Transgender Day of Remembrance – Today, Everyday

Our words have to mean something.

I grew up knowing that each day commemorated a saint or saints in the Roman Catholic church calendar. I knew a little about a few of them and most nothing about the others. Simply, I joined the throngs who remembered there were saints, they were supposedly good and holy people and we should remember them by trying to live like them. Collectively, we referred to them as “all the saints,” mostly men and women who had died centuries ago; we remembered them this way and, generally, prayed to them en masse.

Today, our words of remembrance for our Trans sisters and brothers have also gone beyond our ability to know them all. Begun in 1999 to memorialize Rita Hester a woman who was brutally murdered the year before, the number and awareness of hate crimes and violence against the Trans Community and gender non-comforming people has steadily increased. Since 1999, the world has lost hundreds of trans friends and family members to the same brutality recalled in the loss of Rita Hester. And, as with all hate crimes, the unreported ones dwarf those we know.

That All May Freely Serve joins with all  who remember and pray for those we have lost – and for those who live daily in the face of such hatred. And, we commit to joining with organizations within our church and beyond to make our words mean something in changing the ways of violence toward our sisters and brothers; all our sisters and brothers.

Advocate.com and Transgender.org raise up many of the names of members of the Trans Community and gender non-conforming people that we have lost this year (listed later in this post). Other resources, including Transfaith, led by Chris Paige can be found by simply searching “Transgender Day of Remembrance” or “TDoR.” There are also many places around the country “remembering” in religious and non-religious ways. GLAAD and International Transgender Day of Remembrance provide information and links for community events, as well. If you are able to attend, we welcome you sharing your comments with us at That All May Freely Serve; we will post them on this site, or you may do so on our Facebook page.

Also, if you or anyone you know would like to talk or have someone just listen — our 24-hour resource line is always available at 1-877-TAMFS-64 (1-877-826-3764).

Our words need to mean something and we open this site and our resources to offer ways in which we can help to encourage all still living to end the violence and the culture that accepts it too freely as the price we pay for these times.

No. No acceptance or patience for such things. Not here, not for you, please.

Here are the names of sisters and brothers, members of the Trans community we have lost this year, as reported on Advocate.com and International Transgender Day of Remembrance. Please find time to say their names so that those whose names we do not know or that have been forgotten – may be spoken, once again – for they and their names mean more than we know.

Note: These are names of people killed in the last year. If you visit the websites for more information, please be advised that all of these are violent, horrible murders. The details are more than disturbing.

Yeison Ramirez Acosta. age 22 – Avenida LequiricaVelez Magangue, Bolivar, Colombia

S. Athiswaran, age 31 – Bagan Ajam, Penang, Malaysia

Milian Boudreaux, age 26 – Metairie, LA

Camila, Novo Gama, Goiás, Brazil

Brunete Nascimento Chaga, age 22 – Marituba, Pará, Brazil

“Maiara” Castro Da Silva, age 23 – Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil

Jorge Luciano Soares De Oliveira, age 38 – Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Rosa Fernando Domingues, age 36 РṢo Jos̩ do Rio Preto, Ṣo Paulo, Brazil

Cemia “CeCe” Dove, age 20 – Cleveland, OH

Naomi Estrada, age 19 – Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Nicole Galisteu, age 20 – Santa Cândida, Curitiba, Panamá, Brazil

Palmira Gacia, age 37 – Las Marvales, Venezuela

Gaye, Istanbul, Turkey

Terry Golston, Shreveport, LA

Angel Francisco Martinez Gonzalez, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Gunce hatun, Beylikdüzü, Istanbul, Turkey

Amari Hill, age 22 – Richmond, VA

“Tiffany” Wesley Holder, age 19 – Georgetown, Guyana

Adán Amilcar Iglesias, age 20 – El Carmen Honduras

Joelma, Altos, Piauí, Brazil

Dwayne Jones, age 16- Montego Bay, Jamaica

Karen, Zimatlán de Alvarez, Oaxaca, Mexico

Fábio da Conceição Machado, age 28 – Mumbaca, Tocantins, Brazil

Artegus Konyale Madden, age 34 – Savannah, TX

Jock Maurice McKinney (aka Valerie), Shreveport, LA

Hilary Molina Mendiola, Mexico City, Mexico

Daniel Mendoza Ricardo Macias, age 23 – Montemorelos, Nuevo León, Mexico

Eyricka Morgan, age 26 – New Brunswick, NJ

Mylena, age 42 – Limoges, France

Natasha, age 27 – Várzea Grande, Mato Grosso, Brazil

Islan Nettles, age 21 – New York City, NY

Dominique Newburn, age 32 – Fontana, CA

Dicky Othman, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia

Dora Oezer, age 24 – Kußadasi, Turkey

Davaleo José Alves Pereira, age 37 – Movo Gama, Goiás, Brazil

Fernando Queiroz, Cuiabá, Mato Gross, Brazil

Wagner Paula Rodrigues, age 42 – Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Renato Espinosa Reyes, age 23 – Toluca, Mexico

Joales dos Santos, age 22 - Paranaiba, Piauí, Brazil

Ashley Sinclair, age 30 – Orange Country, FL

Melony Smith, age 31 – Baldwin Park, CA

Natália Sotero, age 20 – Curitiba, Panamá, Brazil

Ronald Feitosa Souza, age 39 – Colniza, mato Grosso, Brazil

Rafael da Silva Tavares, age 21 – Baixada Fluminese, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Stephanie, age 33 РEmbu das Artes, S̢o Paulo, Brazil

Otávio Nascimento Valadares, age 20 – Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil

Valeria, Conceição do Lago-Açu, Maranhão, Brazil

Amari White, age 22 – Richmond, VA

Diamond Williams, age 31 – Philadelphia, PA

Fatima Woods, age 53 – Rochester, NY

Evon Young, age 22 – Milwaukee, WI

Kelly Young, age 29 – Baltimore, MD

And all whose names will never be known…

(If you know of others to add, please let us know: ray@nulltamfs.org)