The Transgender Day of Remembrance

This is what it's like, to be a girl...who's a boy. To be a boy...who's a girl. To be both...and neither.

Do you think you could do it? Wake up every morning and pretend to be something you're not? Or walk out into the world, bravely being the person you know you are inside, while all the while, in every moment of every day, having to remember that much of society views you as something less, as something wrong, as something that they don't like. And sometimes, as something that they hate.

Beautiful people in these pictures...

Many happy, most smiling, eyes full of life and promise...

It reminds me of the pages of my yearbook....

But there are a couple of differences...between these pictures and the ones in my yearbook...

All of these people are transgendered...

All of these people...

are dead.

When you look at the transgendered as some random abnormality in society, I suppose that, in some people's minds, that makes them second class citizens, and somehow easier to justify killing. But looking at this condition as rare would be a tragic mistake. The medical community estimates that 1 in every 2000 people is transgendered. This number is incorrect. Further research suggests that the prevalence might be as high as 1 in 500 people.

How many Facebook friends do you have? 1,000? Odds are that at least two of them are trans. And somewhere, someone thinks that two of your friends deserve to die because of that.

Transphobia kills.


Sometimes, it's not even transphobia, but just the idea that something might be "not quite right".

In Mississippi, a twelve year old girl was beaten up by her peers because she had a “boy’s” name, while a high school football player from the same state was thrown off his team for wearing pink cleats to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The mother of a 5 year old boy gained national attention after she encountered transphobia from her community for letting her son dress as a female Scooby Doo character for Halloween.

This is how it starts. All too often, it ends in death.

This is in memory of those who died, simply for being their true selves.


Rest well, brave hearts.

Everyone dies but not everyone lives. Live your life in a way that makes you happy and proud. It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before... to test your limits... to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

~Anais Nin