Transgender Day of Remembrance 2013

November 20.

In Honor of transgender women who lost their lives?

Let's not forget the fact that this event was created as title above says: in honor of transgender women who lost their lives. Thanks to Laverne Cox interview on Katie Couric Show, she reminded us again that it is transgender women who are getting killed, not gender variant folks, not gender non-conforming, not queers, not any others. When we look at statistics and list of victims, that was what she mentioned, truly all people who lost their lives, of trans* community are - women. Therefore, anyone using label TRANS* in their proclamation of Remembrance Day are  really doing  nothing else but plagiarizing it, to put it gently. My personal opinion is that it outright demeaning the status of honor for which it was created in the first place. Continuing my opinion: It truly is taking away something what does not belong to anyone else, but to women.  The point is: It is a Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor women who lost their lives. Rest comes as secondary addition.

Another reason to use the original name would be as follows:  There are numerous events on net, cities, universities, groups and other social gatherings, to mark and honor Transgender Day of Remembrance. This is very special day same as any other event where part of it's content, is to mourn people who lost their life for their cause of struggle.  We have seen Remembrance Day, Canada Day, International Women’s Day etc….. as officially recognized names with it’s own traditional reminders corresponding to different causes.  Now imagine for the moment if we started to call Canada Day with All Provinces Day, that does not look right, does it?  What about War Veterans Day to be called Vet’s Day? That looses it’s honorable feel and although we can hear it this way as a ‘street’ talk, officially it is and will always be a War Veterans Day.  How about Women’s International Day, could we modernize it? Maybe like Women* International Day , eh? Did you noticed an asterrix? It may mean a new trend to include transgender women, right? .......
 It looks funny, yes, and it kinda spoiling a lustre of traditional and official name of Women’s International Day.  Now let’s take the name of Transgender Day of Remembrance.  We all know what this means from day of it’s inception in 1998. here is short quote just in case we need to remind of the true meaning:  

Quote starts ----> "Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), which occurs annually on 20 November, is a day to memorialize those who have been killed as a result of transphobia, or the hatred or fear of transgender and gender non-conforming people, and acts to bring attention to the continued violence endured by the transgender community. The Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in 1998 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, a transgender graphic designer, columnist, and activist, to memorialize the murder of Rita Hester in Allston, Massachusetts." <-- end of quote.

So historically this day was started in remembrance of transgender woman, soon after it was footnoted explaining it does include all other groups such as gender non-conforming, queer, in short anyone who is not ok with gender assigned at birth. This footnote is short and all inclusive adding that remembrance day is also reminder of oppression and denial of rights to all inclusive groups. Now up to now all is ok, we using traditional symbolism and well recognized and respected name of Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Problem starts when we want to use word trans* in official name of this event.

I did not find any other group on www net who will not use anything else than original name for this day (see above). Today I noticed one university organizing “Trans* Day of Remembrance”.   I have nothing against usage of term trans*, I do use it regularly as a convenient short to include all groups and expressions fitting formula about gender identity. I like it and agree with what it means.  Now have a look at it in the above name for that our special day from point of view of onlookers:  it looses almost it’s meaning as many folks outside our community don’t know if we are in ‘trans’ like under influence of some religious dance, or what.  Second problem is that this day has it’s official  NAME, same as examples I show in beginning of my notes, it's tradition embedded in history  . Based on that, does it mean that this university starting another different commemorable event?  Probably not.  They could use announcement like: “ Our trans* community  will be holding a vigil in respect of  Transgender day of Remembrance”  That’s better! I am against changing the original name of this event as it already include all groups of our community and the original name carries pride of tradition and deep respect of people to whom it was dedicated in the first place.