The women’s Chorus of Dallas has performed at several Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremonies. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
By Pamela Curry
Courtesy of The Dallas Way
Trangender Day of Remembrance, as many of you know, is observed annually on Nov. 20. It is an international, community-oriented ceremony honoring those lost to acts of anti-trans violence. I want to share the story of how I helped to bring TDOR to Dallas.
According to the official TDOR website, TDOR.info, the first TDOR was held in 1999, organized by Gwendolyn Ann Smith to honor the life of Rita Hester, who had been murdered one year earlier. Hester’s muder remains unsolved.
The website, maintained by Smith, explains: “The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.”
Laying roses in a basket for each victim of transgender violence. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
We know that, globally, trans women of color are dispriopritonaly victims of violence. Right here in Dallas, Carla Patricia Flores-Pavón, a young trans Latina woman, was killed in her own home on May 9, 2018. This year is actually expected to be one of the deadliest years on record for trans people in the U.S., with at least 22 homicides of trans people already reported, according to sources.
These murders are often extremely brutal: victims are strangled, shot, stabbed, shot and stabbed (often multiple times), dismembered and even burned, sometimes while still alive and bleeding out. The violence feels like an attempt to erase their existence: If they can’t be identified, they didn’t exist.
These murders previously went largely unreported. Only due to increased awareness and our own community’s demands for remembrace, dignity and justice do these deaths receive more attention today.
Sadly these murders still largely go unsolved.
But it isn’t just physical violence that threatens the trans community: Bathroom bills, denying gender marker changes to identifying documents, dead-naming and more. Some trans women have recently reported having their U.S. passports revoked or renewals denied.
These are but a few of the things that embolden those who would prey on us. Because of the current culture of hate and without the specific protections from homicidal violence or even the limited protections from oppression or discrimination, the violence will undoubtedly continue to escalate. For this reason alone it’s more important today than ever that every open and affirming congregation, every ally find a way to support or organize or at least seek out and attend a TDOR Memorial service.
Speak out when you witness oppression, harassment, discrimination or violence or celebration of someone who had/has a history of disparaging the transgender community.
Before I continue I must confess that when I was asked to write this, I almost said, “No, find someone else.” Writing anything that isn’t telling a machine what to do is not my best talent. But I was asked because I was the organizer of the first TDOR memorial in North Texas, back in 2002. While trans people are still being murdered, we have a responsibility to tell their stories and remember their history. How, then, could in say no?
The first TDOR in North Texas
It was late fall 2001 when I first became aware of TDOR, when a friend’s “Aunty T” (Tamara Ching of San Francisco) and then “Moonflower” (Vanessa Foster of Houston) remarked, “It’s a shame that that big beautiful church in Dallas [Cathedral of Hope] isn’t having a TDOR Memorial event.”
At a TdoR ceremony at Cathedral of Hope, participants lit candles to remember transgender victims of violence. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
Having only recently returned to Dallas and only very recently become a member of Cathedral of Hope, I didn’t know anyone, so didn’t feel qualified to coordinate anything. But I made it my goal to see that in 2002, Dallas would have a TDOR Memorial, four years after the first memorial in San Francisco.
I reached out to Linda Freeman from Cathedral of Hope, asking how I might make this happen. She referred me to the Rev. Mona West. Not really knowing Rev. West,
I asked Linda to accompany me.
We reached out to every progressive, open congregation in Dallas that we could identify, asking them to join the memorial. We also reached out to every transgender group we could find and asked them to participate. All we asked for was a speaker from each organization or church to list them as a co-sponsor with Cathredral of Hope absorbing all costs.
We even sent invitations to the performers from the clubs on Cedar Springs.
Then, on Nov. 24, 2002, Dallas held it’s first Trans Day of Remembrance Candlelight Memorial service. We read the names of those who had been killed that year, and we lit a candle for each one of them as a symbolic gesture declaring hate could not extinguish the light they’d brought to the world.
Never allow hate to extinguish the light.
Pamela Curry is a currently a children’s/youth Sunday school teacher at Northaven United Methodist Church.
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TDOR 2018 in Dallas
• The TranScending Hope Conference, to educate clergy and lay leaders about the trans experience, will be held Nov. 16-17, at Cathedral of Hope, 5910 Cedar Springs Road. Special guest will be Austen Hartke, the author of Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians. For information, contact the Rev. Erin Wyma at 214-351-1901.
• Transgender Pride of Dallas hosts a Transgender Day of Remembrance event on Nov. 20 this year, from 7-9 p.m. at J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, 1515 Young St.
