The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the nation's leading civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people, joins communities across the nation and world to recognize International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). This solemn day has been set aside to honor the lives of our transgender and gender nonconforming family members who are no longer with us due to senseless acts of hate and violence. This day is also set aside to call upon allies to step up and stand in solidarity against this violence. As told by Monica Roberts of TransGriot, TDOR was originally held in November to honor the life of Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28, 1998 kicked off the Remembering Our Dead web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester's murder–like most anti-transgender murder cases–has yet to be solved.
Today, our nation and world continues to see an alarming surge of violence perpetuated and inflicted upon LGBTQ people, specifically transgender women of color. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs' (NCAVP) latest report, transgender and gender nonconforming people represented 67 percent of the 24 reported hate violence related homicides of LGBTQ and HIV-affected people in the United States in 2015, and 54 percent (13) were transgender women of color. This year, we have reached yet another alarming reality of 23 reported homicides of transgender or gender nonconforming people of which 18 were Black, which exceeds last year's 22 lives lost, according to NCAVP.
On TDOR, let us remember our transgender and gender nonconforming family whose deaths often are not properly investigated by law enforcement or covered by mainstream media with the dignity and respect due to all human beings. We must be vigilant to speak truth to power about this continuous trend of hate towards transgender and gender nonconforming communities as our nation remains piercingly silent on this epidemic of violence that continues to plague the most marginalized in our world. Allies, transgender, and gender nonconforming people, together, can change this reality by pressuring law enforcement, elected officials and all community leaders to take a stand. We all must play a role in holding accountable those with power to make change by ensuring these acts of hate violence are prosecuted with unyielding persistence and authority.
May we never forget the lives of those lost this year to senseless acts of anti-transgender
hate and violence.
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Noony Norwood
(Richmond, VA)
Brandi Bledsoe
(Cleveland, OH)
Jazz Alford
(Birmingham, AL)
Crystal Edmonds
(Baltimore, MD)
T.T. Saffore
(Chicago, IL)
Rae'Lynn Thomas
(Columbus, OH)
Erykah Tijerina
(El Paso, TX)
Skye Mockabee
(Cleveland, OH)
Dee Whigham
(St. Martin. MS)
Deeniquia Dodds
(Washington, DC)
Goddess Diamond
(New Orleans, LA)
Amos Beede
(Burlington, VT)
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Mercedes Successful
(Haines City, FL)
Reese Walker
(Wichita, KS)
Keyonna Blakeney
(Rockville, MD)
Shante Thompson
(Houston, TX)
Jasmine Sierra
(Bakersfield, CA)
Monica Loera
(Austin, TX)
Kayden Clarke
(Mesa, AZ)
Maya Young
(Philadelphia, PA)
Demarkis Stamsberry
(Baton Rouge, LA)
Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson
(Burlington, IA)
Quartney Davia Dawsonn-Yochum
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