Appropriation of Transgender Day of Remembrance
Every year, on November 20, many people – cis people as well as trans people – observe the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Trans people are 16 times more likely to be murdered than the general population, and 1-2 trans people are murdered every month. So far, the TDOR website lists 18 names:
Kellie Telesford, Brian McGlothlin, Gabriela Alejandra Albornoz, Patrick Murphy, Adolphus Simmons, Phaedra, Ashley Sweeney, Sanesha Stewart, Lawrence King, Simmie Williams Jr., Luna, Lloyd Nixon, Felicia Melton-Smyth, Silvana Berisha, Ebony Whitaker, Rosa Pazos, Angie Zapata, and Jaylynn L. Namauu.
Names not yet added to the list include Ruby Molina and Nikki Williams.
For 10 years, our community has gathered to remember our dead on November 20th.
So, enter GLSEN, or the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, proposing TransAction!,
TransAction! – November 21, 2008
GLSEN is proud to be sponsoring a new national day of action: TransAction! This is a day for action, a day for education, celebration, and a day for people who do not identify as transgender to become an ally and stand up for the rights of individuals who have been the victims of harassment, bullying and name-calling because of their gender identity and/or gender expression.
Now, I think suggesting a day like this is by itself not a bad thing, but doing it the day after the Day of Remembrance is in incredibly poor taste, and smacks of allies speaking for trans people. I could be wrong, and trans people might be involved in planning/proposing this day… but even so, November 21st is the wrong day. Further, on Washington State’s GLSEN page,
*November*
11/21/2008, TransAction (Formerly Trans Day of Remembrance)
People who want to become an ally and stand up for the rights of trans people who have been the victims of harassment, bullying, and name-calling because of their gender identity and/or expression shouldn’t be doing this. Trans people have been doing the Day of Remembrance for 10 years. Don’t claim to replace the TDOR. Don’t put your day of celebration on the day after DOR. This isn’t solidarity, it’s appropriation. It’s walking all over what trans people are already doing.
Contact info: glsen@glsen.org or 212-727-0135
Formerly! *is gobsmacked*
Why doesn’t GLSEN try and prevent more dead trans people rather than trying to subsume our honouring and remembering them? That’d be too difficult, I’m sure… :(
z
October 7, 2008 at 12:03 am
E-mail and phone added for complaints.
I’ve heard that Ethan St. Pierre and Gwen Smith are quite unhappy about this.
Lisa Harney
October 7, 2008 at 12:11 am
well their name says it all anyway, gay-straight alliance. i don’t see and gay-trans or straight-trans or well… a perfunctory search for ‘trans’ on their site bought up 6 results, the most recent dates from a year ago. compared with 25 for queer, 364 for lesbian, 449 for gay and 294 for straight. transgender gets 212 not as important as straights i presume.
sounds and looks like a group of ‘we’re just like you’ straight-acting no queers here thanksverymuch… i think i’ll find somewhere else to go, like with people who don’t appropriate our days for their own agenda
frances
October 7, 2008 at 3:02 am
trust me, the membership of GLSEN, at least in Washington State, is about 80% gay white boys from Western Washington. it’s generally unlikely that they teach in the “big city” (read: seattle, tacoma, everett) schools.
i actually had meant to join seeing as that i was sort of present at the creation of GLSEN in Connecticut, and basically it turned into fat dyke go home we don’t take librarians…or your kind. i had meant to ask if my kind meant brown people but i doubt they would have understood what i meant.
algormortis
October 7, 2008 at 3:15 am
Actually, Z, I’m sure that GLSEN is attempting to prevent more trans and gender-nonconforming deaths by addressing bullying and harassment in schools, which leads to taunting, ridicule, attacks and murder.
I’m not defending this event and agree with many of the comments presented in this post, but I would like it to be recognized that through education we can curb bullying and harassment, which will hopefully make all our lives – trans, GNC and ally alike – better.
L
October 7, 2008 at 10:11 am
I already said that the idea is good, and that it’s the implementation that’s problematic.
algormortis,
Exciting. Sounds like some wonderful guys!
Lisa Harney
October 7, 2008 at 12:50 pm
“Formerly” Trans Day of Remembrance?
What. the. fuck?
