Transgender Day of Remembrance. Conference Organized in Turkey

Each year on Nov. 20, people gather in cities around the world to remember those in the transgender community who have been killed. In time for this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), Transgender Europe has released an updated report from its ongoing Murder Monitoring Project, according to a Nov. 19 entry on the Open Society blog. 

The report documents murders of trans people by country (the majority last year from Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and the USA). It further illustrates the horrific hatred and violence transgender people continue to face in much of the world today and the need for strong action by governments and other institutions in society to address it.

The TDOR 2010 report has revealed a total of 179 cases of reported killings of trans people from Nov. 20, 2009, to Nov. 19, 2010. The update shows reports of murdered or killed trans people in 19 countries in the last year, with the majority from Brazil (91), Guatemala (15), Mexico (14), and the USA (14).

Cases have been reported from all six major World regions: Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Europe, North America, and Oceania (Armenia was not included in the report). As in the previous years, most reported cases were from Central and South America, which account for 80% of the globally reported homicides of trans people since Jan. 2008.

In total, the preliminary results show 487 reports of murdered trans people in 39 countries since Jan. 2008.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was initiated in 1998 following the murder of Rita Hester, a transgender African American women in Allston, Massachusetts. In response to her murder, a group of friends organized a candlelight vigil to express their grief over her death and to call for public action to address violence against transgender people. Today, the event is marked in more then 180 cities worldwide.

In Ankara, Turkey, there will be an international Transgender Remembrance Conference from Nov. 22–28 this year. The Pink Life LGBTT Solidarity Association organizes events during the last week of November each year and this year’s event will focus on sex work, media, politics, family, feminism, international trans rights activism. For more information on the program, speakers list and so on, visit the website at http://www.pembehayat.org/nefret/home.php.

Photo: www.pembehayat.org