Comments | ontd_political: For Trans Day of Remembrance

poetic_pixie_13 in ontd_political

For Trans Day of Remembrance

Nov 20, 2012 13:26

TW: Transphobia, classism, homelessness, mentions of violence, abuse, suicide, murder, stats that are depressing as fuck

Transgender Day of Remembrance: A Call to House Our Homeless

Nov. 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance, or "TDOR," a day of memorial for those in the trans community who have been lost to violence. ( Triggery things under the cut )

hate crimes, *trigger warning: suicide, canada, *trigger warning: transphobia, transphobia, lgbtq / gender & sexual minorities, *trigger warning: violence

Comments 28

back_track November 20 2012, 21:49:01 UTC

your last two paragraphs are extremely beautiful and important.

crossfire November 20 2012, 21:53:29 UTC

Thank you for posting these.

tabaqui November 20 2012, 22:01:33 UTC

Thanks for the posts - the first in particular is *not* main stream news, which sucks.

Is the gender identity/gender expression thing a problem because it could potentially be used to discriminate against trans* people who haven't had the physically altering surgery? Because if, say, their body is still 'biologically male' but they 'dress female', it 'doesn't count' in some minds or something?

I googled 'gender expression' and that's what comes to mind - what am i missing/misunderstanding?

the_physicist November 20 2012, 22:17:24 UTC

Well, gender expression is important not only to trans* folk, but anyone perceived to be expressing their gender 'incorrectly' according to society. Often bigots don't care precisely how someone is LGBT+, it's enough that they see someone acting/dressing differently than they think that person should for them to discriminate against them or attack them.
Does that make sense?

tabaqui November 21 2012, 00:09:48 UTC

Yeah, it does. Thanks!

chasingtides November 20 2012, 22:27:49 UTC

Gender expression applies to more than just trans folks.

For example, it's very important to me (pre-surgery, pre-hormones) that my company is ok with me wearing menswear to work. I wear clearly obvious men's clothes (and at my current job have had only one guy ask me why and he took "I'm more comfortable in them" as a fine answer). It took a while to find that.

On the other hand, before I was out, I worked for a company that mandated pantyhose/stockings for women year round. Regardless of what else you were wearing. If my female boss wore capris into the office on the hottest day of the summer, she had to wear stockings with them - and it took fighting to get capris allowed and not just "dresses, skirts, and women's dress trousers" in the approved wardrobe. A lot of my less feminine female-identified friends would fare poorly under such strict rules, never mind people who are trans.

Thread 6

rkt November 20 2012, 22:12:03 UTC

<3 thank you

hirolin November 20 2012, 22:22:21 UTC

I read through the entire list of those who passed this year and was moved to tears. The statistics are so terribly bleak and I can't stand it. It disgusts me that people can be so cruel.

And I do understand what the first article is talking about since I've experienced the discrimination that takes place firsthand. A local shelter actually told the counselor at the transgender center here that her client would have to sleep on the concrete in front of the front door because they couldn't let "someone like that" inside. I've had to stay at this shelter twice and have heard the vitriol that is spewed towards all people who fall under the queer umbrella. As a genderqueer pansexual, it really hit me hard to be basically taught that I and others like me are disgusting creatures. It also struck me that I couldn't reveal my true identity unless I wanted to sleep on the street. Really terrible ( ... )