Why does it matter? As Gwendolyn Ann Smith of the Remembering Our Dead project puts it:<\/p>\n
The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn\u2019t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who\u2019ve died by anti-transgender violence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So I went along to a recent talk by Juliet Jacques<\/a> at Westminster Skeptics in the Pub<\/a> about transgender history from the 19th<\/sup> century onwards. My ignorance was laid bare. I knew about the 2004 Gender Recognition Act<\/a> \u2013 I was working at the Equal Opportunities Commission helping to implement it in 2005. But I\u2019d never heard of the Compton Caf\u00e9teria Riot<\/a> in 1966 (there\u2019s a documentary<\/a>) nor of Boulton and Park<\/a>, James Barry<\/a>, Lili Elbe<\/a> or Magnus Hirschfield<\/a>. (Fun fact: most of the pictures of Nazis burning books show the bonfire that took place at the Hirschfield Institute.)<\/p>\n
Jacques\u2019s talk is available as a podcast here<\/a> and here are a few other quick history resources: a brief history of trans people in the media<\/a> on Jacques\u2019 blog, a trans timeline<\/a> here, and this nifty interactive LGBT history timeline<\/a> which includes a lot of dates and events significant to trans history. I also found this post<\/a> on film representations of transsexuality interesting.<\/p>\n
Recording, recognising and remembering the histories of marginalised groups might seem like an academic endeavour, but it has a vital political function. The stories of transgender, gay and bi people, of disabled people, of women, of ethnic and religious minorities, of the poor, have been both accidentally and deliberately erased over the centuries. By remembering, we can restore these missing voices to history, and we have ammunition when we\u2019re told that x behaviour or y social group is a modern scourge, that they\u2019re unnatural or against tradition, or that this is the way things have always been.<\/p>\n
Note: Between writing this post and publishing it I also found out about the International Intersex Day of Remembrance<\/strong><\/a>, on 8 November.<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/candles2.jpg?resize=350%2C232\")
<\/a>There\u2019s another kind of
remembering which needs to be done. I\u2019m a big gender history
nerd, and although I’ve spent years reading about changing
gender roles and expectations; women in history; gay, lesbian and
bisexual history, there\u2019s are gaps in my knowledge around the
experiences and heritage of the transgender community.<\/p>\n