Transgender Advocates of Central Texas and its allies will gather for a candlelight vigil at Austin City Hall Plaza on Monday, 11/20/06 at 6:30pm. The address is 301 W. 2nd Street. Special guests include Austin Mayor Will Wynn and State Representative Garnet Coleman.
On November 20, 2006 members of the transgender community and their allies around the world will mark the 8th annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance (DOR), a day dedicated to memorialize those who have lost their lives due to hatred and ignorance at the hands of others. The DOR began in November 1998 when the murder of Rita Hester, a transgender woman, inspired a website entitled Remembering Our Dead and a candlelight vigil in San Francisco. Since then, The Transgender Day of Remembrance has grown into an international event, with vigils being held in hundreds of cities around the nation and world.
This year we remember people like Christina Smith, a 20 year old transgender woman who relocated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina. She was found dead at her apartment complex on October 12, 2005. Smith’s experience was unfortunately all too common. Violence against transgender people is extremely high. Kay Brown, as quoted in the Washington Blade (Dec. 1999), estimates that one out of twelve transgender people will be murdered in the United States. Anti-transgender hate crimes often go unreported for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is because of the forty-three states with hate crime laws, only eight cover gender identity and expression. Texas’s Hate Crimes Act does not cover gender identity and expression.