GLC hosts vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance
‘We condemn inaction, we condemn apathy, we condemn complacency’
About forty students gathered on Thursday outside Gasson for a candlelit vigil to honor the lives lost in 2015 to transphobic violence.
Hosted by junior Anne Williams, Assistant Director of Transgender Programming, and Alison Bu, the two read the names of the 23 transgender people who were killed in the United States this year, and lit candles to honor their memory, as well as those who have committed suicide due to the transphobia around them.
They said: “By standing here tonight, we not only mourn this tragic loss of lives, but we pledge to fight for the right of transgender people everywhere to live out their lives without fear of violence and harassment.
“By standing here tonight, we condemn inaction, we condemn apathy, we condemn complacency.
“At least 29 worthy, valuable, dignified people had their lives taken from them worldwide this year. While their stories may be ignored and forgotten by an uncaring media, we remember.”
Alison and Anne then honored specific individuals, such as Yazmin Vash Payne, who was “stabbed to death and burned by her boyfriend, one of too many transgender women of color subject to intimate partner violence.” They additionally spoke of Sumaya Dalmar, the transgender activist and model, Kiesha Jenkins, a student at Temple University, and Vanessa Santillan, a sex worker.
The hosts then read out the names and ages of victims of transgender and non-conforming violence this past year. After each name was read aloud, the audience chorused “Rest in Power.”