Transgender Day Of Remembrance

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According to a November 28, 2014 opinion article written by Alex Paige within the Oregonian news, the Transgender Day of Remembrance occurs annually on November 20th. It is a day to remember transgender people who have been killed by acts of violence and discrimination towards the trans community. It also serves as a way to raise awareness of these crimes. The author, a transgender woman, writes her reflections of the day through discussion of the meaning, the history and the importance of it to her. Overall, her main idea of the article is to assert that the struggles against transphobia, hate, and acts of violence are still a huge issue today. Which emphasizes the importance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance
Paige also mentions her …show more content…

The author claims that in 2014, there was an increase of transgender brutality. The author also mentions that a lot of the violence was aimed at trans women. Especially women of color. She then continues the article in a description of the recent decision to allow OHP (Oregon Health Plan) to cover medical care related to transgender procedures to insure a victory for the community. Lastly, she says that the Transgender Day of awareness is not just about being a memorial for the dead. It is also about celebrating resiliency within the transgender community and hope for the future. It is interesting to hear people say that the battle for equality in the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) community is finally over with the passing of marriage equality in the …show more content…

In high school, I was in a club called GSA (Gay Straight Alliance). I made various friends of different gender identities and sexualities within this group and even outside of it through friends of friends. A good portion of these people were transgender. Through some of these individuals, they shared some of their first hand experience of transphobia and hate with me. One significant story to me was when my FTM (Female to Male) trans friend Marley had a class where there was a group of people who would verbally bully him everyday. They would use slurs, call him names, and diminish who he was. What made it worse was the teacher in that class did not do anything about it. She even told Marley that she refused to use he/him pronouns towards him and would use his birth name instead of the name he felt comfortable going by. Not only that, she continued to devalue who he was as a trans person by telling him he was not a boy. All of this pushed Marley into depression and feeling suicidal. Eventually, he left the school because it was too much for him. If that wasn’t an example of transphobia, then I don’t know what