Trans Day of Remembrance 2024

Philadelphia House Delegation    November 20, 2024 | 12:36 PM

Human beings come in all shapes and sizes and all different types of bodies. I write today, Nov. 20, 2024, on Trans Day of Remembrance, to recognize people who have died because they weren’t seen as human. I write to recognize my own child, a nonbinary trans person who has been brave enough to live life on their own terms. I write to recognize my friends and colleagues who’ve done the same. Most importantly, I write to remember those who did not get the opportunity to fully live their lives because they were cut short.

I also write to recognize a neighbor and constituent from Port Richmond who comes to our office from time to time for help with the same things all my constituents need help with. She knows she is safe with us, but her life as a trans woman is a dangerous one. The harm she faces was made very clear on Nov. 9, just four days after the election, when she was attacked and assaulted with a knife. She, too, is brave and doing her best to live life on her own terms. Trans people are far more likely to be victims of violence, some studies showing they are four times more likely to be victims of violence and that close to half of them have been sexually assaulted at some point in their life.

Trans people are human. Unfortunately, they often are not seen as human, as neighbors, as part of our community. Some people are stuck in the rigid definition of male and female, not recognizing that this isn’t an issue with biology but of how a person walks in the world. Trans people are not some new creation of woke culture -- they have been with us since we became human. The Human Rights Campaign defines transgender as: “people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.”

 

With the information age, the trans community have been able to come out of the shadows and stop living in isolation. Only 1.6% of people in the U.S. are trans but they have let the rest of us know that they are a community within our broader society. Even with that Pew Research shows that less than half of the people in the U.S. know a trans person. Broader society doesn’t understand trans people because they simply do not know them. The unknown is a prospect that worries people who have not experienced the friendship, companionship, and neighborliness of a trans person.

I am the parent of a nonbinary person, Mars. Mars sees their grandparents every day. They are a mathematician and a designer of databases who manages statistics and numbers in their work. I appreciate the irony that part of their life is based on the binary of zero and one, the language of computer coding and software design. Another part of their life is as a nonbinary person. This is a world that they have described to me as moving along a spectrum, male and female, sometimes leading toward the other, sometimes landing, square in the middle space in which their primary identity is simply as a human being. Our family loves and respects Mars. Many trans people do not get to keep these family relationships when they come out.

In the struggle faced by trans people to be seen, protected, and respected as human beings and members of society, I am an ally. I know people may question my speaking out to support the trans community, not seeing how it supports ‘us.’ I want to be very clear that as a state representative I must be a voice for all people, especially those who don’t have a voice. Sometimes that means standing up for the people in my neighborhood who have long been overlooked. Part of my work is to make sure our neighborhoods get the help they need – with things like unemployment assistance, housing, food, and property tax rebates. Another part of my work is to make sure all my neighbors are safe and secure, and that includes my trans neighbors, friends, and loved ones. Trans people are not ‘they/them’ but rather ‘us.’  My motivation as an ally supporting trans the community is the same as my motivation for championing all my neighbors. When we make trans people safe, we make everyone safer.

 

On this Day of Remembrance, reach out to a trans person in your life to let them that you see and respect them. If you don’t know a trans person, take some time to find out more about their community, so that ‘they/them’ can truly become ‘us.’