On Trans Day of Remembrance, some advocates are honoring lives lost to more than homicide
Society has still not accepted transgender people as powerful and deserving of humanity, Moxley said. And until that changes, Trans Day of Remembrance will continue to be necessary to restore humanity to the lives of those who have been taken. In that vein, expanding the scope of TDOR makes sense to her.
This year, the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), the largest transgender policy organization in the country, wanted to reshape how violence against trans people is addressed in its annual TDOR report. In the report, the names and stories of those who died this year include those who died by suicide, or who died after battling health issues like lung cancer.
This year is the first time that the NCTE has expanded its scope of who is being mourned and remembered for Trans Day of Remembrance. That expansion mimics what communities of color, specifically Black trans communities, have always done on TDOR — and how they think about their own lives, Moxley said.
“We’ve always talked about the atrocities as being bigger than just gun violence, because there is so much systemic and structural violence that happens,” she said. “We’re seeing violence happen in legislation across the country.”
Anti-trans killings and pervasive health disparities are both reflections of the society that trans people live in each day, so the NCTE’s remembrance report should be just as expansive as those lives, she said.
Almost two-thirds of the transgender homicide victims tracked by the LGBTQ+ rights organization Human Rights Campaign in the last year were Black women. And since 2013, roughly 85 percent of the victims tracked by the LGBTQ+ rights group have been people of color. Six in 10 known victims tracked by the HRC since 2013 have been Black trans women.
The exact data gathered on anti-trans killings and violence in the U.S. varies from one LGBTQ+ advocacy group to the next. But on one point there is consensus: Black trans women face the most violence of any other demographic within the trans community. This violence is part of the wide-ranging disparities that trans people of color face at greater levels than other trans people, due to the converging effects of discrimination based on race and gender.
Discrimination, bullying, and hatred — or living in environments hostile to LGBTQ+ people — can contribute to higher suicide rates and other health issues, said Kris Tassone, policy counsel for the NCTE and lead researcher for the organization’s TDOR project this year.
“That is a type of violence against someone that causes impacts on their health and life,” Tassone said. Not being able to access gender-affirming care to treat gender dysphoria, or not being able to get health care at all due to medical discrimination, also shortens lifespans and puts trans people at risk of medical complications, they said.
“There are a lot of ways in which violence impacts trans people’s lives and we are including all of our trans, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, gender-expansive people who have died in the past year in this year’s TDOR, recognizing the so many ways that violence shortens and ends the lives of trans people,” Tassone said.