Each year, between Nov. 13 and Nov. 19, people and organizations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week to help the visibility about trans people and address issues that members of the community face. Trans Awareness Week comes to an end with Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual observance on Nov. 20 that honors the memory of all the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-trans violence that year.
What Is Transgender Awareness Week?
Transgender Awareness Week is a week when trans people and their allies take action to bring attention to the community by educating the public about who transgender people are, sharing stories and experiences, and advancing around the issues of prejudice, discrimination and violence that affect the trans community.
What is a vigil?
A vigil, from the Latin “vigila” meaning wakefulness, is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotion watching, or an observance.
What is Transgender Day of Remembrance?
Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded by trans advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor her memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1988. The vigil commemorated all the trans people lost to violence that year and began a memorial that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.
People can participate in Transgender Day of Remembrance by attending or organizing a vigil on Nov. 20. Vigils are typically hosted by local trans advocates or LGBTQ+ organizations, and held at community centers, parks, places of worship and other venues. The vigil often involves reading off a list of the names of those who died that year.
What is GLAAD?
GLAAD is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization, founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of LGBT+ people. Its agenda has since extended to the entertainment industry and its portrayal of those groups. The movement is now known by its initials only, because its former full name (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) could be taken as excluding other queer issues.
What is GLAAD doing for Trans Awareness Week this year?
This year for Transgender Awareness Week, GLAAD is encouraging everyone to watch “Disclosure” on Netflix. The feature from director Sam Feder and executive producer Laverne Cox explores the history of trans representation in TV and film in unprecedented form. It reveals how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures people’s deepest anxieties about gender.
According to GLAAD, “Given that, according to a new PEW poll, 68% Americans believe they have never personally met someone who is transgender, that means the majority of the public’s education and awareness about this community has been informed by more than a century’s worth of media which has overwhelmingly misrepresented and mischaracterized who trans people are — significantly influencing public perceptions, policy, and attitudes about the trans community.”
“Disclosure” puts together many stereotypes, tropes, and cliche portrayals of trans people in a way the shows how the media have treated trans people. The portrayals have influenced how the world sees trans people and how trans people start to view themselves.
GLAAD has added watching “Disclosure” to its Tips for Allies of Transgender People.
What are the statistics of trans-violence?
In 2020, the Human Rights Campaign recorded a total of 44 fatalities, making it the most violent year on record since the HRC began tracking such crimes in 2013.
It has been reported that 2021 has already seen at least 45 transgender or gender non-conforming people as the victims of hate-crimes in with they died. That number could be higher because many stories go unreported or are misreported.
In previous years, the majority of these people were Black and Latinx/Latine transgender women. More than one in four trans people have faced a bias-driven assault. Since 2020, there has been a wide increase in violent crimes against trans-women of color.
Combating the violence
Transgender people face extraordinary levels of physical and sexual violence, whether on the streets, at school or work, at home, or at the hands of government officials. NCTE is working with anti-violence groups, women’s rights groups, racial justice groups, and federal and state law enforcement agencies to combat anti-trans violence. Public education, policy change and community efforts also help address the complex causes of anti-trans violence and ensure victims can receive support.
Resources
The following resources are available for transgender people in crisis:
- The Trevor Project‘s 24/7/365 Lifeline at 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386) or TrevorChat, its online instant messaging option, or TrevorText, a text-based support option. If you are looking for peer support, you can visit TrevorSpace from anywhere in the world.
- The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255)
- Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860
Quotes from trans and ally students at EHS
“I feel like transgender violence is many times looked over because so many people don’t view transgender people as humans, or they say they don’t believe in them, like we are unicorns or something. I have been told ‘You are just confused’ or ‘Unhappy because you don’t look like certain girls’… it’s hard facing the fact I don’t actually want to be that either. The constant reminder by cishet people that because I look cisgender myself I can’t identify within the trans umbrella. It strikes even my close family that I am somewhere in the spectrum. I feel like there is a big stigma to what a trans person can look like, primarily transgender woman … There is nothing wrong with wanting to be happy with your gender, people should not be angered or mad at the fact other people have the right to a happy life that they want and the life they feel comfortable with, in the body that they deem representative of who they are.” — anonymous EHS student
“Often times when someone hears that I or my friends identify under the non-binary umbrella they speak about it as if I disgust them. They say things like ‘I just don’t believe in it’ or ‘I’m still gonna use she for you because you look like a girl’ and it can be frustrating, but at the end of the day, I know their opinions don’t matter. You can’t just disagree with someone’s existence. If someone wants to be uncomfortable by my existence, then that’s their problem. I’m proud of who I am.” — agender student Macaira Smith
“This story is important, our stories are important. We will never be able to live as equals and be safe as who we are if things like this are never talked about. As a trans student at this school it is hard to be out because a lot of students are not accepting. Some of my teachers won’t even use my pronouns. Because I am not completely out I have been lucky enough to not have to face violence or extreme transphobia, but that doesn’t mean I never will … I shouldn’t be afraid to be happy and be who I am because people won’t accept me and think I shouldn’t exist. We shouldn’t have to suffer to make everybody else comfortable. I’m not asking you to never make a mistake again, I’m asking you to try.” — genderfaun student Destiny
