The Transgender Day of Remembrance is an international event organized every year to recognize those who were killed in anti-transgender hatred and prejudice, and the Long Beach community did its part to memorialize the lives that have been lost.
“We come together to remember our past,” said Porter Gilberg, executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Long Beach, “to give voice to those who have been and continue to be silenced, and to also collectively create a space for us to feel safe and valued.”
The LGBTQ Center of Long Beach hosted the event that included students from the Long Beach area and community members. The transgender memorial event each Nov. 20 began when graphic designer, columnist and activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith, a transgender woman, was moved to memorialize the life of transgender woman Rita Hester, who was murdered in Allston, Massachusetts in November 1998 and who eventually became the inspiration for the first vigil in 1999.
At the recent ceremony, keynote speakers included performer Jazzmun Nichcala Crayton and boxer Patricio Manuel, with remarks by 1st District Councilmember Lena Gonzalez and Gilberg.
One by one, people went up to the podium in order to share the names of those killed in acts of anti-transgender violence this year. Gilberg remarked to “let us remember the lives of the names we mention and those who we will never know.”
Many victims have been unidentified. Deaths include gun violence, stoning and dismemberment.
“Every single day there are people fighting,” Gonzalez said. “We can’t forget those we have lost…There are many names out there that are unfortunately not listed due to societal prejudice, misgendering by relatives or murders never listed or miscategorized.”
The keynote speakers have too felt the sting of “trans bashing.” Crayton, a transgender woman, detailed an incident in which an attacker spontaneously struck her in the face as she was making her way down a street to get food.
To her surprise, her attacker just scurried away, and all Crayton had to show for it was a bruised face.
“Motherf*cker going to walk up behind me and sucker-punch me on the right side of my jaw?” Crayton said, recalling the events that unfolded. “Some time has passed since I’ve been knocked on my ass, and I must admit I still get scared a bit…I’ve been broken. I’m not bitter, I’m better. Keep moving.”
She expressed her frustration. In that moment, she was approached by a woman who offered to call the police. Crayton refused the help. She wanted to run up to the attacker herself and cause him “grief,” but she instead opted to go about her day, she said.
“I got preyed up, and I was thankful that I wasn’t laid out,” she said. Initially, she showed resistance about sharing her experience and making a report about the incident. But, it was the support of those close to her that helped Crayton realize that this issue wasn’t just about her.
She decided that sharing the experiences of anti-transgender violence would spread the message of transgender love.
“You need to know about my preferred pronoun— it’s goddess, mother, lover and rich,” Crayton said to applause from the crowd. “I’m all things and everything and nothing at the same time. I mean something to someone. These people mean something to someone. They didn’t come out of the sky for you to manipulate and destroy. They are to be loved and cared for and nurtured.”
Manuel, a transgender man, said he uses his jokes, his laughter, to mask the pain that he feels. In his medical transition, Manuel was viewed as not only gender ambiguous, but also ethnically ambiguous, as he himself is black.
Raised in a white household, Manuel said he was not prepared for the hostility that he would come to experience.
“I felt the discrimination in communities that I felt I was safe in before,” Manuel said. “I literally had to scramble in the past year to learn how to navigate in these spaces.”
He found support not only in the trans community, but also in the black community. He is a supporter of the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Manuel is disturbed by the statistics that are associated with both communities with whom he identifies. He shared some statistics of his own during his speech in order to highlight the discomfort he feels when he hears about the numbers.
One statistic in particular he spotlighted was that one in three black men are in prison for life.
“How do I not end up being a statistic?” Manuel asked himself. “This is an epidemic beyond just murdering. While it’s safe to say that every trans person will face discrimination in their life, there are those who are facing multiple levels of oppression. Because of this, we need to move away from the concept of equality, and instead hone in on equity. It’s because we’re not the same that we need to focus on the most marginalized in our communities.”
As the event drew to a close, and the names of the lives who were lost in acts of violence were shared, Gilberg instructed those with candles to extinguish their flames, in the same way “the flames of life” have left those who perished. It’s a symbolic gesture to honor those who have died in the past year.
It’s also a gesture toward the future. It was Crayton who quoted singer Stevie Wonder, saying “love’s in need of love today.” Those at the event talked about spreading love and supporting anyone facing discrimination.
“God bless America for allowing me to be fierce for absolutely no reason at all,” Crayton said. “Stop killing us. Stop it. I’m telling you, anybody that’s out there harming someone from the trans community, the gender-nonconforming community, you’re killing the wrong person. You don’t know who they are. You haven’t given them an opportunity to show you who they are.”
