Friday, November 20, 2015

On this Transgender Day of Remembrance

On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, I consider the intersections between the disabled and trans community.* I think about how we both hold days of mourning and remembrance for our murdered brethren. I think about how so many of us are disabled and trans. I wonder if any of the names are the same on the collective lists of the dead.

I think about how this is one of the first times I openly am writing a piece about trans rights... despite the fact that I am multiply disabled and agender (thus trans) and queer. Maybe because it's scary to be so many identities at once. Maybe because the environments surrounding us are so toxic...

On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, I let myself be trans (usually I worry – am I trans *enough?*) I let the heartstrings flow and I let the feelings grow. I am autistic, with other disabilities. I am trans. I am queer. Maybe it's time I let this community become my own, too.

So I can remember and mourn with the rest of you.

I mourn. 

I read the names on the TDOR site, so many of them trans women of color, with the same shaky feeling that I got reading the list of the disabled and murdered people at the disability day of mourning. I am, I am, I am trans, I read the list of people that can carry on no more so activists carry on for them and fight. It is in my hopes and dreams that both lists start to get shorter.

For now, I mourn. 

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*This is not to say that other intersections do not exist, of course. Especially since so many of the murdered are trans women of color. 

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