Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), an occasion to memorialize transgender people who have been killed in the last year.
According to GLAAD, trans advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith started TDOR in 1999 as a way to memorialize her friend, trans woman Rita Hester, who had been killed the year before. The vigil recognized all trans people who had died since Hester’s death, and served to highlight the fact that trans people, particularly trans women, face a disproportionate risk of violence and murder.
In a recent survey, nearly half of transgender respondents said that they had been denied equal service, verbally harassed, or physically attacked in the past year. According to GLAAD, the vast majority of trans people murdered in recent years were trans women of color.
A new report released by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Tuesday notes that since the beginning of 2013, at least 128 trans people in the US have been murdered. HRC’s press release explained some of the circumstances that lead to such a high transgender murder rate.
“In many instances, systemic discrimination at the intersection of gender identity and race lead to significant barriers to employment and housing,” the release reads. “This pushes many transgender people into underground economies to survive, including sex work, and into circumstances where they may be more likely to face violence. Additionally, anti-LGBTQ animus coupled with too-easy access to guns and increasing political attacks on the transgender community only embolden the often violent prejudice facing transgender people.”
Since this time last year, 23 trans people have been reported murdered in the United States. That list includes Gigi Pierce, a woman who was fatally shot in downtown Portland in May.
“Gigi was a performer through and through,” a loved one told Willamette Week earlier this year. “Life was her stage, and those fortunate enough to know her were her audience.”
Here is the full list of trans people who have been murdered in this country over the last year:
Brooklyn BreYanna Stevenson
Brandi Seals
Zakaria “Z” Fry
Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien
Viccky Gutierrez
Celine Walker
Tonya Harvey
Phylicia Mitchell
Amia Tyrae Berryman
Sasha Wall
Carla Patricia Flores-Pavon
Nino Fortson
Gigi Pierce
Antash’a Devine Sherrington English
Diamond Stephens
Cathalina Christina James
Keisha “Pokey” Wells
Sasha Garden
Dejanay Stanton
Vontashia Bell
Shantee Tucker
Londonn Moore
Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier
Two TDOR events are happening in Portland this evening: one at Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus, and one at Ori Art Gallery on N Mississippi.
