Speaking Out: Transgender Day of Remembrance is Today

(Repost from GLAADblog)

Today marks the 10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, an international observance honoring the lives lost due to anti-transgender violence in the U.S. and around the world.

If this were one week ago, I would have blogged about fifteen transgender and gender non-conforming people who were murdered in America this year.  Not only is fifteen a high number, it is most likely underestimated. A large number of transgender deaths go unreported or misreported, and accurate statistics are impossible to calculate since they are not collected, mostly due to lack of federal hate crimes protections for transgender Americans.

If this were one week ago, the list of 15 names we would pause to remember would have included the names of Brian McGlothin, Patricia Murphy, Stacy Brown, Adolphus Simmons, Ashley Sweeney, Sanesha Stewart, Lawrence King, Simmie Williams, Lloyd Nixon, Ebony Whitaker, Angie Zapata, Jaylynn L. Namauu, Ruby Molina and Aimee Wilcoxson.

However, last Friday we sadly added one more name to the list of lives lost this year due to anti-transgender hatred and prejudice.  Read the rest of the post here.