TDOR in Black and White

Last week I attended two Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) events. The purpose of TDOR is to honor trans people who were murdered in the past year.  There were about 260 such deaths around the world in 2013, and the majority of the victims are always trans women of color.

Of the events I attended, one set out to remember all 260, and was organized by a white trans group. The other one memorialized four black trans women who died in New Orleans this past year and was organized by a black trans group - specifically, by women who had known and loved the deceased.

I had figured out that those two events would be very different from each other, but that was only a logical deduction. It didn't prepare me for the actual experience of being there.