Today we grieve, tomorrow we resist.

Trigger Warning: Mentions of transphobic and sexist violence

Today marks the 21st International Transgender Day of Remembrance - a day to mourn, remember and honour the hundreds of lives lost to transphobic violence each year. 2020 has been the deadliest year for transgender and gender-diverse peoples worldwide since records began (according to data gathered through the Trans Murder Monitoring Project), with people of colour disproportionately affected. Alarmingly, 79 percent of trans people murdered in the United States over the past year were people of colour, while 98 percent of trans people murdered globally over the same timeframe were trans women or transfeminine individuals. These statistics highlight how transphobia operates hand-in-hand with racism and sexism.

Racism is something I have long known first-hand, being visibly brown albeit invisibly trans for most of my life. Since coming out and commencing my gender transition a little over a year ago, I have come to know what sexism and transphobia feel like too. Not until I defected from masculinity and started publicly presenting as my authentic feminine self did I know what it was to feel vulnerable walking alone on the streets at night; to be treated as somehow lesser on account of my femininity; or to be laughed and scoffed at on public transport on account of my transness. 

Trans liberationists have a lot to learn from contemporary feminists who contextualise the problem of rape as part of a wider 'rape culture'. Just as sexist jokes, 'locker room banter' and 'boys will be boys'-type utterances contribute to a culture of violence against women, so too do everyday transphobic attitudes contribute to a culture of violence against trans people. The other night on ABC Comedy, I happened upon a British sitcom where Thai 'ladyboys' were mocked as 'disgusting' and the men who are attracted to them even more so. Taking the wider cultural view, there is an undeniable link between this kind of cheap TV humour, the anti-trans and anti-femme insults hurled at me and my sisters on the street, and the hundreds of trans folks murdered around the world in recent times, including Mhelody Polan Bruno and Kimberley McRae right here in New South Wales.  

Far-right politicians like Donald Trump and Mark Latham of course have blood on their hands, but among the surprising twists of 2020 is that they have become strange bedfellows with the likes of JK Rowling and other hatemongers posing as feminists. We trans folks have seen our very existence become the subject of a new culture war, our validity endlessly debated by cis folks somehow obsessed with us while we simply try to live our best lives, not harming anyone. Perhaps theirs is but the last gasp of a dying breed of dinosaurs while history moves on without them.

Every trans person today stands on the shoulders of those who came before. We honour all of our ancestors and fallen siblings and commit to continuing their work and to being good ancestors to the generations of trans folks who will come after us. Together with our allies, we will strive to make the world a safer place for transgender and gender-diverse peoples everywhere by being defiantly ourselves and building communities of care. 

Join a candlelight vigil this evening, or the trans rights rally tomorrow in Newtown. Today we grieve, tomorrow we resist.

Image: We Defend Our Trans Family (2018) by Micah Bazant, created as part of the Trans Day of Resilience project for Forward Together.
Available at: https://forwardtogether.org/art/?cats=trans-liberation