- TDOR -

[demonlurking]

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No cuts today, this is too important.

Today will be the 24th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

In the last year, our world has lost 434 transgender individuals that we know of. Of those, 336 lives were cut short by others, and 70 by their own hand.

Here in the "United" States, we lost 109 members of the community, 53 to acts of violence and 33 by their own hands.

(Yes, those numbers don't add up. There are some cases where people died of natural causes or situations what were not deemed suspicious enough to be considered either murder or suicide.)

Once again, these are the numbers that we know of, there are countless others that may have been missed simply because they never managed to leave their closet.

The vast majority of these persons were taken from the BIPOC community.
While I acknowledge the privilege that I was born into by being white, I have become a member of a vilified class of "other". In the past year, of the 109 transgender individuals who were lost, 69 were other trans-women.

Some of this is driven by the fact that the gay/trans "panic defense" is only banned in 19 of our 50 "United" States. And in case you were wondering, Pennsylvania is not one of them (although it is one of the 12 other states that considered banning it). Although Pennsylvania is one of the 26 states that has banned conversion therapy (one of the biggest drivers of LGBT suicide). (However, that ban only extends to state and federal funding for it, not the actual practice.)

I ask that we take a moment to remember those we have lost in the last year, and beyond.

...

Then, I ask us to consider what we can do to reduce these numbers in the future.

To start with, VOTE. Vote in local elections as well as national. Candidates (usually) only get to the national level when they have served at a lower position.

Vote blue, vote Democrat. Don't let split loyalties allow the Republicans to gain a foothold.
The right-wing elements of out governmental system would like to make the existence of LGBT persons illegal (no, this is not hyperbole, if you have questions, look up "Project 2025").

If you care about anyone who is or may be a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I urge you to vote, and vote Democrat. Whoever the candidate is. If third party candidates are allowed to split the non-Republican vote, this makes it easier for Project 2025 to succeed.

I'll get off of my soapbox now. I'm sorry for getting political. Sometimes our current climate infuriates me.

If you've made it this far, thank you.

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Figures taken from the annual report on transremembrance.org and wikipedia.

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