The Transfeminine Review

Note: As many of you are probably aware, my original plan for today’s article was to write about my formative experiences with Sarah McBride in light of the current situation. However, in light of Rep. McBride’s acquiescence to House Republicans’ disgusting bathroom discrimination policy, I no longer feel that the tone I struck is fully appropriate. I will be tabling it for now and will reassess in coming days. Apologies to anyone who was looking forward to reading it, this article will be significantly shorter than my usual fare as a result.

[Trigger Warning] This article contains remembrance and frank discussions of anti-trans violence and suicide in observance of Trans Day of Remembrance. Please take care of yourself and read this article at your own pace. If you’re struggling, you can call Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 or find other crisis resources here.

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Hi all, it’s been a somber few weeks, but our community has been doing its best to rise to the moment. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely seen my pair of articles addressing the inflamed possibility of anti-trans censorship. If not, you can read my call to action for the entire trans publishing industry to stand against censorship, or my practical advice for beginning trans literary preservation work. But we don’t always have the spoons to act 24/7, and I don’t think it’s a secret that lots of people are struggling right now.

Today (11/20/24) is Transgender Day of Remembrance, when we remember the members of our community who have been stolen by transphobic violence and suicide. I know that this day will hurt more than ever this year, when our community has lost so much and stands to lose so much more. It has been a miserable fucking news cycle for our community between the assault in Minnesota and the McBride situation. It sucks. Today really, really sucks.

But we still need to remember those whom our communities have lost.

In the period since the last TDOR, 350 trans people were murdered around the globe due to transphobic violence (source), an increase of 29 anti-trans homicides from the same period last year, a 9% increase:

🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️

You can read the full list of their names here.

93% of those murdered were people of color. The vast majority were trans women. Many were sex-workers, and lived in countries beyond the Global North. Three in ten murdered trans people lived in Brazil.

But the scope of what we need to observe goes beyond the names we know to list this year. Transphobic murder is one of the most shocking manifestations of anti-trans violence, but the impact on our communities spreads far beyond what gets reported in the news. The impact of state-sponsored transphobia affects us all, and this scope of it this year – from the massive smear campaign during the US Presidential campaign to the pervasive attempts of Conservatives to use our community as a wedge issue in every other sphere of public life – has been staggering.

This year alone, 45 anti-trans bills have been passed into law around the country. And that represents only a small fraction of the flood of hostile legislation that’s poured in around the country, a staggering 665 bills so far in statehouses around the country, the majority of which have failed or stalled (source). A substantial majority of these bills have been targeting trans children, and as a result, we’ve seen an increase in trans youth suicidality in states with severe anti-trans restrictions on the scale of anywhere from 7% to 72% (source). The damage these bills have done is incalculable and all too often silent – and that’s only in the United States.

Before I continue the article, please join me in a moment of silent reflection for the names we won’t know to add to our list.

🕯️

Check in on your friends today. If you’re in a low place, if you’re struggling, please know that we are here for you and want you to be okay. We will get through this dark political moment, and we will survive whatever comes next.

I want to leave this article open-ended. If you have a memory you want to share about Cecilia Gentili or any of the other trans people who have lost their lives since the last TDOR, this is an open invitation to use the comment section below to do so.

I see you. I love you. You’re going to be okay ❤

Beth

If you’re struggling, you can call Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 or find other crisis resources here.

LAST WEDNESDAY: #7 – 12 Spooky Books by Transfemmes to Read This Halloween

NEXT WEDNESDAY: #9 – Three Things You Can Do Right Now to Combat Anti-Trans Censorship