November 20 is the Trans Day of Remembrance. If you read our blog regularly, you know that we try very hard to honor the lives and acknowledge the deaths of our trans neighbors who have been lost to violence. We encourage you to participate in local TDOR events.

This is the list of neighbors lost in the United States since the 2016 TDOR. You can find a detailed list of all individuals around the world here.

Since 2013, we have been trying to publish or promote a post dedicated to the life and death of each lost sibling. You can find our posts chronologically grouped by year at these links.

2017 (as of today)

2016

2015

2014

I shared some of my personal reflections on how I learned about the need acknowledge the deaths of our trans siblings in an essay on PublicSource. I learned by listening to my trans friends and colleagues.

When media outlets and law enforcement agencies don’t use best practices surrounding crimes against transgender people, it re-victimizes.

You will find more information on the Trans Day of Remembrance You may notice that different sites or events have different numbers and/or names for those lost. There are many reasons this is the case – the data itself is imprecise, the criteria for whose death is due to anti-trans violence is hard to confirm, the inclusion of genderqueer and or genderfluid individuals who also identified as trans, the inclusion of victims of police-related-shootings, death by suicide, and domestic violence varies. But it is also the true that the overriding impact of erasure, deadnaming and misgendering individuals by law enforcement, the media, and family often greatly reduces our access to their names.

I urge you to visit different trans sites todays both on the web and on social media. Listen. Listen to what your local trans led organizations are saying about TDOR. Listen to what your local transgender neighbors are saying. Reach out in response to calls for support and investment. You may not get an answer you want, but this is not about allies getting our needs met. We are here for the Trans Day of Remembrance to listen, to support, and to acknowledge the realities of anti-trans violence for those who died just for who they are.

Monica Roberts at TransGriot has a history of the TDOR.

If you would like to listen, we are also amplifying the trans voices in our Western Pennsylvania region through the #AMPLIFY project. To date, 52 trans identified individuals have shared their stories. Responses represent approximately 22% of our total responses – keep in mind that we ask an open-ended question about identity so not all responses cannot easily be categorized. It is entirely possible other contributors do identify as trans, but did not share that information. One year ago at this time, we had 38 contributors who identified as trans, compared to 15 at this time in 2015. I hope we are doing something that’s useful and necessary by creating this archive.

Here are 52 stories from neighbors who live in Pittsburgh, Erie, Johnstown, Greensburg, New Castle, Bradford and beyond. Some are in their early 20s while others are closer to 60. Some transitioned early in life while others are still taking their first steps to embracing their identity in public. And for others, their lives have changed dramatically since they submitted a response. To that end, we are currently offering contributors the opportunity to submit an update through the end of December 2017. We will offer this again before we permanently close the archive.

But for now, you have a snapshot of the lived experiences of 52 trans neighbors in their own voices. I hope you will some time to browse their Q&A’s and absorb some of the wisdom they’ve shared with all of us.

And we’d love to include your story as we move forward. Click here to fill out the Q&A. It takes about 30 minutes of your time. You can control what name you use and make the decision about using a photo. These Q&A’s are not in any particular order, but you can find the full chronological archive on this website.

We appreciate each person who took the time to share their stories. It important that the experiences and truths of trans identity be preserved in the voices of trans neighbors, especially since TDOR honors the lives and deaths of those who no longer can speak for themselves. We must rely on their social media footprint, their friends and family to help us understand their lives.

The bravery and realness of the lives of our 52 contributors is a testament to how we resist the violence & erasure that robs so many of the opportunity to share their stories. The question now is how will *you* be part of the resistance?