Dallas Commemorates Trans Day of Remembrance

Members of the transgender community and their allies will gather at the Cathedral of Hope Peace Chapel in Dallas this weekend to honor victims of violence. Attendance at the event has grown over the years and organizers contend that is a testament to a willingness of community members to be more visible.

Nearly 200 attended the event back in 2010. Organizers expect attendance this year to surpass that. The increased visibility, it is hoped, will lead to better understanding and less violence.

"Over the last several years transgender people have become more active on their own behalf and are getting more involved in broader issues and are generally out in the community," said Nell Gather, coordinator of the event last year. Gather explained how in recent years the Internet has led to more confidence in the community.

"A lot of us grew up feeling like we were the only person. It was so stigmatized," Gather explained. "We started finding out we were a lot more of us than we knew. It's confidence in numbers. Today a lot more transgender people are willing to be out there standing up for our rights."

Members of the transgender community see visibility as a way to combat the objectification that they say too often has lead to violent endings.

A History of Remembering
The Transgender Day of Remembrance events held around the country began with a memorial for Boston resident Rita Hester who was stabbed to death in 1998. A candlelight vigil was held for Hester in San Francisco the following year. Hester's murder - like most anti-transgender murder cases - has not been solved. The event in Dallas has been held annually for most of the past twelve years.

"Until the Day of Remembrance came about it really wasn't clear to me how many people were victims," said Lilith Calbridge who has been on the events steering committee for the past two years. "It's important for people to realize there is a certain degree of danger in being who we are, but at the same time know that people are willing to accept that possibility and still get out there and be themselves."

The national web site for TDOR lists victims internationally back to 2007. The official numbers of violent attacks against transgender people have only been recorded by the FBI since the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in October 2009.

So far in 2011, there have been 17 recorded murders internationally. The total number recognized on the site accounts for more than 300 in the United States alone.

(In)Accuracy in Media
The actual numbers could be higher. Experts say many murders of transgender individuals go unreported. More, the gender identity of the victim is something that isn't always known. Gather explained it's an ongoing effort in engaging the media to accurately represent transgender individuals.

"The media often disregard preferred names, preferred gender status and terms," Gather said. "Calling the media on that is also a way of helping to combat the objectification we are subject to."

She explained the media will present only a male name, even though a victim identified as a female. There also isn't an accurate accounting of just how many transgender people there are in the United States and elsewhere. Estimates of the number living in Dallas are also incidental.

"We don't know how many transgender people there are in Dallas," Gather explained. "The census doesn't track that. We know there are at least several hundred."

One general estimate of the numbers nationally came when the Center for Transgender Equality sent a request to the Social Security Administration and found just last year the agency had sent more than 700,000 letters about the gender on an employee's W-2 not matching those on file. More recently the administration ended the practice of allowing gender to be matched in its Social Security Number Verification System and stopped sending letters to employers.

Why the Violence?
Tragedy often leads to the asking of the difficult question of "Why?" While murder is not an easy thing to make sense of, transgender people frequently refer to their objectification.

"A lot of hate crimes happen because perpetrators objectify their victims," Gather said. "I hesitate to say it's because of hatred, because I think it's one of those things that happen on the spur of the moment for the most part."

Often, she said a crime stems from fear and anger when a person's birth gender is discovered. But in other cases, she said, it is pure hatred.

"A few years back in Memphis, an individual had been taken into the Memphis police and had been abused," Gather explained. That person, Duanna Johnson, was killed a few weeks later. A video had been released to the media of an officer beating Johnson in a jail holding area and resulted in the firing of two officers. The story made the New York Times, but doesn't appear to have resulted in the arrest or conviction of her killer.

Erin Roberts, the organizer of this year's event, said she had personally experienced assault.

"Most of the trans people I know have been out for any period of time have been sexually assaulted -- up to and including full-blown rape," Roberts said. "In the last six months I have had three random guys grab me by the cheeks and stick their tongue down my throat. Two of them told me how beautiful I was before they did it."

Roberts also said she had been refused medical service because of her gender identity. She added however that her experiences pale compared to what many people have gone through.

"I know a number of people who have shared their rape stories with me and it's very tragic," Roberts said. "There's an alarming rate of violence against us, alarming discrimination: jobs, housing, and medical.

"As long as there is violence and it's so prevalent, we need to remember those who have died," she said. "We need to bring attention to it so it will stop."

The event in Dallas will be held November 21 beginning at 7 p.m. at the Interfaith Peace Center, 5910 Cedar Springs Road. A similar event will be held November 19 beginning 7 p.m. at Farish Hall at the University Of Houston. An event will also be held at Austin City Hall Plaza November 20 at 6:30 p.m.