Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day when we remember those in the Transgender Community who we have lost.  My personal definition of Transgender is broader than most.  I define gender as “a set of societally created codes of appearance and behavior attached to individuals on the basis of their anatomical sex for the purpose of establishing attractions that ensure reproduction and the perpetuation of the human species.”  As such, I believe that “traditional” gender roles are essentially hetero-normative and thus that same sex attractions and  partnerings are essentially transgender.  In light of this, I wanted to post the names of those we honored during the “altar to the dead” portion in our recent production of The Bacchae: A Ritual of Coming Out, even though only about half of these people are thought of as transgender by our society at large.  A special thanks to Amethyst Moonwater for researching and creating this list for the ritual:

June Jordan, African-American Bisexual Poet and Teacher

Lawrence King, 10 year old who was murdered by a classmate for questioning his sexual orientation and gender identity

Gloria Anzaldua, Latina Lesbian Author and Teacher

Mark Bingham, Gay man and 9/11 hero

James Baldwin, African American Gay Author and Allen Ginsberg, Beat Poet and Counter-Cultural Icon

Lou Sullivan, Female to Male Transexual Pioneer

Brandon Teena, Female to Male Transexual who was murdered

Bessie Smith, African American Bisexual and ‘Empress of the Blues’

Audre Lorde, African American Lesbian Poet who linked the struggles of racism, sexism and homophobia and who died of cancer

Sylvia Rivera, Transgender Woman, Activist and Stonewall Participant whose work is being continued by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Billy Lee Tipton, American Musician and Bandleader who was born with female genitals and lived as a man for his entire life

Tyra Hunter, Transgender Woman who was in a car accident in Washington, D.C. She bled to death when paramedics refused to work on her when they saw that Tyra had a penis

Bayard Rustin, African American Gay Activist and Civil Right Leader, Confidante of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Brenda Howard, Bisexual Activist and Organizer for Stonewall Gatherings which became New York City Pride

Scott Lofgren who worked at Anything That Moves, a bisexual magazine and to all LGBT people who struggle with mental illness

Wanda Alston, African American Lesbian and Activist who was stabbed to death in her apartment in Washington, D.C.

Gwen Araujo and Angie Zapata, Transgender Women and all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Gender Queer and Questioning people who have been murdered for claiming their authentic sexual orientation and or gender identity and expression

Randy Shilts, Gay Writer and AIDS Activist, who wrote the definitive book on the AIDS crisis and to all LGBT people who worked to raise awareness and change policies for AIDS patients and to those who died from AIDS

To the Parents, Friends and Families of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning people for supporting their loved ones even though their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression was different from their own

Matthew Shepard, Gay College Student who was beaten to death for being gay.  The current federal hate crimes protection bill bears his name and has been passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama

San Francisco City Council Member Harvey Milk, first openly Gay man who was elected to office in the United States and who was subsequently assassinated and to all LGBT people who have dedicated their lives to making things better for their communities and the world at large

Bobby Griffith, Gay Teen who committed suicide and all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender youth and adults who were driven to suicide by insensitive and unsupportive cultures

Del Martin, Lesbian Activist and Pioneer who with her partner, Phyllis Lyon, founded the Daughters of Bilitis, one of the first Lesbian organizations in the United States

To all the anonymous Jane and John Does who have been damaged and been killed for their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression, who have been unsupported and abandoned by their families, friends and the world

Of course, it is terrible horrifying and sobering to me to keep in mind that even as we were bringing this ritual to life, we lost another young gay man to a horrifying death in Puerto Rico.  Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, you too are in our thoughts on this day in which we honor those we have lost.

Blessings upon their memories.