Remembering our Dead - Transgender day of Remembrance

Life's been hectic. But that's what life is. I love to write, I love to draw, I love to debate, make websites, share my ideas.. But half the time, I'm so busy pushing through the mediocrity that life shoves my way, working a job trying to earn enough money to pay the bills, buy my medication, eat, wondering how to afford surgeries, if I can get my hormones this month.... And then, once in awhile, something comes along that makes me look away from my own problems, and makes me think "You know, I really don't have that much to bitch about, all in all. MOST of us don't have anything to bitch about. We're still alive. No one's found our beaten, brutalized, crumpled forms in a ditch alongside the freeway. I can make it through this.. While quite a few out there did not."

So I ask those who think their life is SO damned hard, those that think they're drowning at the bottom of the shit-barrel.. To look outside your life, take a look at what happens each and every day, all around the world. Look at that, and try to tell me, and yourself, without flat out lying, that your life really IS that bad. I know mine sure as hell isn't.

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The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the "Remembering Our Dead" web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester's murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgendered — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgendered people.

We live in times more sensitive than ever to hatred based violence, especially since the events of September 11th. Yet even now, the deaths of those based on anti-transgender hatred or prejudice are largely ignored. Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. This trend shows no sign of abating.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgendered 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-transgendered 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.



Day Of Remembrance
S. Bear Bergman

I'm scrolling and scrolling,
names on my screen keep rolling,
more than I expected to see, hundreds,
too many to count quickly, too many to die so early,
one day before they would have is too early, outrageous,
sentenced to death for being courageous,
living out loud in an age such as this, where every border's guarded
and marked with gendered piss, this
here is only for us, only for you, what is it mommy?
not now honey, that's rude — why is it rude? that's a bad attitude,
that's what you'll do? Parents, that's unworthy of you,
if something's unusual, let children know what's different,
buy him a tutu - let that be the end of it, let them grow
unencumbered by expectation, there's all kinds of situations,
gender, race, ethnic variations, none of them cut or dried,
no lie,
cause otherwise, we get "boys don't cry",
we tell our boys not to cry, they swallow the tears, the fears,
they erode every other feeling until it explodes,
looking like Gwen in a shallow grave by the road,
like Marsha being fished out whole,
looking like Brandon full of anger's holes. We won't accept this,
the idea is ludicrous, you want to kill a kid
because he wants to wear a dress?
Ridiculous.
We will not go gently, not into any night or memory,
we're here today remember our family, taken too early,
I hope they come back to haunt their killers fully,
inhabit their uncertainty, give them their own inescapable
enemy, and for those of us still alive, stand up!
stand up and shout,
stand up and be what it's about,
be the change you want to see in the world,
live like a flag unfurled,
be heard,
today we are here to remember, today we are peaceful
in honor, today we are heard together,
but tomorrow this event's a lesson to miscreants, anyone with ill intent,
our spirit unbreakable, a lot at stake,
our numbers unmistakable, proclaiming,
I'm here with my tribe,
this family's my wealth,
and I would die with them
before I would live by myself.

Who is being honored by the Transgender Day of Remembrance?

Over the past year, over 30 transgender people have lost their lives due to hate crimes, but this is unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg of people killed worldwide due to bias and hatred based on gender identity and expression. Most of the victims were people of color who came from working class backgrounds. Among the fallen are transgender and gender non-conforming youth of color whose lives were cut short unnecessarily.

Gwen Araujo, 17, (Newark, California) chose the name, Gwen, after her favorite star, Gwen Stefani, from the group No Doubt. Before her untimely death, her skirt was lifted up for people to see that she was born biologically male before she was beaten and buried in a shallow grave.

Alina Marie Barragan, 19, (San Jose, California) was strangled to death and her body was stuffed in the trunk of a car after a man named Kozi Santino Scott became enraged after discovering that Alina Marie, who he originally thought was a woman, was biologically male.

