I get together with some of my friends over a potluck, cloth exchange/drop-off and an open mic event, organized by my dear friend Paul. Over the past few years I have seen parents of Trans kids come along to show their support and talk about the success, struggle and the needed change. Its a day where emotions run wild for me. I am filled with sorrow over the numerous Trans folks who have been killed by bigots, been murdered, slaughtered or killed themselves or have just disappeared from the radar. I am engulfed with anger when I see the media and the law enforcement agencies continue to use the wrong gender pronouns while describing their tragic death. Even in death, no one gets it. That said, I am happy I made it so far. I had come close to making stupid calls in my life. For once, I feel lucky enough to get past those with whatever strength I had.

This year has been particularly wild. The Nation’s capital, DC has rocked us with a spate of murders particularly against the community of color. There was the McDonald incident in Baltimore where a trans woman was physically assaulted while the employees and most customers were busy recording the incident. There was someone close to my home who was assaulted and spent a week at the hospital and after a week the SF police called it a hate incident. And, there are so many more that get unreported. And if they do, one has to fight really hard to register them as hate crimes.

Image: Numbers of recorded murders of trans people worldwide, in just the last three years (Click to enlarge)

Credits:

• Questioning Transphobia
• Remember The Dead
• International TDoR
• TransGriot

This post was originally published on Gaysifamily.com and cross-posted with permission.