#tdor2019

(please click for better quality) 

a comic for tdor featuring lyrics from “famous last words” by mcr. that song hits different today.

this trans day of remembrance, remember not only those we have lost, but our trans brothers, sisters and siblings that are here with us, struggling along side us. we are each other’s family; we are each other’s home.

honor the dead. fight for the living. stay safe.

[image ID: a digital comic set to lyrics from the song “famous last words” by my chemical romance. the comic starts drawn in white on a black background, and gradually shifts to being drawn in white, pink, and blue.

it begins with a hand next to the text: “now I know;” followed by a bust of a short haired person next to the text: “that I can’t make you stay;” then a partial bust of a person with long hair in a jacket covered in patches and pins, one of which is a heart patch with a trans symbol in it, next to the text: “but where’s your heart?” then it shows the tops of some powerlines with the text: “and I know there’s nothing I can say.”

next it shows a memorial site with a poster and flowers at the bottom of a lamp post with the text: “to change that part;” then there are a large collection of lit candles with the text: “so many bright lights that cast a shadow;” next, a person in a puffy coat holding a piece of paper with the text: “but can I speak?” where the word speak is scribbled out; next shown in a group of transphobic protestors holding anti-trans signs and yelling with the text: “is it hard understanding.”

next shown two figures with hatched wrists and ankles reaching out to each other with the text: “why I’m ‘incomplete’?” where the word “incomplete” is in quotation marks; next is a panel of a mourning crowd, with three crying young people at the front, paired with the text: “I see you laying next to me;” then there is a picture frame with a portrait next to a burning candle, where the face of the portrait is replaced with the words “rest in power” and paired with the text: “with words I thought I’d never speak.”

next shown is a line up of five silhouettes in blue, pink, and white with the text: “awake and unafraid, asleep or dead;” next is a drawing of a thin person with brown skin and a shaved head dressed in blue and pink holding up a large trans flag and shouting, shown next to a transparent figure with curly hair wearing a dress, who is also shouting and supporting the first person’s wrist as they hold up their flag, wrapped with the text: “I am not afraid to keep on living.”

Hello, fam.

It’s Trans Day of Remembrance.

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.

We remember.

Udine, Italy.

Hey people, how is it going?  Last autumn I partecipated at TDoR (Transgender day of remembrance) in Milan, Italy (where I live). It was very touching. Was raining and people aggregated naming almost every trans person who died in 2019.

To those that fought be us.

Trans Day of Remembrance 2019