Transgender Day of Remembrance of Santa Cruz County

WATSONVILLE, CA – A coalition of community organizations in Santa Cruz County announce the 2008 Transgender Day of Remembrance of Santa Cruz County to be held at the Watsonville City Plaza, near East Beach and Main Street, at 6:30 to to 8:00 PM on November 20, 2008.

Coalition organizations in Santa Cruz County as of November 13th include: Santa Cruz Trans; John Laird, Member of California State Assembly, 27th District; Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Central Coast Region; Westside Health Center; Watsonville Health Center Clinica Mariposa; Diversity Center; Queer Youth Task Force; Transgender Teen Project; STRANGE, a program of Youth Services, Santa Cruz Community Counseling Centers, Inc.; Sex Workers Outreach Project; UCSC Lionel Cantú GLBTI Resource Center; the Transgender Resource Center of Second Life; and additional community and faith organizations.

In 2007, the Santa Cruz County community gathered for Transgender Day of Remembrance in downtown Santa Cruz near the Clock Tower. This year, the community will gather in downtown Watsonville at the Plaza. The event will feature a candlelight vigil, speakers and local music and spoken word artists. Speakers at the event include local community organizers, political leaders, clergy and health service providers.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The international event, now in its 10th year, is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the "Remembering Our Dead" web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester's murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved. This day of remembrance offers transgender people and their allies a chance to step forward and stand in vigil, memorializing those who've died at the hands of anti-transgender violence.

The National Center for Transgender Equality estimates the likelihood that a transgendered person would be the victim of a violent crime is 16 times the national average. In the United States, approximately one person per month is murdered because of the victim's gender presentation. This year in California, two people have already died, victims of gender-identity based violence. They include Lawrence King, a 15 year old resident of Oxnard and Ruby Molina, a 22 year old resident of Sacramento. In 2002, Gwen Amber Rose Araujo was brutally murdered in an early morning in Newark, California. The story of seventeen year old Gwen, her mother, Sylvia Guerrero, and their large extended family saddened and inspired people around Northern California.

To lean more about Transgender Day of Remembrance, listen to the Closet Free Radio Show on KZSC 88.1 FM on Monday, November 17th, from 7:00 - 8:30 PM. A guest panel will be discussing Transgender issues.

All are welcome at the Transgender Day of Remembrance, including significant participation by friends, family and allies of the local transgendered community.

For more information about Transgender Day of Remembrance of Santa Cruz County, contact Abel Murillo at the Diversity Center at (831) 425-5422 or amurillo [at] diversitycenter.org