I’m proud of being a transwoman. I’m happy with my decision to live into my own reality and make peace with what I felt called to do both emotionally and spiritually. It is also true that life as a transgender human these days is tough. It’s scary and painful when current events are so unimaginable.
Nov. 20 each year is designated Transgender Day of Remembrance for those murdered or who died by suicide each year for being transgender. The day brings recognition to this growing concern, provides opportunities to ritualize our grief and loss, and helps build relationships and undergird community bonds against homophobia and transphobia. Unfortunately, it feels like beating your head against a wall repeatedly year after year as the number of trans people killed grows higher and higher.
My privilege as a white, educated, and well-supported person has kept me somewhat safe. I will likely never suffer the kind of transphobia that many of my siblings do on a regular basis because of the color of their skin or financial situation.
However, with so much negative legislative work, as well as governmental efforts to erase trans history and education, I feel less and less safe in the current political environment.
One of the greatest tragedies is that the United States of America continues to be one of the places where trans folx experience violence on a regular basis. In the past 12 months in this country alone, there were over 50 people who experienced a violent death simply for being transgender or gender nonconforming, while there were well over 350 globally.
If your local community of faith doesn’t have a service or special time dedicated to Transgender Day of Remembrance, I encourage you to light a candle, say a quiet prayer, perhaps take a few deep breaths, and remember lives lost for no good reason. On this day, remember lives created by God, cut down, and wiped out through hate and fear.
Grace Cox-Johnson, Blueridge Presbyterian Church, Raytown, Missouri
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:
Andy Keeney, Information Security Officer, Information Systems, The Presbyterian Foundation
Stephen Keizer, Vice President, Ministry Relations, The Presbyterian Foundation
Let us pray:
Holy Creator, knowing that you made all people and genders, open our minds and hearts to hear your call to love and justice. Guide our communities of faith to seek out and pray for all people regardless of how they look or dress. Open our eyes to see the joy and delight of every human so that we might see your holiness in each person. Direct our imaginations to find you in ways and places unexpected. Hold each of us in your love that we might remember and live as incarnations of you here and now and always. Amen.
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