I find it very troubling that the response of ’solidarity’ is to attempt to change the name that trans people has been using for years, instead of taking some responsibility and changing the name of the organization to be trans inclusive. Or would they lose too many transphobic queers? I DON’T KNOW; JUST A THOUGHT.
uppitybrownwoman
October 7, 2008 at 2:20 pm
GLSEN contacted me about this, said that my response was totally valid and requested a dialogue – so I forwarded that to Gwen Smith, who basically started the Day of Remembrance.
Lisa Harney
October 7, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
I have placed a call to Washington GSA and requested that they change their verbage on their website. While I in principle do not object to allies trying to rally support for trans people, as the organizer for Seattle 2009 Transgender Day of Remembrance, of which this year will be the 9th annual observance, I do object to them declaring themselves a replacement for our events.
For those of you concerned that Seattle is not having a TDOR event, please rest assured that like last year our event(s) will actually be a two day affair beginning on November 18th and involving members of the Q-Center at Univ of Washington, Ingersoll Gender Center, The Emerald City, Pacific Gender Support, and Ravenna United Methodist Church(which BTW has a significant trans percentage).
Know this also, as a member of the Safe Schools Coalition and being about as connected in this community as a person can be, this situation in the Washington GSA Network WILL be corrected.
Thank you,
ShannonB
ShannonB
October 7, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Thank you, Shannon.
And, yes, rallying support is a great cause, I really love that they want to do this.
Lisa Harney
October 7, 2008 at 2:49 pm
L, what Frances said. Perhaps engaging more with the trans community rather than making errors like this will prove a more productive pursuit for education.
z
October 7, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Yes, exactly.
Lisa Harney
October 7, 2008 at 3:04 pm
yay, shannonb. i got dumped to someone’s voicemail, where i left my most polite and pleasant voicemail and haven’t heard back. color me shocked, i say, shocked.
as i was saying on lisa’s LJ, know when to hench and know when to own. they’re trying to own when they should be henching, whereas anyone who’s really an “ally” (god i hate that word) should know when not to try to own something that they don’t. i realize that those pesky dead transpeople, who are mostly brown, mess with their cute little GL-silent B-silent T concept of LGBuhT, a happy land where everyone’s moneyed, white (or well-behaved brown) and has a condo on Capitol Hill.
yeah. anyways, i’m a little acidic, mostly because i got halfway through my sentence before getting dumped to voicemail. passive-aggressive much, GLSEN?
algormortis
October 7, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Hmmm…
In some ways having a day for trying to fix things soon after one of raising awareness of the horrendous problem that needs fixing does make some sense.
But the day after might be too soon, catching people too caught up in the grief and heartache rather than at the peak of their anger maybe.
My suggestion would be to make their day of action a subset part of the Rememberance. Not supplanting it but instead being an extention of it. Set maybe a week later while the issues can still be fresh in the minds and attention-spans of allies without crowding or overtaking or interfering in the Day of Rememberance.
A day for Remembering, grieving and raising awareness followed by some time for emotional coping for those most effected and then a day of action to do something about the problem.
Battybattybats
October 8, 2008 at 8:11 am
Just an update on the Washington GLSEN and GSA pages-
I contacted GLSEN-WA yesterday with my(our) concerns by both email and voicemail. Today I received the following message from GLSEN-WA:
We have agreed to continue working to change the wording on their GSA page, and they will be adding the Trans community sponsored TDOR events to their calendar.
Lisa, thank you again for blogging this information and bringing it to our attention. And to all of you that contacted GLSEN’s national office, thank you as well. I think the fact that they received an unequivocal message of support for the local trans community’s events from the national office helped speed a resolution to this issue.
ShannonB
ShannonB
October 8, 2008 at 10:14 am
You know, I swear I heard of trans action day before, but it was supposed to be 6 months after TDoR. Imo, that would be fine–its the fact that this is a day after (and their shitty wording) that gets my goat.
drakyn
October 8, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Well, they’re talking to people about it at this point. I hope that means anything at all.
Shannon, thank you for the update.
Lisa Harney
October 8, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Also, Drakyn, wtf? You’ve been invisible for days!
Lisa Harney
October 8, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Sorry, I was without internet for almost a week. I went to my grandparents house for the weekend to cook/clean/etc and ended up staying the week. And since my laptop was still in for repairs I couldn’t even bring it and steal wireless (or start reading ultimate xmen >.<).
drakyn
October 8, 2008 at 11:30 pm