Our Community Service Chair, Campbell Maenner, has researched Transgender Awareness Week.
Transgender Awareness Week, observed from November 13th – November 19th every year, marks a week of remembrance and awareness. For the transgender community, who face more discrimination and violence than ever, this week of action, storytelling, and education is crucial. Whether you are trans, know someone or people who is trans, or are an ally, it is important to know how to advocate for the community.Â
History
The reason Transgender Awareness Week falls on the 13th-19th of November is that November 20th marks Transgender Day of Awareness (TDOR). Trans activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded TDOR in 1999 to remember Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in 1998. November 20, 1999, marked the first anniversary of Rita’s killing. Gwendolyn wanted her and all transgender people who had been killed by violence to be remembered. TDOR is now a worldwide observance.
How to Advocate for the Trans Community
- Education!Â
- GLAAD, the world’s largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer media advocacy organization, is a great resource! Here are some educational resources from them:
- Celebrate the Stories of Transgender People
- Knowing firsthand the struggles and joys of transgender people personalizes the issue even more, especially for an ally. Always listen first and foremost when someone is telling their story and applaud them for their bravery and strength.
- Support Grassroots Trans Advocacy
- Listed are some smaller advocacy organizations! It is not just the big and national organizations that have the most power.
- TransLatin@ Coalition: Empowering Two-Spirit, Trans, Gender Expansive, and Intersex (2TGI) Communities for 16 years.
- Trans Equity Coalition: Trans Equity Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit New Jersey state-wide organization led exclusively by transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people.
- Hudson Pride Center: The largest LGBTQ+ social services center in New Jersey, and they offer a variety of free services to support, affirm, and connect the community to each other and to the services they need.
- EdgeNJ: Serving the HIV+ and LGBTQ+ communities through public health strategies, supportive services, housing opportunities, behavioral healthcare, and education.
- Eastern PA Trans Equity Project: EPTEP Provides Direct Services To Transgender And Gender-Diverse Pennsylvanians In A Forty-Two County Region In Pennsylvania.
- TransCentralPA: committed to providing advocacy and caring support for transgender and non-binary individuals, their significant others, families, friends and allies. TransCentralPA also provides gender education and information to businesses, organizations, educational institutions and governmental agencies.
- Listed are some smaller advocacy organizations! It is not just the big and national organizations that have the most power.
- Show up for LGBTQ+ Rights
- Whether you use your time, voice, vote, or donation, it is important to raise awareness surrounding the issues trans people face.
Recommended Readings
- Here are some recommended readings to educate yourself more on the trans community:
- Ideal for middle grade and young adult readers, Trans History: A Graphic Novel is an informative and essential introduction to the history of trans identity in the immersive graphic nonfiction format.
- So Many Stars is a rich oral history of a generation of trans and gender-nonconforming elders of color—their intimate accounts, recollections, and testimonies woven together in a necessary tapestry.
- Pageboy is a groundbreaking coming-of-age memoir from the Academy Award-nominated actor Elliot Page. A generation-defining actor and one of the most famous trans advocates of our time.
- Kai Cheng Thom grew up a Chinese Canadian transgender girl in a hostile world. As an activist, psychotherapist, conflict mediator, and spiritual healer, she’s always pursued the same deeply personal mission: to embrace the revolutionary belief that every human being, no matter how hateful or horrible, is intrinsically sacred.