Transgender day of remembrance at my local university next Tuesday

[ContessaHallelujahSparklehorse]

www.reading.ac.uk/internal/diversity/diversity-events-news.aspx

More text from an email below:

"Transgender Day of Remembrance is marked each year on 20 November. It is a day on which we celebrate our trans staff and students, but also remember those affected by violence against the trans community in the UK and beyond, particularly over the last year. We will mark the day by a short ceremony at 1pm as follows.

Flag-raising ceremony and speeches

Monday 20 November, 1.00pm - 1.40pm, flagpole between Whiteknights House and the Library.

This event is hosted by Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Van de Noort, by Nozomi Tolworthy the RUSU Diversity Officer, and by Dean for Diversity and Inclusion Simon Chandler-Wilde. It will feature short speeches from the Acting VC on behalf of the University, and from the trans community, including guest speaker Amber Edwards, Chair of the Oracle Pride Employee Network, Oracle. Representatives of RUSU and our LGBT+ Staff Network will read out the names of some of those worldwide who have suffered death from transphobic violence in the last year.

All staff and students are welcome to join us to mark this occasion and pay our respects."

Even my terribly woke DH forwarded this onto me with a raised eyebrow and a "Really?"

Any others going on at your local universities?

And Pink News has www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/03/31/transgender-day-of-visibility-2018-this-is-how-many-trans-people-have-been-killed-in-the-past-year/

1 transgender person was murdered in the UK last year.

That's very sad, but it's nowhere near the number of women who are killed each year.

1 person was killed in the UK BY a transgender person in 2017. See transcrimeuk.com/2017-convictions/

Transrespect I think? Reddit scrolling

Ffs

Apparently this thread has "peak terfed" people unbelievable.

Not quite sure how this has peak terfed people

Me neither. I've read the whole thread and all I see is women concerned about women

I'd be writing back saying it would be a fitting part of the ceremony if the names of all TG killed because they were TG in the past year was read out.

They could literally hold a moment of silence.

Is there a reason why this couldn’t have been done on International Day of Trans Remembrance last month?

I'm trying to link the thread but can't swap between threads for some reason. It's this comment from Weetabixandshreddies on the Mumsnet is full of trans hate thread.

@Verbeena

That thread shocked me too and tbh just proved that all of the arguments that those people are not trans phobic or aren't against all trans people simply aren't true. They showed their true colours on that thread.

This thread:
To think mumsnet is full of hate crime? http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/amiibeingunreasonable/3424801-To-think-mumsnet-is-full-of-hate-crime

But..... there's nothing here to shock. We're querying the numbers needed to merit an institution-wide moment of remembrance, which is apparently 1 (according to Pink News). This is fine, but does beg the question of why so many other people who have been discriminated against do not appear to have said moment of remembrance.

I know. Some just like to shout the word bigot though and there are a handful of names who are always there to say how awful we are.

Representatives of RUSU and our LGBT+ Staff Network will read out the names of some of those worldwide who have suffered death from transphobic violence in the last year.

Interesting. Do the representatives of the LGBT+ staff network also hold an annual remembrance service for all the L, G and B victims of homphobic violence and murder? Are their names read out? How are they acknowledged?

If the s stats are true and it’s 1 person killed for being trans then that’s 1 too many
However, more people than that have been killed for being Goths. Hopefully a university will hold a Goth Remembrance Day soon too

I don’t think we have one of these...that said we have a very large, very vocal, very conservative body of Muslim students we we get significantly less of the usual university student shit going on. Quite fond of my uni actually.

Two actual women a week are murdered in Britain, usually by their partners, and we don’t have flags at half mast for any of them!

International day for the elimination of violence against women is 25 November. Weird that you don’t know anything about it.

This is like when men complain ‘when is international men’s day’ because they haven’t bothered to engage with the fact that they have one, and only want an excuse to bitch about international women’s day.

Actually I didn't know anything about the international day for elimination of violence against women (or had forgotten such a day existed) so that is helpful, thanks. Perhaps I will ask DH to ensure his university has a gathering and reads out the names of some notable women assaulted or killed by their partners/spouses.

I didn't know about that day either. I've attended 4 universities and never heard of it in amongst all the other days that are noted.

I didn’t know about that day either. And it falls on my violent ex’s birthday too. Seems fitting.

I have come across it but only as a thing that women's organisations mark, not something that companies, universities etc commemorate. That being so, I don't think it is in the least weird that people haven't heard of it.

As far as I know a lot of transwomen are killed (not in the UK) but afaik that is because they are prostituted, and that has a pretty high fatality rate.

No problem at all with a trans day if remembrance as long as it is honest and recognises that in the UK trans people have the same rights as everyone, and are far better off than in other places in the world.

Oh ffs. How indulgent of the Uni. My newsfeed and newspaper this week has been full of girls and young women who have been murdered in the most violent ways by men. Where's their day of remembrance and services and flags and sad face solidarity?

International day for the elimination of violence against women is 25 November

Honestly never heard of it and I work in a council building who you'd expect to be on it with regards such a date.

Why do we never hear of all of this violence against transpeople? if it happened as often as they state, they would be ramming it down our throats surely?

I have no issue with trans day or whatever, but a day of remembrance when they aren't being murdered (like women actually are) is a problem.

International day for the elimination of violence against women is 25 November. Weird that you don’t know anything about it.

This is like when men complain ‘when is international men’s day’ because they haven’t bothered to engage with the fact that they have one, and only want an excuse to bitch about international women’s day.

It's nothing like that because men don't actually need a day. Like trans people in this country don't actually need a day.

So the Uni flying the flag half mast for this and not a day to end violence against women is silly.