About 100 people gathered for what is believed to be the largest transgendered rally in Illinois history Nov. 28. The candlelight vigil at the State of Illinois Thompson Center Plaza was part of a nationally coordinated Transgender Day of Remembrance on the same day at cities throughout the U.S.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The date of the event, Nov. 28, was chosen to honor Rita Hester, whose murder kicked off the "Remembering Our Dead" web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita was stabbed to death; like many other anti-transgender murders, her death has yet to be solved, said It's Time Illinois, organizers of the Chicago event.
Eight individuals in Illinois are known to have been killed in the past few years for real or perceived gender variance.
Speakers at the event included Lisa Scheps, co-chair of the vigil, and representatives from gay and trans organizations. On stage, folding chairs with candles on them represented trans victims of violence in Illinois.
Miranda Stevens-Miller of It's Time Illinois read a letter of support from U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who could not attend the rally. Schakowsky strongly stated her support of work on behalf of trans issues, including in federal hate-crimes laws.
"It is important that we remember and honor those individuals who were murdered merely because they were perceived to be different," event co-chair Tina Wood-Sievers said.
The vigil was co-sponsored by Chicago Gender Society, Equality Illinois, Horizons Anti-Violence Project, Howard Brown Health Center, Human Rights Campaign, TransAction, TransGenesis, and Chi Chapter of TriEss.
Following are excerpts from some of the speeches given at the rally Nov. 28.
Michelle Mohr, Membership Coordinator, Amnesty Midwest
Today we gather to remember those who have died, to cherish those around us, and to take action to further human rights for all people.
Vanessa Lorena Ledesma, an HIV+ transgender activist, was arrested following a fight at a local bar and detained incommunicado by the police. Five days later, she was dead. The police report says she died of cardiac arrest. The autopsy report reveals strong evidence of torture.
Astrid LaFontaine and Beverly Lineth, two transgendered sex workers and activists were brutally murdered. Astrid was shot down while she was doing AIDS prevention work. Beverly was beaten to death by three men who, earlier, have been seen going around in a car harassing and attacking transvestites.
Nine young men found guilty of "transvestism" and "deviant sexual behavior" were sentenced to up to 2,600 lashes each.
Amanda Milan, 25, an aspiring fashion designer who dreamed of someday being able to afford sex-reassignment surgery, was stabbed in the throat by a man who yelled at her, "I know that's a dick you have between your legs." Eyewitnesses said that taxicab drivers nearby cheered and applauded as Amanda bled to death on the sidewalk.
The persecution of transgendered people is a pernicious and global human rights problem. These accounts of egregious human-rights violations happened in Argentina, Guatemala, Saudi Arabia and the United States. They are but a few examples of horrendous abuses perpetrated against transgendered people around the world. ... Transgendered people, especially transgender activists, are often the first to be targeted for ill-treatment and acts of violence. In the past year alone, Amnesty International has documented numerous cases of harassment, extortions, beatings, sexual assaults, unlawful detentions, and murders of transgendered people. Human-rights violations happen not in a vacuum but within a social environment of discrimination, intolerance and hatred...an environment that fosters a culture of impunity. It's a culture that says it's OK to inflict depraved and cruel acts on a certain group of people simply because of who they are. The abuses transgendered people suffer are perpetrated not only by state agents, such as the police and prison officers, but even more often by ordinary citizens who act with the acquiescence and complicity of government authorities.
In an Amnesty International report, "Crimes of hate, conspiracy of silence, " AI documents how identity-based discrimination makes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered ( LGBT ) people more vulnerable to torture and violence, whether in police or prison custody, in the streets or at home. The report was released on June 26, in time for the 32nd Anniversary of Stonewall...a historic moment for the modern LGBT movement. It is important for us today to remember that many of those in the frontline at Stonewall were transgender activists and people of color.
The report shows how given the stigma surrounding homosexuality and the culture of impunity pervasive in many societies around the world, many cases of homophobic violence perpetrated against LGBT people go unreported, uninvestigated or unchallenged. The lack of legal protections from discrimination and the existence of criminal statutes that prohibit same-sex relations create an environment, throughout most of the world, where LGBT people are considered and treated as less than human and more vulnerable to acts of violence. Transgendered people are especially vulnerable because they are more likely to be socially and economically marginalized.
