(#TDOR) My Students Asked…

… why it is I don’t like TDOR or often go to TDOR vigils, and here are the reasons:

We remember Evon Young, killed in Milwaukee, Wis., on Jan. 1.
We remember Cemia “CeCe” Dove, killed in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 27.
We remember Fatima Woods, killed in Rochester, N.Y., on May 30.
We remember Kelly Young, killed in Baltimore, Md., on April 3.
We remember Valarie McKinney, killed in Shreveport, La., on July 12.
We remember Diamond Williams, killed in Philadelphia, Pa., on July 14.
We remember Islan Nettles, killed in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, N.Y. on Aug. 17.
We remember Domonique Newburn, killed in Fontana, Calif., on Aug. 20.
We remember Artegus Konyale Madden, killed in Savannah, Texas, on Sept. 1.
We remember Terry Golston, killed in Shreveport, La., on Sept. 6.
We remember Melony Smith, killed in Baldwin Park, Calif., on Sept. 9.
We remember Eyricka Morgan, killed in New Brunswick, N.J. on Sept. 24.
We remember Amari White, killed in Richmond, Va., on Nov. 9.

Via Gwen Smith, who founded TDOR, this is a list of all the people killed in the US whose names we know. I remember getting the news of each of them, in turn, and reading the horrific details of their deaths – they are always horrific – as Riki Wilchins once pointed out, they are immolating, often so violent it is as if their killers were out to make them not exist, to have never existed, not just kill them.

And I cried with every one, but so hard for Cemia Dove and for Evon Young, because their bodies were disposed of in the surest sense of the term – thrown away. & Islan Nettles, because I lived for so many years where she died.

So if people ever wonder why I get angry at why we haven’t made the world more trans friendly yesterday, this is why.

Murder is rarely about the individual who does the killing. It’s about the systemtic tranphobic discrimination all of these individuals experienced before they died. It’s about how hard it can be to get a job, to feel connected and loved, to use a public bathroom, to be asked, time after time, who you “really” are.

For every one of them, there is a me mourning – a lover, a friend, a mom, a dad. These are the people we love. Please help us make the world safer for them.

Enough already.

I will go to Appleton’s TDOR tonight, because I’m proud that this little city even has one and because I’m proud of my students for doing the work to make it happen. And because there should be a place where I get to cry for Evon Young’s mom.