TDoR 2024

It's Trans Day of Rememberance today, again. The day we name those who can no longer name themselves. Too many names got added to that list this past year, as has been the case ever year since I started observing it. One thing idea I've been trying to hold on to these past few years is this idea of מיר וועלן זײ איבערלעבן: "we will outlive them".

It is a story of jews from the Holocaust, a story of people defiant in the face of death, a story of folks who spit in the face of their oppressors. And it was true: nazi germany is gone ¹, but I am here, jewish and queer and transgender as ever.

The story originated with jews, but it applies to trans folks as well:

We have always been, and we will always be. We have been engineers and musicians, priestesses and monks, sex workers and soliders, emperors and knights, and all range of other folk. When they are dead, we will still be around, and some amongst their children's children will count themselves among our number.

So live. Know that any win of theirs is ephemeral, but fight tooth and nail against it none-the-less. Do not give them that momentary victory. Live. Live to find joy some day. Live to rub it in their faces, live so that they do not get the satisfaction of our fear and sorrow. Live to show them that they may kill one of us, but the rest of are undaunted. Live so that the memory of those who are gone stays alight. Live because we remember our own names but someday theirs will be forgotten. Live to pass on what you learned to the next generation. Live to see the world become a better place, to make the world a better place in whatever way you can.

Live, and remember those who did not.