Trans community looks ahead to global day of remembrance
Organisers in the UK are raising awareness of next week’s Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR).
It’s taking place on Tuesday 20 November and aims to commemorate the hundreds of individuals murdered each year simply for being transgender.
Thousands of members of the trans community and their supporters will gather together at locations around the globe to mark the event.
It first started in 1998, following the murder of Rita Hester, a transgender African American woman in Massachusetts.
In the UK, events are scheduled to take place in venues across the country, including London, Southampton, Cambridge, Liverpool and Edinburgh.
International statistics compiled by the Trans Respect Monitoring Project identified at least 265 trans people murdered in the last twelve months, an increase of 20% on the previous year.
The actual number is likely to be much greater than that reported. In some areas, including many African countries, trans victims are frequently recorded as lesbian or gay.
Other areas where significant under-reporting is widely believed to occur include Russia, parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
85% of reported killings took place in Latin America, with 45% in Brazil alone.
Natacha Kennedy, co-organiser of the London TDoR event said:
“Trans people have always existed in every civilisation throughout human history. Their persecution, however, is, relatively recent, dating back probably no more than 500 years in most instances.”
