(GayWebSource.com – Gay News & Press Network) – Posted by Michael Lamb – Echelon Magazine
Transgender commemoration comes as the nation moves forward on LGBT equality, but anti-transgender violence continues at extremely alarming rates
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, joins in today’s commemoration of Transgender Day of Remembrance. The 16th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance is a solemn tribute to those who have lost their lives to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice and also raises awareness of the constant threat of brutality faced by the transgender community. HRC Steering Committees and Project One America staff in almost 35 cities around the country, are partnering with local organizations on community events. Additionally, in the lead-up to November 20th, HRC has presented a blog series featuring a few of the many powerful voices of the transgender community.
“The national crisis of anti-trans violence in this country continues with brutal intensity, and it seems like every day we mourn another tragic loss,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, all Americans should feel responsible to help bring an end to this violence before it claims even one more innocent soul. The progress of equality has to reach everyone, and we are failing as a movement if we leave anyone behind.”
Statistics on anti-transgender violence and harassment remain extremely alarming. A 2013 report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) report found that transgender people were 1.5 times more likely to face threats and intimidation compared to the broader LGBT community, and that 72% of anti-LGBT homicide victims were transgender women, significantly up from 53.8% in the previous year. Sixty-seven percent of the victims were transgender women of color. Furthermore, seventy-eight percent of transgender children in grades K-12 reported being harassed in school, 35 percent physically assaulted, and 12 percent sexually assaulted, according to a 2011 report from the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National LGBTQ Task Force.
The first Transgender Day of Remembrance was held in honor of Rita Hester, whose murder in 1998 led to the “Remembering Our Dead” web project, and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Since then, hundreds of cities around the country and the world, have hosted annual Transgender Day of Remembrance events in solidarity with transgender hate crime victims. For more resources, and a list of cities where HRC is participating in Transgender Day of Remembrance, please visit www.hrc.org/tdor. For a list of vigils and remembrances worldwide, visit www.transgenderdor.org.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.
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