It may be a chilly day to be outside, but members and volunteers at Moose Jaw Pride are facing the cold to take part in an all-day vigil to raise awareness about violence against transgender people around the world.
The vigil is this year’s acknowledgment of Transgender Day of Remembrance, a world-wide memorial that occurs on Nov. 20 every year to honour and remember all transgender people whose lives have been lost to transphobic or gender-based violence in the past year. It also serves as the conclusion to Transgender Awareness Week.
“Transgender Day of Remembrance first started in 1999, after the murder of a transgender woman named Rita Hester in Massachusetts,” said Cole Ramsey, vice-chair and gender diversity representative at Moose Jaw Pride. “And the result was not just that her friends and community were struggling to seek justice for her murder, but it was also to get media and police to talk about her life in a respectful and factual manner.”
LGBTQ+ organizations across the world now organize memorial services every year on this date, which is also when the Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) Project shares the names of all the transgender people reported murdered in the past year.
The transgender community faces statistically higher rates of violence, poverty and mental health concerns, with an estimated two-thirds of transgender people experiencing depression or other mental illnesses. They are also four times more likely to attempt suicide than other demographics and are often denied services or are victims of violence and discrimination due to their identity.
As both the TMM Project and Moose Jaw Pride shared, the number of transgender victims of violence is actually much higher than the collected data shows, as many incidents go unreported.
“News about [transgender people] is often not covered in mainstream media or it's only covered by LGBTQ+ specific media, and when it does reach the media, often the only thing that does appear in the news is our deaths,” said Ramsey. “So this is the time of year when we try to make people aware of what’s happening, so hopefully we can change the negative circumstances for the better.”
A Public Vigil
Moose Jaw Pride usually hosts a formal memorial service on Transgender Day of Remembrance, during which they read out the names of all those individuals, to recognize the community’s loss and respect those who have been lost.
Due to pandemic concerns, the non-profit agency decided to take a new direction with this year’s memorial and host a public seven-hour vigil outside of the Moose Jaw Pride office to show respect for transgender rights.
“It will be a small display, where we have a bit of information set up on a table where people can see it as they go past [or we can] talk and answer questions or provide more information,” said Ramsey.
Volunteers from Moose Jaw Pride and from within the community will be standing vigil outside of Rainbow Retro Thrift Shop on Main Street from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. today, burning candles for all the lives lost.
Ramsey encourages people to stop by and interact with whoever is standing vigil, as the other large part of Transgender Day of Remembrance is to draw attention to the continued need to advocate for the rights and safety of transgender and LGBTQ+ people.
“I think we can’t really say we’re honouring them if we’re not doing anything to change the circumstances that ultimately resulted in their death, so raising awareness with the public is a huge part of that,” said Ramsey.
Commemorating Transgender Day of Remembrance was an important tradition for Moose Jaw Pride to continue, said Ramsey, as it serves as a more sombre reminder of the reality that many individuals still face.
“Confronting transphobia in the world is something that I think should be part of everyone’s life, and it really comes down to not just the grand gestures but everyday interactions with the people around us,” said Ramsey. “So it's really important to understand what transphobia is [and] speak out against it, against the disrespect and dehumanization and negativity that created difficulties and endangers transgender people’s lives.”
Rainbow Retro Thrift Store, which is also the office for Moose Jaw Pride, is located at 345 Main Street North and, as Ramsey noted, has an open door for anyone seeking more information about the LGBTQ+ community or is in need of support.
