By Sophia Bates
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Activists and Towson University officials came together last week to recognize the 333 transgender individuals who lost their lives around the world last year in what one speaker called an “epidemic” in the LGBTQ community.
The names of 27 transgender people recently murdered in the United States were read aloud during the Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil last Wednesday. The event also included a candlelight vigil.
“What we are here to talk about is an epidemic in this nation, in this climate and culture and in this world,” said Kevi Smith-Joiner, the director of operations for the Baltimore Transgender Alliance.
“This is a day of remembrance for trans people, but this is also a day of resilience,” Smith-Joiner countinued. “We remember the action and the fire that was behind these people and the work that they did, the lives that they lived and the freedoms they wanted as every other person in this nation and this world is entitled to.”
Towson University President Kim Schatzel also spoke to welcome the community in taking part of the day of remembrance.
“Today is a day where we join together as a university community and we join many communities across the country to memorialize transgender individuals who have been murdered because of transphobia,” Schatzel said.
According to Towson’s Assistant Director of LGBTQ Student Development and Diversity Erin Rook, who introduced the event, there were 333 transgender individuals lost in the last year, 27 of which were those lost in the United States.
Rook said that 91 percent of those 27 individuals were black women and 81 percent were under the age of 30. This is a result of many factors against transgender people, Rook said.
“Across the world, stigma and discrimination against transgender and nonbinary people perpetuates an ongoing cycle of oppression,” Rook said. “It’s just compounded with other systems of oppression like racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia and other things and it deprives transgender and gender diverse people of basic human rights.”
Smith-Joiner, who uses the pronoun “they,” called the community to action, encouraging fighting for transgender rights.
“I want to place some of the work that may feel like a burden into the hands of each and every person into this room,” Smith-Joiner said. “But really we are all a part of a community fighting for the same goals, which is to protect the people and make sure things like this do not continue to happen.”
They added that the importance of this work is intersectionality.
“If the work is not multilayered, not disability work, not anti-racism work, if it is not anti-classism work, if it is not work that reaches all parts of their lives, then it is not work at all,” Smith-Joiner said.
Schatzel also acknowledged the need to fight.
“As we read each of the names tonight and we light the candles, we will honor them, and we will remember them and who they were,” Schatzel said. “But it’s not enough and all of us gather in here today. We all share something in common, that we are allies to fight the hatred and the bigotry and the violence that is all caused by transphobia.”
Following Smith-Joiner’s speech, the 27 names were read by various student and community volunteers, as well as a one-minute moment of silence in remembrance. Members were also invited to put their tealight candles next to one of the boards memorializing a victim.
The event was hosted by Towson’s Center for Student Diversity, which tweeted “Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance that honors the memory of lives lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.”
Smith-Joiner reminded the community the importance of those who were lost.
“These people were mothers, they were sisters, they were brothers, they were siblings, they were loved ones,” they said. “They did work in the community, they worked in organizations and corporations, they reached people’s lives who we have not met yet.”