November 20 marked the twenty-first annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), the day when we remember people who have been murdered because of transphobia. Started in 1999 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith to memorialize Rita Hester, TDoR grew to encompass all lives lost to anti-transgender bigotry and violence during the preceding year. Now, TDoR comes at the close of Transgender Awareness Week (November 13-19), which is a time to raise awareness of the transgender community and the issues transgender people face.
According to the Williams Institute at UCLA, there are an estimated 1.4 million transgender people — persons “whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth” (Doubly Victimized) — living in the US today, but a GLAAD/Harris poll found that more than 80% of Americans reported that they didn’t know someone who is transgender. Some men, women, and non-binary people may choose not to publicly disclose their true gender identity, in order to avoid discrimination and harassment (or simply to protect their privacy). In addition, transgender Americans are more likely to face poverty, unemployment, and homelessness. They’re also less likely to have reliable access to healthcare.
Overwhelmingly, though, members of the transgender community — and particularly, transgender women of color — are targeted for hate violence. So far, in 2020, almost forty transgender people have been murdered. Many of them were under 25 years old.
You can learn more by clicking on the links below, or by searching the Reynolds Libraries Catalog for “transgender”.
Sources:
Doubly Victimized: Reporting on Transgender Victims of Crime. GLAAD, www.glaad.org/publications/transgendervictimsofcrime.
GLAAD Media Reference Guide — In Focus: Covering the Transgender Community. GLAAD, www.glaad.org/reference/covering-trans-community.
GLAAD Transgender Media Program. GLAAD, www.glaad.org/transgender.
TDOR: In Memoriam. GLAAD, www.glaad.org/blog/tdor-memoriam.
Trans Day of Remembrance. GLAAD, www.glaad.org/tdor.
