Cover source: seleo.gr
November 20 has been officially designated as a day of remembrance for transgender and gender-diverse people who have been murdered over time. This year is the 11th year of International Day and as we move away from it some people wonder if this day can be a landmark of change of mind or is simply passed over as something "negligible".
The visibility of the trans community admittedly suffers perhaps even more than the rest of the LGBTQI community, as it receives hatred, particularly distinct towards these individuals as they are victims of abuse and violence almost daily. According to the organization TMM-Trans Murder Monitoring, 327 people were murdered in the period: October 2021-September 2022 of which 36% of them in Europe as refugees, 27% inside their own home, and 35% on the street. It is also worth mentioning that 95% of those murdered were trans women.
The latter percentage gives us what one might call "food for thought", as the day of the elimination of violence against women (25 November) usually reminds us only of "biological" women. Trans women are murdered worldwide more often than biological women. The inclusion of these and the discussion of the motives for murdering a trans woman cannot leave us indifferent, as we never refer to any way of violence against trans women, as well as society is much more stereotypically available to support a victim of gender-based violence (biological woman) than a trans woman. In this way, these people are not protected and given the voice for visibility and equality.
And as we talk about violence, the incident in Colorado, USA, Saturday, November 19 just before the dawn of trans remembrance day, painted red the discotheque-gay bar in which a 22-year-old man stormed armed and killed 5 people, injuring 17 others, among them a trans man who at that time was working. These incidents reveal the tragic lack of education and empathy of a section of society that massacres and murders innocent souls, giving us the message that days of remembrance have a serious raison d'être. Having personally joined, like many of us, discussions about such hate attacks, the most recent one worried me more than anyone. The "negligible amount" of murders of trans people has been heard, since so many men are being murdered in parallel in the world. One thing is at stake, we cannot compare death figures, as we are talking about people with families and the precious commodity of the right to life. In addition, the motives for the murders of trans people cannot be compared with the diversity of origin of a motive for brutality towards a cis-straight man (examples such as robberies, belonging to the Security Forces, illegalities, trade, sudden deaths, etc.). Without, of course, meaning that the above is negligible, what is explained is that gender identity is a "provocative" qualification according to some to murder a person, something that does not exist in the above cases.
Sexual orientation and gender identity cannot be triggers and "provocations" to murder someone, if so, we are talking about incidents of hatred and non-acceptance of the fundamental right of autonomy of the body.