Speech By Serge Nicholson, LGBTIQ+ Centre Team, TDOR 2022
Welcome to TDOR at Crossbones
We choose to include, and hold in our hearts the undocumented AND the unknown
dead, losses in our gender diverse and gender non-conforming community losses of
lives cut short by homelessness, ill health, suicide, poverty, no or very poor access to trans healthcare or mental health support, those with no means of migration or movement to safe and to all the systemic failings endured and suffered by our trans and gender diverse
brothers, sisters and siblings an NB niblings.
I will reference https://tgeu.org/ TDOR information release –
Today is a significant and sad day on the global trans and gender diverse calendar, we are here to commemorate our dead. 327 trans and gender-diverse people reported murdered in the past year. On occasion of the International Trans Day of Remembrance TGEU released the 2022 update of Trans Murder Monitoring. The year 2022 saw 327 reported murders of trans and gender-diverse people between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022. With 222 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean remains the region that reported most of the murders.
Laying the 327 bamboo sticks representing TMM 2022 data showing 327 trans and gender-diverse people were reported murdered;
- Cases from Estonia and Switzerland were reported for the first time – both victims were migrant Black trans women;
- 95% of those murdered globally were trans women or trans feminine people;
- Half of murdered trans people whose occupation is known were sex workers;
- Of the cases with data on race and ethnicity, racialised trans people make up 65% of the reported murders;
- 36% of the trans people reported murdered in Europe were migrants;
- 68% of all the murders registered happened in Latin America and the Caribbean; 29% of the total happening in Brazil;
- 35% of the murders took place on the street and 27% in their own residence;
- Most of the victims who were murdered were between 31 and 40 years old.
The data continues to indicate a worrying global trend when it comes to the intersections of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and whorephobia, with most victims being Black and migrant trans women of colour, and trans sex workers. The high number of murder reports from Latin America and the Caribbean can be considerably attributed to the existence of established monitoring systems, and must be understood in the specific social, political, economic, and historical contexts in which they occur.
These numbers are just a small glimpse into the reality on the ground. The majority of the data came from countries with a strong network of trans and LGBTIQ organisations that conduct the monitoring. Most cases continue to go unreported and, when reported, receive very little attention.
At this Outside Project Crossbones TDOR we make a decision to not to include the reading of the individual names of the recorded dead and the harrowing details of their death by violence, we also choose to include and hold in our hearts those not named, the undocumented and the unknown, and our trans community losses of lives cut short by homelessness, ill health, poverty, no or poor access to trans healthcare, or HIV/AIDS healthcare, those with no access to means of migration or movement to safety. Those Lost to dehumanisation, discrimination, isolation and suicide, and to those damaged and lost by their experience of systemic failings suffered by our trans and gender diverse brothers, sisters and siblings and NB niblings.
TGEUORG also references the current context of the rise of a well-funded and well orchestrated anti-gender movement is creating additional barriers for trans people who are already dealing with multiple forms of discrimination. This dangerous movement gives the green light to those who target trans people. We encourage allies and partners to help us combat the dehumanisation of trans people.
Today, we are gathered here in this beautiful historic Crossbones memorial garden space today honouring our communities losses, in our honoring of our dead and our trancesters, but we also are coming together as along with our LGBIQ and cis allies, stronger together.
Crossbones may or may not be familiar to you, the final resting place for the London poor and for sex workers up to 1853, when full, with 15,000 paupers graves.
We thank and celebrate the community collaboration The Outside Project, Crossbones Garden, Bankside Open Spaces Trust and all the Team and volunteers, and the artists Svar Simpson and Lola Lancaster
Today we share a collective honour of the momentous unveiling of a piece of trans art history. The Outside Project commissioned sculpture.
But first I would like to read a poem by a transNB writer Trans Teacher then we will move to the unveiling:
May I ask to get ready to unveil after the poem is read.
Poem by Char, Trans Teacher, South West UK
Made of Clay
Shame burrows
deep under my skin
like a thorn
in the sensitive pad of a bare foot:
sharp hooked words
digging into my very essence
trying to tear it out,
to purge,
to exorcise,
but there is no demon within me;
I too am made in God’s own image:
my heart, made to love who it loves,
me, made to be who I am.
You can chip away at me
with your insults and your ignorance,
and like marble under the sculptor’s chisel,
I become more whole.
Your barbed remarks cut deep
but our pride is nestled deeper –
denser –
the singularity before the explosion
and we will burst forth
in blinding light.
You have made angels of too many of us.
We do not belong in Hell but
we do not belong in Heaven
either:
we are claiming our place on Earth
(unveiling and speeches by Svar and Lola)
We are coming to the end of our TDOR Trans Angel ceremony, you are welcome to stay on here, and to return to visit the Crossbones garden and our Trans Angel. Angels are said to offer protection and to herald both miracles and…. wrath. Both protectors and destroyers. Our Trans Angel is here now, looking out for us all, trans and gender diverse and gender non-conforming and our friends… and allies that stand with us.
As we get ready to go on our way from here. Let’s share a moment of community and connection. I would like to ask that we all take care of ourselves, our spirits, our hearts and
even our bodily selves as we leave here, watch out crossing the London roads… and to not slip in rain puddles.
Let’s all. Go safely from here today and we have an open invitation to visit our Trans Angel again and to post and share news of our Trans Angel. Or we might choose keep an image on our mobiles? Welcome to the world Trans Angel.
Serge and Laik, TDoR 2022
Speech By The Outside Project Managing Director, Carla Ecola, TDOR 2022
SAL was just 19 years old when we met. They spent the night in our shelter’s TV room. Nobody complained about not being able to watch TV on the rare occasions this happened. Here was a youngster from our community in trouble and we all knew there was no choice but to make space. They moved to the emergency hotel the next day and then when a room became free they moved back into our house. They took this bounce around the Outside Project in their stride and was thankful to everyone who helped along the way.
They were calm and happy to be around despite all they’d been through at such a young age. They were interesting and spoke to everyone with understanding, they listened with patience and had a great smile.
The day SAL left our house was a surprise. We fight cases for so long and then all of a sudden things clear and people are told they can move within hours. SAL said they would miss us all and their room but they were excited to move forward. Their backpack seemed bigger than them and I remember thinking how surprisingly strong they were in every way.
We spoke when they arrived at the YMCA. They hated the curtains. I received several pictures on WhatsApp questioning the colour, the material, and the way they were hung.. despite everything this felt like the biggest deal they had ever raised with me. We chose some new curtains together and some soft new bath towels and they were delivered using the title of Dr. I can’t remember why we thought that was funny.
SAL cared about them-self. They had bright eyes, a bright smile, long shiny dark hair, and colourful clothes. They talked carefully about them-self and others. They meditated. They were kind. People turned and smiled when they walked into a room and wanted to speak to them about their day. Their voice was like a song. They said they felt free and that they couldn’t wait to dance.
They died in January this year aged just 20 years old outside in a park – a space I know they liked to meditate.
I thank SAL for brightening the world around us all. They were loved by our house and will never be forgotten.
