Yesterday was Trans Day Of Remembrance, an annual day to honor those whose lives were lost to anti-transgender violence. Vigils were held around the country.
According to the Advocate, 26 trans people have been killed in 2016 so far, most of them trans women of color. In 2015, 21 trans people were killed. Keep in mind that these are the numbers that we know of, and that the real numbers may be higher.
At Autostraddle, writer Mey Rude asks, how many trans people will be killed next year? She writes:
I’m going to be honest. I think this is only the beginning. Our nation just elected a president and vice president who have already started the work to roll back protections for trans people. Not only that, but their public unrepentant homophobia, racism and violence against women is emboldening many across America to no longer hide those violent parts of themselves. I’m preparing for this year’s record to be shattered next year, and each year that Trump is in office. When people say we need to give him a chance, that if he’s really this terrible, we can vote him out after four years, or even impeach him after one, what I think of immediately is the thirty or forty or fifty or sixty trans people who are going to die each of those years because that will be the reality of Trump’s America.
We need to do everything we can to fight against Trump and Pence.
Read Mey Rude’s full post on Autostraddle here.
Top photo: Flickr/uetchy
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