Houston 2010 TDOR Wrap Up

Bounced back onto the UH campus and the AD Bruce Religion Center for the TDOR ceremony Houston style.

Wine and cheese reception at the 7 PM start of the evening along with some of the artifacts in the TG Center's history collection.    Ran into many of the people I met at the TTNS and other community events I've been able to attend and had long chats with them.    

One person I was surprised to run into was my old roommate Rochelle.

The well attended ceremony  (130 people) in the AD Bruce chapel started at 8 PM and one of the speakers besides Judge Phyllis Frye was Houston city councilmember and fellow Cougar alum Jolanda Jones..

Did end up after the event talking to some of the member of a GLBT sorority on campus before heading over to the TG center in Montrose for a few hours. 

The TDOR's may be coming to a close around the world, but never forgetting or trans angels is a 365 day a year job for all of us, not just Ethan St. Pierre's who does the tough job of keeping track of all the stats.

If your locale or college campus didn't have a TDOR this year, consider starting one.    It's one surefire way that you can do something that shows the trans community you support it and care about it.

And unfortunately, we'll probably be doing this again on November 20, 2011

TDOR 2010 Events List

If you're looking for an International Transgender Day of Remembrance Event to attend, here's the list  from the TDOR website.

For those of you in Da Ville, miss y'all.. 

For those of you in the Houston area, will see you at 7 PM CST at the AD Bruce Religion Center on the University of Houston campus later tonight for our 2010 TDOR memorial event..

TDOR 2010 People We're Remembering

Will be in fashion forward business attire at the AD Bruce Religion Center on the UH campus in a few hours to pay my respects to the people we lost due to anti trans violence.

Here's the 2010 list of people we'll be lighting candles for at this year's TDOR.

There's also another list circulating that is a research project of the TGEU that stated there were 179 trans people killed worldwide between last year's TDOR date and this year's.

Sadly, one of those people will be lighting a candle for is one of our own Houston area transpeeps, Myra Chanel Ical.

Rest in peace trans angels past and present.    We'll never forget you. 

Thailand's First TDOR Ceremony

The 'Land of Smiles' has the most well known and open trans community on the planet, but surprisingly until this year had never had a TDOR memorial ceremony.

Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya and the Thai Transgender Alliance decided to change that this year.   She organized Thailand's first TDOR which was held in Bangkok's Centara Grand Hotel.   It's also talking place as the Miss International Queen trans pageant is being conducted in Pattaya this week.    

Congrats to our Thai sisters on a successful and historic TDOR event. 

The TDOR Is A Memorial, Not A Party

One of the things that I've heard over and over from some quarters of the trans community about the upcoming November 20 worldwide celebration of the Transgender Day of Remembrance is that it's 'too somber' or 'depressing'.

Um, hello  It's a memorial to the people we've lost to anti-transgender violence.   It's not supposed to be a happy-happy joy-joy event.

TDOR is designed to point out to the media the cost of anti-trans violence.  It's an opportunity for our allies to do intersectional work with our community and support us on one of our issues.  And when I lost my friend Nakhia to violence while living in Louisville back in 2008, it became a way to show the family and friends of the departed transperson how much we love and respect that individual and provide some closure for all who knew the person.

It is not an opportunity for GLAAD, HRC or other GL orgs to fundraise in our community for your coffers, or for college students or people to have an excuse to party.   You want a party, then do so on the International Day of Trans Visibility or pick another day on the calendar such as TDOR founder Gwen Smith suggested, the August anniversary date of the 1966 Compton's Cafeteria riots..  

TDOR exists as a day for us to memorialize the people that we've lost and get people to focus on the fact we are taking the brunt of violence aimed at the TBLG community.   I damned sure as a transperson of African descent want to keep it in the forefront of people's minds that 70% of the people we memorialize every year are transpeople of color..  

There are 364 other days on the calendar (365 in a leap year) for partying.   This isn't one of them.