I won’t be attending any memorial services this year. I have a busy day of meetings — the BristolCon committee in the afternoon, and an SFSFC Board Meeting in the evening. So in lieu of a memorial service, I’m doing a post.

First, the roll call. At the last count 179 trans people were murdered this year simply because they were different. Details here. The numbers appear to be going up, year-on-year, though that may simply be because the reporting is getting better.

Over at Just Plain Sense, Christine Burns has posted a very moving recording of a tribute to this year’s dead. Please give it a listen.

There are memorial services in many UK cities, though none near me. In London Roz Kaveney will be reading a poem. It is on her LiveJournal, but I don’t think she will mind me reproducing it here.

Death and Solidarity

So many dead. And how do we go on?
They shoot us, stab us and erase our name.
They beat us, bludgeon us, and try to blame
The victims. When their murders are all done

we are still here and watching. We’re a crowd
of angry mourners and we won’t forget.
They’ve killed so many innocents and yet
we won’t be silent and we won’t be cowed.

Just standing, naming, mourning is an act.
It’s not enough, but it says we are here
and going nowhere, and we will not fear
to live our lives. For centuries we’ve lacked

our voice, and were killed silently. That death
cries out now through us. Without pause for breath.

Roz Kaveney, November 2010