Sakia Gunn, 15, (Newark, New Jersey) was a gender non-conforming lesbian who was targeted because of her gender presentation. Sakia Gunn was not like most girls in her neighborhood. She refused to wear pink even as a young child. Her mother laughs when asked if Sakia played with dolls. When they were given to her as toys, she immediately cut off their hair, she says. For as long as anyone can remember, Sakia preferred baggy jeans and a T-shirt over dresses and skirts. On a hot night in June, Sakia and her friends were returning from the Chelsea Piers in downtown Manhattan, a hangout for mostly queer youth of color, to Newark, New Jersey. When Sakia and her friends, refused the advances of a couple of men, Sakia was subsequently stabbed and passed away on the way to the hospital.

Nireah Johnson, 17, (Indianapolis, Indiana) was murdered by a man who became enraged when he discovered that Nireah, the young woman he was attracted to, was transgender. Nireah and a friend, 18-year-old Brandie Coleman, were shot in the head while sitting in a SUV.

Freddie Martinez, 16, (Cortez, Colorado) was a very striking Navajo teen who presented as female and was often harassed at school. Freddie was murdered in Cortez, Colorado.

Nikki Nicholas, 19, (Detroit, Michigan) was an African-American transwoman making her living as a performer in clubs where she often danced and lip-synched to Beyonce songs. The youngster preferred playing with Barbie dolls rather than G.I. Joes, Nicholas' mother said, and by age 11 began experimenting with girls' clothing and makeup. Her body was discovered during a routine property check of an abandoned farmhouse.

Stephanie Thomas, 19, and Ukea Davis, 18, (Washington, DC) were friends found shot to death together. They were a part of SMYL (Sexual Minority Youth Liaison) and were often teased for being feminine. Stephanie started wearing dresses and makeup at the age of 14. Her mother commented that "on the school bus kids tormented her, so she would get off and walk a couple miles to the school." Through a transgender health group, Stephanie met Ukea Davis, another transgender woman. They supported one another, especially when classmates--and even teachers--harassed them about their gender identity.

Sadly, these numbers are continuing to grow. With TV shows like Jerry Springer, gender identity is trivialized as transgender and gender non-conforming people are brought on the show and bashed verbally and sometimes physically. When people watch shows like this or when we reduce people's experiences to phrases like "he was dressed as a woman," we trivialize gender and people's identities.

For Gwen, Stephanie, Nikki, and other transgender teenagers, public school is usually not a safe place for them to express their gender. In addition, if they come from school districts that are underfunded, there will not be any funds to have teacher trainings and programs that address diversity, especially gender identity. Very few states have laws that protect transgender and gender non-conforming students' rights.

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So, for all those souls that were taken before their time, in some of the most brutal ways imaginable, by people who just COULD NOT stand to see someone who didn't fit THEIR grand idea of the gender norm.. Take a minute, and think of something outside of your own box. The least these people deserve is a moment of silence, and there aren't many people I can honestly say I feel deserve even that.

-D.J.

The Canadian Seal Hunt - It's all for cash

A couple weeks back, I watched an awareness video about the Seal Hunt that occurs every year in Canada, and subsequently made a short 'article' about it, which was posted on my personal LJ. This is that article, though I'm going to great lengths to modify it, not only because the original was almost purely emotion based, but because I feel I didn't cover enough facts in it, nor give people enough to think about. I forewarn that this post is not for the faint hearted. If you don't want to hear about or see the horrible treatment these animals are receiving.. Close the window.

First and foremost, the original video that I watched on this subject can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQgRvRepqs#FP0f1F9ObLs (I can't guarantee it's still there, as it's been a few weeks, and YouTube is unpredictable. But it doesn't hurt to try.)

As those who know me and Seth are aware, we adore animals. We both do what we can in an effort to make a difference, even if it's just informing people of things they might not have known otherwise. It amazes and saddens me that so many people aren't even aware of the suffering so many animals endure at the hands of humans who want to make a quick buck, or think they're 'helping' by going through and killing the biggest, strongest and healthiest of a particular species.

