Tuesday, November 20 is The Transgender Day Of Remembrance. It is a day set aside to commemorate those transgender men and women who have been victims of the ultimate act of violence.
This event began in 1998 to commemorate the murder of Rita Hester in Boston, MA from multiple stab wounds. Her murder remains unsolved. Unfortunately, she was not the last. It is fitting and proper those of us in the transgender community would pause and remember those among us who's life journey was all too short.
As we pause tomorrow, let us remember that when anyone, anywhere is persecuted because of who they are, it must forever remain unacceptable.
We have had much discussion on ENDA, we engage in outreach at the social level and we speak of pride in ourselves at the personal level. At the core of all forms of outreach is the fundamental issue of human dignity.
May we develop a renewed respect for the dignity of others who are different from ourselves. May we also develop a renewed sense of self respect. In doing so, we are able to offer compassion to those around us who are hurting and in need. It's the very least we can do for our fellow human beings......and ourselves.
This link to a short video by Rev. Erin Swinson sums the day far more eloquently than I could.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzDGzbZICA0
For anyone incined, this link is to Gwen Smith's moving site, "Remembering Our Dead".
http://www.gender.org/remember/index.html#
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment