ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Three Lehigh Valley organizations marked Transgender Day of Remembrance with a solemn gathering in Allentown’s Arts Park Sunday afternoon.
- Transgender Day of Remembrance marked in Allentown’s Arts Park on Sunday
- The event was organized by the Eastern Pa. Trans Equity Project, Metropolitan Community Church and the Bradbery-Sullivan LGBT Community Center
- Trans people are four times more likely to be the victim of a violent crime as their cisgender counterparts, according to research from UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute
Several dozen people, bundled up against the cold, memorialized transgender people killed across the country in the last year. That included 48 people the event’s organizers could identify, and many others whose deaths garnered less attention.
“Twenty-four of them were younger than me,” said attendee Brenig Ghorm, 30, addressing the crowd. “But we have to remember that all of these numbers are names, and all of these names are people.”
Ghorm spoke alongside other transgender activists, like Rev. Goudy, pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of the Lehigh Valley, and Corinne Goodwin, president of Eastern Pa. Trans Equity Project.
“As we honor our beloved transgender sisters, brothers, and siblings lost too soon to violence, we make a commitment today, or we recommit, to showing up and advocating for our beloved trans siblings,” Goudy told the crowd. “The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference.”
“These human beings that we read the names of were killed by family members. They were killed by their clients. They were killed by the institutions that were supposed to protect them,” Goodwin said. “We need to make sure that we're making the effort, not just today, but every day.”
“Maybe, just maybe, next year I won't have someone say to me, ‘Well, the good news is it was only 48 this year,’” she said.
As the afternoon faded into dusk, participant Shawn DeVault read the 48 names. As each was read, a bell tolled, and someone in the crowd held up a laminated photo of the victim.
News of a mass shooting at an LGBT club in Colorado Springs, Co. Saturday night hung over the proceedings, in effect adding five more dead to the names the crowd memorialized.
After the speeches, participants walked a few blocks to the Brabury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center to warm up, and come together as a community.
Despite the solemn occasion, several speakers emphasized the importance of acknowledging and celebrating “trans joy,” the inherently joyful and beautiful parts of life as a transgender person.
“For all the pain that trans people experience every day, there's also a lot of joy, a lot of passion, and a lot of love,” Ghorm said.
History of Transgender Day of Remembrance
Transgender Day of Remembrance originated in 1999, roughly one year after Rita Hester, a trans woman, was stabbed to death in Boston. A group of friends in San Francisco’s Castro District held a candlelight vigil in her memory, and in memory of all the people like her who had been killed in the previous year.
Now, the day is observed across the world as violence against transgender people persists. Allentown’s event was organized by the Eastern Pa. Trans Equity Project, Metropolitan Community Church and the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center.
"I want to be alive for next year, and I want all of my friends to be alive for next year."Brenig Ghorm, transgender activist
According to a study UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute released last year, trans people are four times more likely to be the victim of a violent crime as their cisgender counterparts.
“That's why I'm here. It's what it's all about: I want to be alive for next year, and I want all of my friends to be alive for next year,” Ghorm said. “I'm super blessed to work at a school that has a lot of trans youth, and I want all of them to be alive next year.”
