On Nov. 20while many in Boystown celebrated Illinois becoming the 16th state in the nation with full marriage equalitythe people who filled a narrow wing of the Center on Halsted were more somber.
Transmen, women and genderqueers from across the city were there for the Transgender Day of Remembrance, an event to memorialize the more than 70 transpeople murdered across the world.
These were merely the documented cases. The actual number, and so the scope of the crimes worldwide, is unknown.
Twenty-two-year old Evon Young, was tied up, choked with a chain, shot and then set on fire in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Venezuelan Palmira Garcia, 37, was tortured and partially scalped. An unidentified child of 13 suffered death by hanging in Brazil. Sixteen-year-old Dwayne Jones was beaten, stabbed and run over by a car in Jamaica. The list went on and on, read by members of the trans community in Chicago, some of whom could not hold back their tears.
[Additional photo spread at the link: www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/photospreadthumbs.php . ]
Gloria Allen, who opened the evening, knew a lot of friends who died simply because they wanted to be themselves. Yet she was hopeful. "It's getting better," she declared. "We have such a bright future. Among the young women and guys today, they are educated, they are smart and they are beautiful."
Allen came out in 1958, when they were putting transwomen in jail, and was in New York during the Stonewall Riots." We, the transgender community, have a history," she said. "We need to come together, stick together and pray together. God didn't make a mistake."
Center on Halsted Youth Outreach Coordinator Precious Davis added a special touch to the evening by also honoring the resilience of people who are actively working for the community. Off stage she said that transpeople need to step forward into the modern world. "The stigma needs to be broken," she said. "We are not caricatures. We are everyday people, with passions and dreams to have success in life."
Diva Donzell, Reina Valentino and Phoenix Stone were among the performers who expressed those passions in song and verse, a tradition begun by event founders Lois Bates and June La Trobe.
In closing, Chicago House TransLife Care Coordinator Channyn Parker expressed her thanks to trans-pioneers, like La Trobe, Allen, Davis, Joy Morris, Alexis Martinez and a myriad of others. "You, like trumpets, have raised your voices when it appeared the T was being forgotten by the L,G and B." She said.
Parker asked that The Transgender Day of Remembrance also include a moment of triumph to rise above the mourning. "Celebrate yourselves," she told the audience. "Celebrate the resilience, leadership and undying spirit you continue to display and prove each and every day."
As they recessed, the audience was asked to take a purple ribbon to tie to a tree or drop a black marble in a pool in memory of someone they have lost.
The men and women who came together Nov. 20 each had a personal reason for wanting to take part. Das Janssen, a professor of philosophy at Chicago State University, said he was there to remember those people who were not honored in their deaths. "The more people that understand us, the closer we will get to an end to the violence." He said.
Antony Hebblethwaite is a communications director with the More Light Presbyterians. "I hope we can start taking action, like Chicago House, with wrap around services for transgender people," he said. "I want us to do the kind of work in our community that will turn things around for us."
People with El Rescate ( The Rescue ) said they are engaged in precisely that. The transitional living facility offers help for homeless LGBTQ and HIV positive youth and young adults. Health Educator and Outreach Director Maritxa Vidal explained that the facility exists to see an end to transpeople prostituting themselves on the streets or turning to drugs, situations that often cause additional names to be added to the list of those killed. "We want them to be protected," she said. "They can go back to school or get a vocation, so when they leave us, they have a good foundation, so they don't have to come back." The facility has space available for at least 20 more people.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration expressed its support for the transgender community in a White House blog marking the Transgender Day of Remembrance. "The Obama administration remains committed to preventing violence against all people, including all members of the LGBT community," a White House press release stated.
Actions taken included the signing of a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act to include "critical protections for transgender people and the broader LGBT community." The Department of Justice has worked with transgender advocacy and law enforcement leaders to provide training to people interacting with and protecting transgender persons and to prevent and respond to hate crimes.