Remembering those who lost their lives for being who they were, one name at a time.
As a part of the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, a candlelight vigil will be held in order to honor the various trans persons across the globe who have lost their lives to violence. The event, hosted by volOUT, will feature the victims’ names and their respective cause of death recited as measure of remembrance Thursday at 6 p.m. in the HSS amphitheater.
Tucker Hyde, a junior in public relations and president of volOUT, said he hopes the event will shed light on a portion of the LGBT community he feels has gone unnoticed.
Describing the event as an “emotional experience,” Hyde said the goal of the vigil is to reveal the reality of prejudice related violence to life, as it “puts names to the victims.”
“It brings an issue to the table that a lot of times gets overlooked,” Hyde said. “This is kind of a way to bring attention to some of the crimes that have committed against people just for being who they are.”
Between 1985 and 1998, it is estimated that of all violence initiated against the LGBT community, 20 percent resulted in murders to transgender persons, according to a report from (LINK: transgenderlaw.org).
For Joel Kramer, assignment manager for UT Housing and faculty staff advisor for volOUT, the event will serve as a reminder to the unnecessary violence perpetrated against trans persons.
“There are people all across the U.S. who are physically assaulted or even killed because of their status as a trans person,” Kramer explained. “It’s a day that’s been set aside just to remember those people and their struggle and to memorialize those persons.”
While Kramer works to further equality for the entire LGBT community, he said he recognizes that people who identify as transgender are subject to unique problems not generally experienced by the lesbian and gay populations. He specifically cited UT’s recent push for gender-neutral bathrooms across campus as a necessary measure to help alleviate these problems.
“They may get yelled at for going into one bathroom and get beaten up for going into another,” Kramer said of the difficulties transgender persons face even in using public restrooms. “It’s not necessarily the same thing that someone who is gay or lesbian might have to deal with.”
Kramer ultimately hopes the event will help shed light on people’s suffering because of their identities, while also letting them know a safe haven exists for them on campus.
“There are a lot of students that are not conscious that this is even a population that exists at UT, or that these are people who have vulnerabilities or people who need support,” Kramer said. “If there are students that who are in the trans community, they can say there is a group at UT that is concerned with them and is there to offer them support.”
