A tight-knit group of students helped to ensure the memory of those lost to anti-transgender violence shined on at the Cultural Center on Nov. 20, the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
The event, which was organized by senior Nat Wood, a student worker at the Cultural Center, served as a vigil and was open to the campus community.
Attendees were given a paper handout containing the names of over 250 global victims sourced from the Trans Murder Monitoring Global Update.
Additionally, LED candlelights were handed out, as the event was held inside due to the cold weather and smaller group size.
“Some are just first names, some are ‘Name unknown’ and with the country that they were from,” Wood said in introductory remarks. “I had a lot of curiosity for what their lives were like and who were those that cared for them.”
The victim list spanned from Dec. 2022 to Nov. 2023 but did not include the victims of the Club Q shooting, which occurred during 2022’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“I wanted to make sure that this space was here for those who needed it, including myself,” Wood explained.
Attendees turned on their candlelights and read through the double-sided list of victim names as a five-minute-long moment of silence took place.
Following the moment of silence, Wood encouraged attendees to reflect on the list as well as the importance of the day.
Darrien Waugh, who serves as coordinator of student diversity, belonging and equity, shared how his identity as a Black man gave the names deeper meaning to him.
“We really go through the same barriers when it comes to hate and discrimination and different stigmas that you’re fighting every single day or even just fear for your own safety,” Waugh said.
“Going into another community, another marginalized community and seeing that they can’t even get the recognition that we never got in the first place either,” he noted.
Another student who attended the vigil said while reading the list, they were looking for one name in particular: 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, a British transgender girl who was killed in early February.
“I think what made me so sad was where she [Ghey] was on the list because she’s on the first page in the second row,” she said, noting that the list of names was ordered by date of death. “It’s so gross to sit and feel like that was so long ago already but also not and all these people have had their lives taken because they were trans.”
Two 15-year-old boys are currently on trial for Ghey’s killing, according to a Feb. 15 article from The New York Times. Additionally, the article stated that police investigating the killing were looking at all lines of inquiry, including whether or not a hate crime took place.
Another attendee, senior Daisy Gaikwad, spoke about how her South Asian ancestry gave her a different perspective on the names. “I recognize a lot of them to be South Asian and that hurts a lot because no community is perfect but there is always parts of it that are toxic, and it really hurts to know that from my community someone was hurt by someone else in it,” Gaikwad said.
Attendees were encouraged to scan a QR code available in the Cultural Center’s common area that led to a website that displayed stories of the victims from the list.
Going forward, Dottie Morris, who serves as associate vice president for diversity and inclusion, explained the importance of taking action against anti-LGBTQ bills proposed in the upcoming legislation session in N.H.
“If you go testify, they really take what you say into account. So you can either submit a written testimony. You can go stand and read your testimony and make copies for all the [members] of the committees,” Morris said.
“I’m always hurt when people can’t just be. It’s kind of the ‘Live and let live’ that I try to live by and I would hate that people were killed because they were just trying to be who they are, and that’s troubling,” she explained.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
