Transgender Day of Remembrance commemorates murders

Transgender Day of Remembrance commemorates murdersNovember 10, 2005Matthew R. Snydermrsnyder@syr.edu

As part of the Seventh Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, Syracuse University will commemorate the lives of the 321 reported people murdered since 1970 as a result of violence against transgender people.

The SU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center will hold a remembrance ceremony in Hendricks Chapel, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m., to honor those who have been killed. Officiated by the Rev. Kelly Sprinkle, interdenominational Protestant campus minister, the hour-long program will include shared poetry, personal reflections and a reading of the names of the deceased. The event will conclude with a candlelight procession across the Quad leading to the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center, where the blown-out candles will create a memorial representing each transgender person’s extinguished life. The program is co-sponsored by student organizations Outrage, Pride Union, Open Doors, Black Communications Society, Students Advancing Sexual Safety and Empowerment (SASSE), the Syracuse University R.A.P.E. Center, Substance Abuse Prevention and Health Enhancement (S.A.P.H.E.) Office and the Slutzker Center for International Services.

“National Transgender Day of Remembrance is a time to educate people within and outside of the LGBT community that hatred against gender-nonconforming individuals is palpable and pervasive in our society,” says Adrea Jaehnig, director of the LGBT Resource Center. “Since many of these stories are never reported in the media, this is a day to educate people about the need for anti-discrimination and hate crime laws that seek to protect the safety, well-being and employment of transgender people.”

Transgender Day of Remembrance began seven years ago to memorialize those who were killed due to transphobia. The event is held each November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on Nov. 28, 1998, launched the Remembering Our Dead Web project(http://www.gender.org/remember/index.html) and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999.

The event is free and open to the public. Parking is free and available in the Irving Parking Garage.

Other Transgender Remembrance events include a poster-making session on Thursday, Nov. 10, from noon-5 p.m. in Room 228A of the Schine Center. The program, sponsored by Outrage, an SU LGBT student organization, will honor the 25 reported deaths of transgender people since 2004’s Transgender Day of Remembrance. Participants are encouraged to artistically remember one transgender person’s life and legacy. These posters will hang in the Schine Atrium with the candle display the week of Nov. 14-18.

The LGBT Resource Center will provide information and resources about transgender issues, Nov. 16 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., in the Schine Atrium. That evening at 8 p.m., Pride Union and Open Doors, two SU LGBT student organizations, will show “Beautiful Boxer” in Room 107 of the Hall of Languages. The film chronicles the true story of Thailand’s famed transgender kickboxer, Parinya Charoenphol, who fought in brutal Thai kickboxing to support herself and later afford sex-reassignment surgery.

The film is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Irving Parking Garage.