Hello, fam.
It’s November 20th.
Every time the news hits that we’ve lost another, the community takes a blow. Today is the day we slow down, breathe, and absorb the damage. Acknowledge that we are hurting, because so many of us have been killed.
I want to link a few things, in the hopes that they will help someone.
This year’s list of names is here.
For movement: How We Can End the Violence Against Trans Women of Color, a 13-step plan by Raquel Willis. If you are moved to take action and support our trans sisters today, here’s a good place to start.
For reverence: The Transgender Rite of Ancestor Elevation is a shared ritual to honor the dead.
I’ve never been very good at eulogies. You’d think I’d get better with practice. There is someone I think about every year on this day — I go back and reread her tumblr. It’s archived now.
There is someone else who I worry about, and wonder, because I don’t know what happened. I don’t want to say her name on the internet, but I hold it in my heart.
Here are some other things I am reading today, and have read, and will reread, that let me feel connected to others in all the things I’m feeling. It is important to know that we are not alone.
Abeni Jones – Trans Radiance: Sharing Food As An Act Of Love. Mutual support.
Kai Cheng Thom – I Hope We Choose Love. Hope, life, futures. If you have the means to buy this book, it is worth every cent.
Ari Banias – The Room In Spite Of. Both as a piece in itself, and as a series of links to so many other powerful, wonderful poets.
“ I’m saying now, though the saying alone can’t prevent it, I don’t want to be the one smiling in the brochure while my friends are wiped out. Don’t pave the road that leads to a fake entrance using my body, using any of my names.
What I also mean is (“I don’t need to be strong, I need for the world to stop being so fucking weak, that my sisters are being swallowed up before my eyes.” Mark Aguhar). “
Hold together, today. Reach out to each other, if you can. We love you.