November 20th is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. It was established to honour Rita Hester who was murdered in Massachusetts in November 1998.
Edmonton’s trans community has been taking part in the day of remembrance for the past several years. On Saturday, McDougall United Church was the site of an event memorializing those who have been killed because of anti-transgender hatred, and helping to ensure violence against transgender people remains visible.
“There are murders all over the world that have been directed towards trans people and unfortunately many of those are never even discovered. Many of the victims themselves are not people that anyone knows who they are. They’re literally unknown victims,” says trans advocate, Jan Buterman.
According to http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org, there were 211 reported murders of transgender people worldwide in 2011; there were 179 in 2010.
“It looks like the numbers are going up, and up, and up. I suspect that’s actually an issue of reporting. I suspect that probably 30 years ago people were much less likely to be willing to say, ‘yes, this is what happened and these are the circumstances,'” believes Buterman.
“They may have felt embarrassed or afraid or many many reasons that they may not have chosen to disclose that publicly.”
In July, Chavi Rabbit, an openly gay man, who wears makeup and describes his gender expression as feminine, was physically attacked in Edmonton by people who reportedly used homophobic slurs.
Despite the incident, Buterman believes Albertans are progressive in their attitudes towards sexual minorities, but he says, work needs to be done in regards to federal and provincial policies.
“Clarifying that sex as a protected ground, also includes issues around gender identity and gender expression, has not been made explicit by either our federal government or provincial government. As far as I’m aware, the city of Edmonton likewise does not have those kinds of explicit protections within their employment policies, though there are communities in Canada that do have those kinds of protections,” says Buterman.
Buterman hopes progress can be made in that regard.
Edmonton-Gold Bar MLA David Dorward was in attendance, marking the first time an MLA was present at Edmonton’s Transgender Day of Remembrance event.
Comments