the game film, asking them to note when Princeton broke the rules, and when Dartmouth broke the rules.

What they discovered is people have different realities. Dartmouth students saw the film as proof of Princeton’s dirty play. Princeton students saw the Dartmouth fouls, but not those of their school. In fact, seeing the film reinforced the students’ “reality” of the game. In other words, after seeing the game a second time, they were more sure than before of what they were seeing.

These students largely shared the same socio-economic background, same race, same religion, were raised in the same part of the country and had the same politics. The only difference between them was the school they attended, yet this one tiny detail vastly changed the reality of how they experienced watching a football game.
Since then, scientists have proven time and time again that everyone has biases and those biases shape the way we see things. It's an unavoidable part of the human experience. We couldn't stop it if we tried. Bottom line - no matter how firmly you believe you see things as they are, you do not. Neither do I.

Where am I going with this?

A few of my facebook friends have posted that today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. One post I saw spoke about crime facts, saying a trans person is 20 times more likely to be murdered than a non-trans person.

I don't know if that's true. I hope it's not. But what I wanted to focus on are some of the comments on these posts. I've read some of the most vile, hate-filled, ugly and violent comments directed at transgender people today (ironically - today) and, frankly, it saddens me.

I don't care what your reality is. Maybe your reality is transgender people are mentally ill, or sinful, or depraved. Or, or, or ...

I don’t care.

The essential message for this particular day is, "Murdering transgender people is bad."

That’s it. Murdering transgender people is bad.

No matter what your reality regarding trans people, if you can't get aboard the Murdering-trans-people-is-bad train for one day out of the year, you ought to go somewhere and quietly reflect on your reality, and contemplate whether it can be adjusted so you can release some of that hate.