Peacock Dreams

What is Remembered, Lives.

yezida

11/19/07 08:40 pm

Via tristissima, I discover that Tuesday November 19th is Transgender Day of Remembrance.

I will place hir words in italics, and mine not:

Hermaphroditus, look at the names of the dead.
Ardhanarisvara, read the names of the dead.
Melek Ta'us, remember the names of the dead.
Eris, look at the names of the dead.
Antinous, read the names of the dead.
Hoor-paar-kraat, remember the names of the dead.
Tlazolteotl, look at the names of the dead.
Azathoth, look at the names of the dead.
Pomba-Gira, read the names of the dead.
Inanna, remember the names of the dead.
Baphomet, look at the names of the dead.
Avalokitesvara, read the names of the dead.
Faro, remember the names of the dead.

Names of trans people killed in the last year:

Nakia Ladelle Baker
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Age: 31 yrs. old
Cause of Death: trauma to the head
Date of Death: January 7, 2007

Hasan Sabeh
Location: Baghdad, Iraq
Age: 34 yrs. old
Cause of death: Stripped and shot dead by an Islamist death squad
Date of death: January 11, 2007

Keittirat Longnawa
Location: Rassada, Thailand
Age: ?
Cause of Death: Beaten by 9 Youths and then they slit her throat
Date of Death: January 31, 2007

Tatiana (Aldomiro Gomes)
Location: Trani, Italy
Age: 57
Cause of Death: Her skull was bashed in, in the middle of the street
and then her head was slammed in a car door.
Date of Death: February 18, 2007

Moira Donaire
Location: Viña del Mar, Chile
Age: 30 yrs. Old
Cause of Death: Stabbed 5 times by a street vendor
Date of Death: March 5, 2007

Michelle Carrasco "Chela"
Location: Santiago, Chile
Age: 54 Yrs. Old
Cause of Death: She was found in a pit with her face completely
disfigured.
Date of Death: March 16, 2007

Ruby Rodriguez
Location: San Francisco, California
Age: 27 Yrs. Old
Cause of Death: She had been strangled and was found naked in the
street.
Date of Death: March 16, 2007

Erica Keel
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Age: 21 Yrs. Old
Cause of Death: A car repeatedly struck her
Date of Death: March 23, 2007

Bret T. Turner
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Age: 48 Yrs. Old
Cause of Death: Multiple stab wounds
Date of Death: April 2, 2007

Manuela Di Cesare
Location: Pescara, Italy
Age: 37
Cause of Death: Head smashed by unknown object.
Date of Death: April 21, 2007

Unidentified Male Clad in Female Attire
Location: Kingston, Jamaica
Age: ?
Cause of Death: Gunshot wounds to the chest and lower back
Date of Death: July 7, 2007

Victoria Arellano
Location: San Pedro, California
Age: ?
Cause of Death: She was denied necessary medications to treat
HIV-related side effects.
Date of Death: July 20, 2007

Oscar Mosqueda
Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Age: ?
Cause of Death: Shot to death
Date of Death: July 29, 2007

Stefania (no found second name)
Location: Roma, Italy
Age: 35
Cause of Death: Violently beaten with skull bashed in.
Date of Death: August 1, 2007

Maribelle Reyes
Location: Houston, Texas
Age: ?
Cause of Death: AIDS; Reyes was turned away from several treatment
centers due to her transgender status.
Date of Death: August 30, 2007

I also ask for remembrance of the un-named, and those who died of suicide.

I call to all edge-walkers, bridge builders, twin spirits and lovers to celebrate life. May God Herself bless us all, and the Divine Twins dance within us.


For more info see http://www.rememberingourdead.org
For links to my earlier writings on murdered trans-people:
http://yezida.livejournal.com/116964.html
http://yezida.livejournal.com/117255.html
http://yezida.livejournal.com/51113.html

• Speak

• vrax

  11/20/07 04:58 am (UTC)

  

  It was more effective in your first version.

