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Posted by UoC Psychology

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Garryck Holmes

Every year on the 20th of November is “Transgender day of remembrance” (also known as TDoR). This day serves to remember all of the transgender people around the world who have died due to acts of violence towards transgender people. 

If you don’t know already, I am a transgender man. I started transitioning 2 years ago after feeling something wasn’t quite right my whole life. But I must admit, before I started my transition I hadn’t even heard of TDoR, or most trans related notable dates of the year. Having actively experienced two TDoRs now during my transition, I thought it was important to reflect on it a bit and maybe raise some awareness to it’s cause, especially since this week is International Transgender Awareness week. 

Let me start by saying that I know I’m extremely lucky as a transgender person. I have a really supportive network of friends and family around me and thankfully, I’ve never experienced an act of violence before or after transitioning. Sure, there are always the odd upsetting comments from strangers in the street, but never violence, not for me. 

Unfortunately others aren’t so lucky. TDoR shouldn’t even exist, but it does, and even I didn’t know about it until it was thrown into my life along with all the other trans related things you learn at the start of the journey. The TDoR website lists the names of transgender people around the world who are killed simply because of who they are. Beaten, shot, stabbed… some are even listed as “unknown” as the cause of death can’t even be determined. The list acts as a way of remembering them, and I think reminding people of how far we still have to go. These acts of violence don’t just happen in countries where we expect violence or oppression of minorities, they are also happening in places you wouldn’t normally expect. 

What can we do about it? I suppose it starts with just raising awareness. I feel disheartened, guilty almost that I didn’t know about TDoR before I started transitioning, but I feel like if I had known about it I would have actively told people about it. Maybe that’s all we need to do? Tell our friends about it, give people who wouldn’t normally know about it a heads up about what is actually happening around the world. Awareness is the first step to prevention! 

If you take anything away from this blog post, I hope it’s a good feeling that now you know about something you might not have, and that you can help, just by telling a friend about it. I’m also happy to talk about it and anything else trans related so do get in touch if you have any questions. 

Thank you for reading 

Garryck 

You can contact Garryck on: garryck.holmes@cumbria.ac.uk

You can read more about TDoR, or get some support at the websites below: 
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