Transgender Day Of Remembrance
"Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people -- sometimes in the most brutal ways possible -- it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice."
- Transgender Day of Remembrance founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith
As we come to the end of Transgender Awareness Week, we observe the Transgender Day of Remembrance. "Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester's death, and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance."
As reported by Forbes this week, "350 transgender people were killed this year (2020), in a figure that has risen since last year’s total of 331...The list shows that this year the average age of those killed was 31, with the youngest just 15."
Above is Provincetown artist Paul Rizzo at one of the monthly Silent Vigils for Peace and Justice. Paul has been kind enough to offer art for a new collaboration tee we are launching supporting The Audre Lorde Project; $5 from each tee sale will be donated. The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color community organizing center, focusing on the New York City area. Below are pre-production mock-ups of the t-shirts available for pre-order. They will ship in early December.