Having done a bit of research on this seal hunt, I can tell you a number of things. The first is that, as far as the law is concerned, 'white coat' pups are not allowed to be killed, that's not to say they aren't, that's just to say that the -law- says they're supposedly untouched. Secondly, many native Canadians I've spoken to think this practice of clubbing the seals to death is not only humane, but that they use the fur, meat, bones, and everything else from the animal. However.. That's not true. I've watched about 4-5 dozen video's taken of this seal hunt, read countless pages on this barbaric practice, and very rarely have I seen or heard of an adult seal being taken. Usually, pups, still with mostly or fully white coats, are the ones bashed to death with what's called a "Hakapik". Research has shown that not only is this inhumane, but it's quite often innefective. Various organizations (And no, we're not just sticking with PETA here, guys, they're psychotic) have done research during the hunt, and it's been found that around 42% of these animals are still alive when skinned. Even if that number has been doubled.. 21% is still a hell of a lot of seals being skinned alive, but, from what I can gather that statistic is not exaggerated. And as much as those who are for this hunt would like to believe that it's necessary, humane, and serves some purpose.. I'm afraid it doesn't. Aside from the abuse these animals suffer, more and more places are completely banning seal products, after finding out what was involved in aquiring that beautiful white fur, making the hunt all the more pointless.

When the original article was written, it all stemmed from the fact that in the comments section of that video, a person insisted that 'white-coats' were never killed, and that all the parts were used. I will agree that in fact, if you want to be incredibly technical, white coats are supposedly safe (As far as the law is concerned).. Right up until the 12-15 day mark, when they begin molting, or are supposed to at least. These animals may have large spots of adult coat, or, they may not even be molting in actuality, just hit that deadly age marker. Either way, they're still pups, and since pups aren't as large as a full grown, sexually mature male or female, (This is assuming they actually use the other parts), why hunt them? Not as much leather, meat, bone, right? No, but there is plenty of that white fur that fetches quite a bit of money, and that's what fuels most people. In my view, if there's a need for population control, or some overt demand for seal products (Which there isn't.), it would make more sense to kill large, male seals, or even adult females who currently do not have pups, or who have already abandoned their most recent ones. The fur is the motivator, no matter what the law, or the locals may claim.

For the sake of curiosity, and perhaps to help others understand, if all of this is done so humanely, then why are there recent videos of these animals having to be clubbed repeatedly before they stop moving, if, as has been stated, the Hakapik is the -most- humane way of killing them, or the ones where beaten seals are dragged around, struggling to breath, snorting out blood, or the latest one I discovered.. That of hundreds of thousands of skinned seals being dumped into a landfill. Did these videos materialize out of thin air, no seals involved? Where do the statistics come from, and where are these supposedly much needed seal meat, liver, and bones for sale? I certainly haven't seen any of it at my local Wal-Mart.

I'll conclude this article with saying; Yes, we do need to kill other animals to survive. Most of us eat meat, most of us wear leather in one fashion or another, or use beauty supplies made from animal products. But some animals we don't eat on a daily, weakly, or even monthly basis, killing them to make money off of their fur is pathetic, cowardly behavior. The excuse 'We need to control the population' has gotten old and tired. Nature and other predators take the old, the weak, to keep the population in check. We take the strongest, healthiest, most beautiful. That's not population control, that's greed, we take them because we can, and because we can get money out of it. We're encroaching on their land more and more, eating up recources that can never be retrieved, partially because we don't have the sense to control our own breeding. We're the ones that need population control. We also need a bit of common sense. Eventually.. People will go too far, even farther than we have now. I can't even imagine the awkward conversation generations from now when some kid asks their grandparents why the only animals are in zoo's and on farms.

