November the 20th, a date to remember
In November on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month and a two minute silence we remembered those who gave their lives in war, in military combat. They were fighting to protect our freedoms. Thoughts and prayers were also offered on the 8th, Remembrance Sunday, in places of worship up and down our land. So what, you may ask, are we remembering on the 20th November. It’s not a particularly well known day of remembrance but it is celebrated in many places across the globe, the place we call earth. The date 20th of November is colloquially known as TDoR which in its full form stands for “Transgender Day of Remembrance”. It is the day when Transgender people, their friends and Allies remember those transgender people who in the previous 12 months lost their lives at the hands of others or because of the actions of others. Sadly the USA, which on the surface is an advance nation, leads the list of countries with the highest murder rate, mainly of trans women and mainly trans women of colour. It’s closely followed by Brazil. It’s sad to think that in this day and age that a trans person lives in fear of others who do not want them to live happy lives or even exist at all.
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TD0R) takes place on 20th November every year and was established in the US in 1999 by the trans advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honour Rita Hester, a trans woman stabbed to death in 1998 at the age of 34. Since 2008, an annual report has been published detailing the trans people who have been killed. Click on this link or the image to read more.
The 2018 Trans Report by the LGBT campaigning organisation Stonewall revealed that more than a quarter of trans people (28 per cent) had faced domestic violence from a partner in the past year, one in eight (12 per cent) had been physically attacked by colleagues or customers in the past year and two in five (41 per cent) had experienced a hate crime or incident in the last 12 months.
oasis norfolk 