Today is the 16th annual international Transgender Day of Remembrance (#TDOR) -- we remember those taken by anti-trans violence and transphobia through murder and suicide, the hundreds this past year and the thousands throughout history. We work to center trans women of color, who continue to be targeted in our communities and country and around the world. May their memories be a blessing, as we say in Judaism.There are events in my old and new homes tonight, including Lowell MA, DC and Baltimore. TransFaith has resources including the TDOR Unite project. And Keshet has more Jewish resources than you can shake a yad at.
I feel like today's Google Doodle is also appropriate for TDOR, especially from a faith-based perspective. Today is also Corita Kent's birthday, and here she says "To understand is to stand under which is to look up to, which is a good way to understand." I first became aware of her because my paternal grandmother / great-aunt was a fan -- my grandmother's sister adopted my father and his brothers when their parents died in the Cocoanut Grove fire, 72 years ago next Friday. And growing up in metro Boston we saw Corita's "Rainbow Swash" on the gas tank in Dorchester many times.
