Vermont Transgender Day of Remembrance

This year the Vermont Transgender Day of Rememberance recognized the lives lost to anti-sex worker violence alongside those lost to anti-transgender violence. Through a collaboration with the newly minted Vermont branch of SWOP, a sex worker rights activist was invited to speak on the issue of sex workers' human rights. On behalf of SWOP East, I eagerly accepted the offer to be the keynote speaker at the event.

The theme of the evening was "Intersections", and the event was emceed by VT SWOP founder, Leslie Freeman. In speech, ceremony, and exhibit, anti-transgender and anti-sex worker violence were discussed in a comprehensive manner that illuminated the violence experienced by both sex workers and transgender persons because we deviate from culturally accepted standards concerning gender and sexuality. In addition to my keynote speech on sex workers' rights and the intersections of human rights abuses experienced by both transgenders and sex workers, Sister Phyllis of the Ladies of Perpetual Indulgence led a ritural that celebrated the lives and memorialized the deaths of all those lost to acts of anti-trans and anti-sex worker violence.

Through my association with the Prostitutes of New York (PONY), I have been involved with the annual memorial for Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers for several years. This was my first involvement in a large-scale Transgender Day of Rememberance event. The VT TDOR steering committee did a wonderful job in choosing and decorating the venue and getting the word out to their local community. Ultimately, it was a very powerful evening for me. I look forward to strengthening coalitions between the transgender and sex worker community, and hope to see more instances of us banding together against the stgma and discrimination that allows violence against our communities to go unnoticed.