It’s Been A Long, Hard, Painful Year For The Trans Community
By: Martie Sirois
Tags: Newsletter, LGBTQ, Equality, Transgender, Politics

It’s Been A Long, Hard, Painful Year For The Trans Community

But finally, some light is breaking through

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screengrab from HRC YouTube video, The Human Rights Campaign Endorses Joe Biden for President 2020

Even though not all of our readers (or writers) live here in the United States, I think it’s safe to say this year has been difficult — on many fronts. Here in America, the 2020 election was a huge source of fear and exhaustion, especially for the trans community. And though we’re finally able to celebrate a Biden/Harris victory, many of us still feel like we’re on high alert, 24/7. And we’re keenly aware of the hard work still ahead.

We aren’t out of the woods yet.

But with this election, we at least closed the door on bigotry. We ended a chapter that declared open season for discrimination against marginalized groups — who are supposed to be protected under the U.S. constitution. With this election, the actual majority of American people were heard (as opposed to the “silent majority” in 2016), and this time, we overwhelmingly rejected the tenets of Trumpism, including all the debunked conspiracy theories that go with it.

This difficult election season was only made worse by the fact that it came on the tail end of a steaming hot, four year dumpster fire — four years that felt more like a decade under a presidential administration so cruel and bigoted, the National Center for Trans Equality dubbed them “the discrimination administration.”

Both the HRC and the NCTE (two of the U.S.’ most prominent LGBTQ+ advocacy groups) proudly endorsed the Biden/Harris ticket. And with that, history was made, because it was the first time the NCTE has ever endorsed a presidential candidate, ever.

Both former Vice President Biden and Senator Harris participated last year in NCTE’s “Transform the White House” series and sat down for interviews with Executive Director Mara Keisling. Biden and Harris wanted to tell the trans community, in their own words, how they are dedicated to forwarding the rights of LGBTQ people, particularly, transgender people. Watch both the Biden and Harris interviews here.

“The idea that someone can tell you that you can’t be who you are in your heart and soul is just wrong.” — President-elect Joe Biden

2020 America also saw a righteous moral uprising, with many Americans flocking to the streets to demonstrate, march, and protest the horrific, unconscionable modern-day public lynchings of black people by police officers and others in positions of power.

Of course, because of intersectionality, it can’t be understated that black trans women are the most vulnerable demographic, and the most likely to be brutally assaulted or murdered, just for trying to live their daily lives.

HRC has been tracking the numbers since 2015, and sadly, 2020 has already seen at least 34 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means, the majority of which were Black and Latinx transgender women. HRC notes the reason why they use the phrase “at least” is because “too often these stories go unreported — or misreported.”

And still, for all of us around the world, a global pandemic rages on.

What inspires me daily is the tenacity of trans people. From every corner of the world. Willing to risk it all, just to live unashamed and authentically, wherever they may fall under the broad trans umbrella.

With TDoR (Transgender Day of Remembrance) coming up soon, I want to pause and remember the names of these 34 transgender Americans (that we know of) who lost their lives in 2020 to unimaginable hatred and bigotry, and also, the names of these 350 transgender people worldwide (that we know of), who were mercilessly taken from us in 2020 as well.