Last night was the 11th annual transgender day of remembrance and I think it sucks that we have to do this every year. This year we had 160+ names – which is around 5 times the number of the average number of names we have. It is said that it isn’t that this year was more violent; rather, the number is higher because we are getting a little bit better at keeping track.

This year’s DOR was again at the Houston Holocaust Museum. The DOR is something that is very special to me and I’ve worked hard over the years to improve our DOR so that as many people as possible would attend. This year we had around 125 people at the DOR. I remember when it was less than 20 standing outside in the cold and rain trying to keep out candles lit.

This year, the Unity Committee asked me to take a back seat instead of spearheading everything myself. In truth, I would not have been able to everything that would have been required of me in light of everything that has happened with the Center’s landlord.

Since this is an event that I care deeply about, I do have some opinions about the way it all went. Here is what I liked about it:

• I love that we are able to meet at the Houston Holocaust Museum. It is the perfect venue for the event. I could gush on and on about their facility and how nice they are, but I think you get the picture.
• I was able to bring some things from the TG Archive the tied the evil of the Holocaust to the evils visited upon the TG Community. We had original newspapers documenting the Nazi’s destruction of Magnus Hirschfeld’s center – the first gender treatment clinic in the world. We had an original photo of the town where the Nazi death camp was for TGs.
• I loved the PowerPoint piece that was used throughout the entire event. That was a great idea from Rose Wall and she did a great job of putting it together.
• The readers (Edwin, Melissa, Lilly, Darin and Tim) were wonderful. They did such a great job of reading and giving gravity to the experience of the person they were introducing to the audience.
• The flowers were nice.
• We had enough food, water and wine for everyone during the reception.
• Rose did a great job with updating the DOR booklet. Yes there were spelling errors, but who am I to say anything about that? Putting the DOR book together is gut wrenching and she did an excellent job of putting it together and updating things.
• Volunteers: OMG! Doing things is so much easier with the help of so many! Everyone who helped set up, clean up, sign people in, feed people, guide people, etc – THANK YOU!

Here is what I did not like about it:

• The political speaker didn’t use her time very well. She mostly talked about elections instead of talking about DOR. It felt somewhat disrespectful.
• I was upset with the “Remembrance” of Jennifer Gale. While it was interesting to have the news report show on the screen, I didn’t like that it focused on her mental heath issues. I was quite angry that nobody even mentioned the reason that she died: She was not admitted to the Salvation Army Shelter because she was a transwoman and she therefore froze to death on the streets. The news video and her remembrance from the podium made it sound as if she was a loony tranny who didn’t take her meds regularly and who died in the streets because she liked being homeless and should therefore be honored for helping to “keep Austin weird”. I felt that it was simply disrespectful and I am still angry about it.
• While Rose is passionate about speaking at the DOR, she is not a passionate speaker. Speaking in monotone and pointing to a powerpoint – while not “bad” – it is simply not the flavor DOR needs. The next DOR MC needs to be able to be poignant, impassioned, soft and strong, witty and sorrowful and most of all, be able to empower the attendees with a sense of duty, compassion and dignity. While I’ve tried to do that in the past, I’m not very good at it and neither is Rose. I think we need a new MC next year.
• The ending of the DOR was awful. We went from the reading of the names to “silently waling out”. There was ZERO closure. DOR is NOT about depressing everyone; it is about standing as one with your community and bearing witness to that which is difficult, with an open compassionate heart and, as one community, discovering the power to determine that we – personally and collectively – will stand firm on truth, speak out and get involved in whatever way and in whatever degree we can. We should leave DOR with a sense of purpose because if we don’t, we leave the event feeling like it is all too much – we feel defeated. Why in the world would we actually send that message to people?
• We had no press. If nobody knows about this event, nobody will care. The real massage of DOR needs to be put out there to people who would never know that a DOR is happening. It is our duty as a community to ensure the message is carried to everyone who needs to hear it. Singing to the choir can feel great, but not giving the widest possible audience the chance to bear witness is robbing ourselves of just that many more allies.
• Next year we should have a sting quartet in the background and warm food.
• While I asked the the names be forwarded to me so that I could update the Houston DOR page, that didn’t happen. Our own Houston DOR page was never updated. I decided that I would trust that people would send me the info I needed to do the update and they dropped the ball. Next year I will update it with or without the input of others (but hopefully with).
• The TG community did not come out to support the event vey well. We had 1 TG for ever 7 supporters. Hell… Tri-Ess scheduled a X-mass party for the night of the DOR! What value do we as a community give the memory of these people when we schedule a community goofing off session or bar hopping on the night of the DOR?!? This should – MUST – be a hallowed event for the community. Not only do we need our supporters to bear witness and feel empowered, our own community needs to do the same.

This is an HTUC event and HTUC needs to a better job. I know how much time/effort/communication goes into DOR and it didn’t happen very well this year. When I tried to do it myself or with the CAB, it wasn’t enough. Next year, HTUC needs to ensure that more communication happens, that DOR is on everyone’s radar 60 days before it happens and that it purposefully works to gain the interest of the all segments of the TG community.

This year I brought other historical items – some of which didn’t touch on Nazi Germany. For instance, we had a 100+ year old painting of Joan of Arc with the following info:

Joan of Arc

On April 2, 1431, the Inquisition dropped the charges of witchcraft against Joan, because they were too hard to prove. Instead, they denounced her for asserting that her cross-dressing was a religious duty compelled by voices she heard in visions and for maintaining that these voices were a higher authority than the Church. Many historians and academics view Joan of Arc’s wearing men’s clothing as inconsequential. Yet the core of the charges against Joan focused on her cross-dressing, the crime for which she was ultimately executed. However, the following quote from the verbatim court proceedings of her interrogation reveals that it wasn’t just Joan of Arc cross-dressing that enraged her judges, but her cross-gendered expression as a whole:

“You have said that, by God’s command, you have continually worn man’s dress, wearing the short robe, doublet, and hose attached by the points; that you have also worn your hair short, cut en rond above your ears, with nothing left to show you a woman; and that on many occasions you received the Body of our Lord dressed in this fashion, although you have been frequently admonished to leave it off, which you have refused to do, saying that you would rather die than leave it off, save by God’s command. And you said further that if you were still so dressed and with the king and those of his party, it would be one of the greatest blessings for the Kingdom of France; and you have said that not for anything would you take an oath not to wear this dress or to carry arms; and concerning all these matters you have said that you did well, and obediently to God’s command.

As for these points, the clerks say that you blaspheme God in His sacraments; that you transgress divine law, the Holy Scriptures and the cannon law; you hold Faith doubtfully and wrongly; you boast vainly; you are suspected of idolatry; and you condemn yourself in being unwilling to wear the customary clothing of your sex, and following the customs of the Gentiles and the Heathen.”

We also had a very rare retablo showing the Virgin Marry intervening in the attempted murder of a transwoman.

Afterwards, we went out to Rivas for a late dinner: