Transgender Day of Remembrance is the most widely observed day for transgendered people. It is held on the 20th of November every year, and acts as a memorial for those transgendered people who are murdered in cold blood simply for being transgendered.

To be entirely frank, Transgender Day of Remembrance is a very bleak affair, and its an event that I wish had less focus. However, the fact remains that every year transgendered people are murdered, and those deaths are often not investigated as thoroughly as they should be, the murderers are not tried or convicted, and the 'tranny panic defence' is still popular. Those people deserve to be remembered, and those of us in the transgendered community who have comparative privilege, who live in safer locations, who are middle class, white, and able-bodied, need to remember how lucky we have it.

Transgender Day of Remembrance in Canberra

Last year in a park in Canberra, Australia, I called for the transgendered community to unite, and to demand justice for our fallen siblings. We remembered dozens of people around the world who's deaths had made the news, including children, and the elderly. We also remembered the thousands more, killed for being gender variant, but not worthy of media attention.

Then we looked closer to home. We remembered a trans woman who was killed by the cold heartedness of her doctors, even if the authorities said it was suicide. We remembered trans women who were beaten by the police, and coerced into sexual activity by the police. We remembered that we are blessed for being able to walk the streets in relative safety here in Canberra, and wished for a future where everyone can take that for granted.

This year, I would like us to remember the death of a transgendered man in Queensland, who was not remembered in 2008, because I didn't hear of his death until too late. Stabbed for being different and not even the queer media mentioned that he was trans. They said he was a lesbian, maybe a drag king, but not trans. His friends tell me otherwise. This year, I would also like us to remember the poverty and homelessness that too many of our transgendered youth live with. The poverty and HIV infection rates, and short life spans of the sister-girls, our indigenous transgendered people.

Hopefully one day, Transgender Day or Remembrance will cease to be necessary. Perhaps, instead of being the focus of such a large proportion of our community, it will be a reminder, a legacy, a little nudge about how far we've come, instead of a horrible jolt about how far we've still got to go.