November 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in Allston in 1998. Her killer was never searched for and Rita’s family never received justice for their loss.
According to GLAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), “We remember the names of the transgender people whose lives have been lost to anti-transgender violence over the years and continue to demand increased and accurate media coverage of transgender people in their lives and in death. Because the media does not cover them, you will not likely recognize many of these names. They are the names of transgender people we know of whose lives have been taken due to anti-transgender violence in 2024, but should be noted that these crimes often are misreported, go underreported, or are not reported at all.”
Observance
Transgender Day of Remembrance was observed in Holliston in several ways. The Transgender Pride Flag was raised in Blair Square during the week of November 17-23. This flag debuted at Phoenix Pride in 2000 and was created by US Navy Veteran Monica Helms. She created the flag as a symbol of both the diversity of the trans community and the rights that trans folks are fighting for today. The blue stripes represent the ‘traditional boy’ colors while the pink stripes represent the ‘traditional girl’ colors. The white stripes represent those who are intersex, transitioning, or have an undefined gender.
On November 20, HolliPride, a Holliston organization devoted to uplifting, celebrating, and creating safety and inclusion for Holliston’s LGBTQ+ community members and their families, hosted a Transgender Day of Remembrance event in Blair Square. Community members gathered in Blair Square and created art and music to honor transgender people who died this year in the United States alone. People of all ages came to decorate balloon lanterns and a mural with names of the fallen, and participate in a drum circle using the names of fallen, against the backdrop of live cello music of the song Dona Nobis Pacem. (pictured below is Sara Stalnaker, the event coordinator, playing cello music) See more photos of this event below.
At the Holliston Public Library, HolliPride invited community members to create art for the library display, for Transgender Day of Remembrance during the week of November 17-23. (see three photos below)
The Holliston Public Library staff created their own display of books by transgender authors to honor the transgender community in November.
Advocacy
Many people believe that transgender and LGBTQ+ people are not at risk for prejudice and violence in Massachusetts, because Massachusetts is a “blue” state, but the truth is that transgender people continue to be at risk across the United States. Since 2013, the Human Rights Campaign and other advocates have tracked over 200 cases of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people across 30 states and 113 cities nationwide. Beyond fatal violence, the transgender and non-binary community faces higher rates of harassment and physical assault — including transgender young people, with 43% of transgender youth reporting being bullied in school (as reported by OUTMetrowest).
Nevaeh “River” Goddard, also sometimes known as Phoenixx, a nonbinary teenager, was killed in Stow, Massachusetts on April 10, 2024. They were 17 years old. In February of this year, Nex Benedict, another non-binary teenager, was killed in Owasso, Oklahoma. Just last month, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has completed its investigation and is holding Owasso Public Schools accountable for systemic violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
On November 18, 2024 Dr. Barb Fritts, a Holliston community member and clinical psychologist in town who specializes in LGBTQ+ issues, spoke to the Holliston Select Board and asked them to reconsider their flag policy. Holliston’s flag policy, created by the Holliston Select Board in March 2024, prohibits the hanging of the Pride flag from Town Hall, though it had been displayed on Town Hall during the month of June (LGBTQ+ Pride month) from 2020-2023.
Dr. Fritts reminded the Select Board that over 170+ Holliston community members signed a petition in February 2024, asking them to reconsider their policy and allow for the Pride flag to be displayed at Town Hall. At February and March Select Board meetings, LGBTQ+ community members and their allies shared with the Select Board personal stories of how this decision makes them feel less safe in Holliston.
Fritts shared with the Select Board that the existence of Transgender Day of Remembrance points to the reason that queer people in Holliston often feel unsafe, because anti-trans violence happens all the time, even in Massachusetts. She further stated that having the town demonstrate their unequivocal support for the Holliston’s LGBTQ+ community by hanging the Pride flag from the seat of government would go a long way in helping some of its most vulnerable community members feel safer.
Several Holliston community members supported Fritts’s request, including Tracey McSherry, who requested that the Select Board add revisiting the Flag Policy to a future Select Board meeting.