Gay rights supporters gathered at the Capitol reflecting pool Saturday evening to remember victims of anti-transgender violence.
It was an event to mark the sixth annual "Remembrance Day," an event started in San Francisco to remember forgotten transgender victims.
On average, there has been a little more than one transgender person murdered a month over the past 10 years, according to the Web site gender.org. Several murders in the District over the past few years has brought greater awareness of transgender bias to the city.
In August 2003 three transgender people were murdered, creating fear that there was an anti-transgender crime wave. According to a spokesperson for the D.C. Gay and Lesbian Liason Unit, most of those murders were not classified as hate crimes. Many of the transgender people murdered in the District were sex workers, which the spokesperson said is a main factor in the murders.
Caeden Dempsey, field director with the National Center for Transgender Equality, said murderers should not be able to blame their crime on "trans-panic," or being surprised the prostitute they hired was not the sex they expected.
"Our society tells us it's OK to hate someone who's different, and it's especially OK to hate someone who's breaking gender roles," Dempsey said.
AU's Queers and Allies sponsored a Remembrance Day event Thursday night. National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director Mara Keisling came to speak about issues facing the gay, lesbian, and transgender community.
"I enjoyed the talk because it put a face on the transgender community," freshman KT Thirion said.
Graduate student Laurie Hughes was surprised to learn about the transgender murders in the District.
"It just goes to show you there's a lot of discrimination out there, even in urban areas there is a lot of discrimination," Hughes said.