Beth Plotner, Chair of It's Time, Illinois.
There was a time not too long ago when many Americans could not conceive of the idea of people being killed for who they were. Then came Sept. 11. On that day everyone in this country saw what hate can do. Hate kills. It killed all those innocent people in New York and at the Pentagon. People were killed for being who they were, Americans. Of the thousands of people killed some were gay, straight, women, Christian, African-American, transgendered, Jewish, Asian-American, Muslim, lesbian, men, white, Latino Arab-American. In other words Americans. Every racial, ethnic, religious, sexual and gender community lost some of its members. Every one of these communities was affected by this event. And each one of these communities makes up the bigger community known as the United States.
The mission of It's Time, Illinois is political action for the gender variant. A gender variant person might identify as transgendered or identify in some other way that is not within the traditional concepts of male and female. Then again that person might identify in the traditional male or female sense but something about their appearance makes others perceive them as being outside these so-called traditional boundaries. As part of our mission we lobby for inclusion within the civil-right laws that protect from senseless discrimination. We also educate. We educate our elected officials, universities, businesses, schools to show who we are and that deep down we're just like everyone else. We are your friends, daughters, sons, neighbors and co-workers.
At this time I would like to thank our other speakers for being here and supporting us in our fight against hate. I would like to thank our speakers Lorrainne Sade Baskerville from TransGenesis, Rabbi Suzanne Griffel from Congregation Or Chadash, Michele Mohr from Amnesty International and Miranda Stevens-Miller and Lisa Scheps from It's Time, Illinois.
Miranda Stevens-Miller of It's Time
I remember the first time we held a vigil for victims of anti-transgender hatred. It was five years ago. We held it just around the corner. At seven in the morning we gathered at the foot of the Picasso in Daley Center Plaza. I remember it well. It was a foggy morning, a real pea souper; crowds of people were coming to work. Some of you were there.
We were there because Christian Paige had been brutally murdered. It was gruesome. I won't go into the details, but let's just call it overkill. How many times can they kill one person? They tried to obliterate her. They never found her killers.
That's why we were there that day. We couldn't let them obliterate Christian Paige. We couldn't let her life just be another statistic. She was a real person, and that is what we honored at the vigil.
Christian Paige had hopes and aspirations. She was a performer. She came to Chicago from Nashville with hopes of winning the Miss Continental contest. She loved people and people loved her right back. She loved to see people laugh and smile. She enjoyed life.
When Christian was killed, the Remembering Our Dead project had not yet started. Five years later, there are over 200 names inscribed on the walls of that cyber-memorial. Names of over 200 beautiful, warm, wonderful people. People just like Christian Paige, who had friends, who had family, who had community that cared about them.
Two hundred people, whose lives were ended way too soon, in hate crimes, in violence, in terror. Because of their gender. They tried to obliterate them too. And that's why we're here tonight.
They were killed because of gender. Because they dared to step across those invisible gender boundaries.
It starts in the schools ... where being transgendered means being harassed or assaulted. Our gender queer kids are being driven to suicide by a constant barrage of hatred. And it continues into grown-up society, where we are fair game for ridiculed on television and newspapers ... and on the streets. Transgression of gender role is just cause for harassment and violence in our society.
They were killed because of gender. We talk about transphobia, but I am sure the attackers don't even know what transgender or transphobia means. They just go out to bash a queer, and we are the most visible of the queers. It was homophobia that killed our brothers and sisters. Because they were the most visible queers.
Lisa Scheps of It's Time
Hate. I started to look up the word, but quickly realized that hate defies definition, defies words, defies personification. And with good reason. It is an ugly thing ... . And it is a universal thing.
Sadly, most everyone knows what it feels like to be the victim of hatred...someone may not like they way you look, the way you act, the way you drive your car, where you live, who you love, who you associate with. And now this entire country is acutely aware of what it is like to be victimized simply by virtue of who you are.
If we are a smart society, and I pray that we are, we will ALL take the lessons learned here at this vigil, as well as recent events ... and simply judge less … hate less … hurt less.