Uplift: Uplifting LGBTQ+ Experience Within and Beyond Unitarian Universalism

Friday, November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance 2020 UUA TDOR Chapel

2020 UUA TDOR Chapel - Friday, November 20th @ 2pm ET

2020 UUA TDOR Chapel - Friday, November 20th @ 2pm ET

Join the Unitarian Universalist Association on Friday, November 20th for a Transgender Day of Remembrance Chapel.

JOIN US! - Nov 20, 2020 02:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register Online Today

As you well know, 2020 has been for the most part, a very, very painful for everyone. Amid a global pandemic, epic unemployment, and a series of state-sanctioned murders of Black people, let us also take a moment to remember another year of the horrific violence against the transgender community.

In 2020, at least 34 transgender or gender non-conforming people were murdered, the majority of which were Black and Latina transgender women. Many more transgender people took their own lives as well, and those who have survived often experienced unprecedented hardship this year.

As such harm continues to impact transgender/non-binary people, we are also mindful of their resilience--and victories for trans rights. In 2020, Sarah McBride became the first transgender candidate ever elected to state senate. Transgender activist Aimee Stephens, along with other LGBTQ litigants, won the SCOTUS ruling that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex.

Transgender and non-binary people everywhere are working for justice in many ways. They are surviving in a world often not built for their survival. They are supporting each other and working daily for a world where trans people are celebrated and normalized. They are simply existing, too, whether or not they decide to be openly transgender/nonbinary, and that is a powerful act of resistance. May we celebrate them too, as we grieve the loss of these 34 lives.

Time and again, experience and research show that when trans people experience support, connection, and validation, from each other as well as from cisgender people, they are more likely to survive and thrive.

As Unitarian Universalists, there is more work to do for us to be the community that trans and non-binary UUs deserve and need. Let us lean into trans resilience and support its blossoming. In mourning, let us work to end the white supremacy, trans antagonism, and other forms of oppression that are literally killing Black trans people.

As Unitarian Universalists, let us celebrate the inherit worth and dignity of trans people by remembering those we’ve lost and honoring those living among us, charging us to love better, work harder, and be more equitable toward all people, especially those who are transgender, genderqueer, non-binary, and other non-cisgender identities.