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  • yezida

    11/20/07 05:00 am (UTC)

    

    Hmm. I edited it because I couldn't get LJ cut to work and it seemed way too long. Maybe I'll put the other stuff back in...

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    • vrax

      11/20/07 05:02 am (UTC)

      

      you seem to have a stray </i> at the end
      

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• bruhinb

  11/20/07 05:28 am (UTC)

  

  Wow. I never knew about Erica Keel. I always though of Philadelphia as a relatively safe place to be out as whoever you happen to really be. A little dose of reality, however painful, is valuable.
  
  Thanks!

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• rmmcgrath

  11/20/07 09:20 am (UTC)

  

  Amen.

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• bolowolf

  11/20/07 03:05 pm (UTC)

  

  Thank you for helping spread the word.

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• morrigandaughtr

  11/20/07 03:41 pm (UTC)

  

  Thank you for this post.
  
  Maribelle Reyes
  Location: Houston, Texas
  Age: ?
  Cause of Death: AIDS; Reyes was turned away from several treatment
  centers due to her transgender status.
  Date of Death: August 30, 2007
  
  This just floors me. I knew nothing about her, and I live in Houston. ::puts investigator hat on::

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• Vital Reminder

  copperstewart

  11/20/07 04:08 pm (UTC)

  

  Thanks to you and to tristissima for this reminder. I blogged it and added another trans triad to the prayer at:
  
  http://www.isiskosmos.org/libertyblog/

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• votum_succendo

  11/20/07 05:41 pm (UTC)

  

  May their Souls pass gently through the Tuat, Finding Rest & Peace along the Heart-River, to seek the Rising Sun. By the Words of Truth of the Osiris-Ani, it shall be so.
  
  Behold!
  
  They have divided the heavens, They have passed through the horizon, They have traversed the earth, following upon hir footsteps. They are borne away by the mighty and shining ones because, behold, They are furnished with millions of years which have magic virtues.
  
  May their Souls pass gently through the Tuat, Finding Rest & Peace along the Heart-River, in the Careful Arms of Nuit.
  
  ABRAHADABRA!

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• lillitu_shahar

  11/20/07 07:54 pm (UTC)

  

  julia has also written on this subject/day, in her personal blog and on the feministing group blog.
  
  she told me casually the other day over breakfast that a woman was beaten up in DC, and when the paramedics arrived to help and the discovered that she was trans, she was heckled, mocked, and denied treatment. she died as a result from that criminal neglect. i could not finish my breakfast. i kept thinking about what her last minutes on earth must have been like. the things julia knows about and lives with every day sometimes astound me.
  
  

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  • godhole

    11/21/07 07:19 am (UTC)

    

    Her name was Tyra Hunter. Her photo is here.
    
    The negligence resulted in a civil judgment in favor of Tyra's mother. However, another case determined that the emergency medical services personnel did not commit a crime.
    
    Imagine living a life where you are afraid to call 911 when something is very wrong; or where if you have an accident at work, reporting it would result in dangerous disclosure; or simply being in the wrong place, the wrong time - the wrong gender presentation or expression. These are fears that we who are trans somehow live with every day, and I tell you from seeing close-up the contracted and hesitant lives that result from these fears - it is a form of terrorism. Nearly every transwoman has heard of Tyra Hunter, somehow, and knows that what happened to Tyra can happen to her.
    
    
    

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    • lillitu_shahar

      11/21/07 05:06 pm (UTC)

      

      yes, that was her name. i could not remember it at the time. thanks for telling me again.
      
      i actually don't have to imagine this very hard. i worry for julia every time she travels or makes a public appearance. it is our shared reality.

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• tn_lark

  11/27/07 07:59 pm (UTC)

  

  And now the brightness of their souls cannot be denied.
  
  When will we learn that each of us must walk their own path and just because our paths are different does not make either one of us wrong?

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