Ten years ago, Rita Hester was killed and the newspapers reported her death at first as a man having been stabbed to death and later as a transvestite. But her friends and loved ones stood strong, speaking out that Rita needed to be remembered in death, and she chose to be remembered in life, as the woman she was. And so Transgender Day of Remembrance was born.
Each year in Arizona we gather outside the State Capitol to remember those transgender people killed around the world. Many of whom this year were women of color, and some of whom were killed by their own governments and whose murders were covered up. I will be bringing an altar with incense so that people can light a stick of incense for those lost but whose names can not be read because they are unknown. Please join us tomorrow night and light a candle in memory of those whose light has been snuffed out, but whose memory will go on, and in the hope of a future in which people can be open and honest about who they are without fear of death or attack.
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