Inconvenient Reality

Humanity is owned by Wal-Mart and Microsoft, a stranglehold on our information, on our food, our tools, and all the other things we need in life. Innumerable splinter companies enslave us, taking our souls away in imperceptible pieces for bits of worthless paper that the government tells us is valuable. The banks take our worthless paper and give us bits of magnetically encoded plastic, so that money can become nothing more than a number on a spreadsheet. We live in barracks of concrete and cardboard, propelling ourselves with blocks of finely machined metal and plastic while devouring the ozone layer, and corrupting the very air we breathe. Two hundred years ago, black men were slaves, now, we are all slaves, and yet we do not realize it. We hide from reality, because the television says everything is alright, that being cool is better than being human, that being trendy trumps being human.

Men and women are sold by share, their fates, their livelihoods in the hands of those who could never earn another dollar in their lives and live comfortably. Greed is good, so sayeth Man, but we must not call it greed, nor avarice, nor any other such term. It is ambition, it is the American dream, it is capitalism, but it is never to be called by it's true name. Nothing matters other than the dollar sign, the end justifies the means. These men will never wake up, and see what they have wrought, for they are blinded by their lusts, and fancies. The brotherhood of the golf club and the cigar bar, blessed to never stare reality in the face.

Men who have vowed to do no harm, to help, and to heal have loopholed their way around the oaths that make them the men they are. They have put a price on life, and most often ignore the suffering masses, that they may pad their bank accounts and return to their own concrete and cardboard barracks, thinking themselves better than their patients. Pharmaceutical companies take ten cents of raw chemicals, mix them, package them, and sell them for a thousand times the production costs, representatives trade the ethics and morals of doctors for vacations on once unspoiled land, and dinners that in life suffered more than those who consume them could imagine.

Humanity views itself supreme, because it is smarter, because it is meaner, because it is stronger, without ever considering more than they, and their family's well being. Skill means nothing, without a sheet of vellum with a fancy script and signature, and the country of self made men has set out to unmake those who disagree with them. War for 'freedom' is war for oil, murdered children are unfortunate, but inevitable consequences, families are shattered by destruction from the skies, lives ruined, bodies mangled. Should they stand up and resist their invaders, they are terrorists, enemies of America and McDonald's and Coca-Cola.

Even God, if some are to be believed, shows no behavior different than his creations, ordering the blessed, or depraved to kill, and kill, and kill in his name, to burn what is impure in the eye of the believer, and to forbid the offensive. We are children, and there is nothing so pure, and cruel in this world. We simultaneously shelter and traumatize, protect and abuse, for we are civilized people, and the knowledge a child would once have had is forbidden for them until a predetermined 'Adult Age' decided upon by men in the winters of their lives. Reality is the will of God, warped in a thousand different ways, to suit the one who sees it. Perhaps there is a Heaven, perhaps there is a Hell, but I suspect that many true believers will find their placement unsatisfactory, a grave error, and perhaps there will be justice. Just as likely, though, there will not be, for the world was built on the principle that might is right, and as cultured as we believe we are, it is but a mask over our primal natures.

I once saw through the veil of reality cast by television, the words of out of date Gods, and beyond our barracks and paved pathways to cool, and trendy. I saw reality in the eyes of a dying animal, it's tears, it's desperate, choking breaths as it tried to rise to it's three unbroken legs, to come and comfort the man who had killed it, the man it knew had killed it, and yet, it loved him anyway. From these few minutes, I forged my own reality, I deluded myself, and still delude, and normal reality has given me the convenient stamp of 'mentally ill'. Perhaps I am, but I have watched the world through my own veil ever since, sometimes sorrowful, sometimes brimming with joy; most often, neutral, dull, unremarkable, but such is life.

Reality does not make the man, I believe, I believe that man makes the reality. Perhaps everything is but a figment of my imagination, perhaps the world, and everyone who may read this exist only in my mind. Perhaps, even, I am a fragment of another's reality, writing this only so that it can be read by that one person. Perhaps the world is nothing more than a dream, no more real than our perception of it. I know this, however: I have never gone to sleep in a world that was better than the one I woke up in, and as such, perhaps the dream of reality is shifting into a nightmare. Only time will tell.

-Seth McGuyer