Over Two Decades

And what has changed?

It has been over two decades since I first attended a Day of Remembrance. Going back to my old GeoCities [Warning: My virus software has flagged this link but found no problems] blog in 2001 I wrote...

The "Day of Remembrance". I just got back from the vigil that was held in Hartford. I read the name of Ontwon Curtis, On September 13^th of this year she was murdered. She was shot several times in the chest at her home in Newport News, Virginia. Andrew Coleman has been arrested for her murder.

I had a very difficult time reading that statement out loud. It brings home the point that people will kill one another just because they are different, that they are just trying to be whom they are inside, to be themselves.

2002...

The "Day of Remembrance". I just got back from the vigil that was held in Hartford. I read the name of Ontwon Curtis, On September 13 th of this year she was murdered. She was shot several times in the chest at her home in Newport News, Virginia. Andrew Coleman has been arrested for her murder.

I had a very difficult time reading that statement out loud. It brings home the point that people will kill one another just because they are different, that they are just trying to be whom they are inside, to be themselves.

2003...

Last night I went to the "Day of Remembrance" vigil in Hartford. They filled the room with people who came out for it at the MCC chapel in the Community Center. They had a number of good speakers there and these two I thought stood out.

The speaker from the Anti-Defamation League spoke about the time he was over in Germany a couple of years ago. He was walking around a city in the old East German sector looking for the Synagogue. He saw an Orthodox Jew and he went over to ask him where the Synagogue was. The Orthodox Jew said that he was on the way there now and was welcome to come along with him. As he was walking along with him he could hear kids laughing and taunting them. At first he was embarrass, but as he walked he started to straighten his back and walk tall, proud of whom he is. He said it made him aware of what it is like to be identified by what you wear, to be singled out by how you dress. And through that experience it helped him imagine what it is like every day for us in the transgender community.

The other speaker spoke about her youth. First when she and her friend were asked to leave a church because of her friend. The second incident was when she was bused to a white school in New Jersey, out of all the children that were bused to the other school, only her friend they did not accept and was sent back to her old school. A little while latter her friend committed suicide. Why? Because, she was a Transsexual.

I went up to read one of the names and I had a hard time doing it, my eyes were all tears. It was a very emotional time. As I sat back down in my seat the woman next to me touch my hand and just nodded slightly, she was from the ACLU. And her gesture brought on more tears.

And now I attend another TDoR, what has changed?

 

The list has gotten longer, that is the only thing that has changed.

You can see the list of those who were murdered this here.