I’d like to begin by thanking Eileen Novack and everyone else who helped put this event together, as well as the Rev. Paul Ratzlaff and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington for hosting the second Transgender Day of Remembrance here on Long Island. I’m honored to be asked to speak again as I was at last year’s event and I’m especially honored to be in such distinguished company, with Suffolk County Majority Leader Jon Cooper, with Donna Riley of Long Island Trans Experience (LITE) and with Juli Owens of the Long Island Transgender Advocacy Coalition (LITAC).

The work of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy is and has always been about collaborating with and supporting the great work of organizations such as LITE, LIFE, LITAC, and LIGALY. NYAGRA is also proud to work with supportive people of faith such as Pastor Paul and the members of the UU Fellowship of Huntington. NYAGRA’s legislative agenda includes advancing the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) in the state legislature as well as working on implementation of the New York City Dignity in All Schools Act and the New York City transgender rights law (Int. No. 24, enacted as Local Law 3 of 2002). We’re also working with the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) to try to persuade the New York City Department of Health to revise its proposed new regulation on change of legal sex designation on birth certificates for transsexual and transgendered people.

On a solemn occasion such as this, when we remember those we have lost to violence and hate, it is important to understand precisely what legislation and law can and cannot do. Non-discrimination laws can help protect us from discrimination, but they cannot eliminate discrimination. Hate crimes laws can help reduce hate crimes against transgendered people — at least those that include gender identity and expression, unlike the hate crimes law enacted by the New York state legislature in 2000 — but hate crimes laws cannot eliminate hate crimes.

We must recognize that law is an important but a weak tool of social change. To give you just one example that illustrates my point, let me mention the inclusion of sexual orientation to Ecuador’s constitution. When Ecuadorian activists were successful in getting sexual orientation added to their national constitution, it was a testament to their commitment to equality under law. But because there was no campaign to undergird that constitutional provision by educating the public on issues of sexual orientation, the addition of that provision did not substantially improve the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual Ecuadorians, who still face pervasive discrimination and police brutality in Ecuador. Without public support, legal change — whether through legislation, litigation, or even constitutional amendment — cannot alone fundamentally alter the reality of our lives as LGBT people. It is only through a change of hearts and minds, as the catch-phrase goes, that we can substantially change the grim reality that greets many members of our community as they try to make their way in a still-hostile society.

But what law can do is to send a signal to those who would commit discrimination and hate crimes. In addition to providing legal recourse to the victim, law sends a signal to a potential perpetrator as to what society finds acceptable or unacceptable, and so enactment of transgender-inclusive statutes can powerful influence the governing discourse of social relations with regard to how to treat transgendered and gender-variant people.

NYAGRA’s philosophy is to view law as a tool to educate the public as well as a means of providing transgendered and gender-variant people with legal redress. Just as we must pursue legal change — such as the addition of gender identity and expression to Nassau County human rights law — to protect transgendered and gender-variant people from discrimination, we must use legislation and litigation to educate the public so that members of the public understand the pervasive discrimination and violence that transgendered and gender-variant people still face, even in those cities, counties and states with transgender-inclusive non-discrimination and hate crimes laws.

The challenge for us is not only a political challenge of getting legislation through city councils, county and state legislatures, and Congress; it is also the challenge of winning the hearts and minds of our family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and fellow citizens. And so our task must be viewed in spiritual terms. It is therefore especially appropriate that we commemorate the Transgender Day of Remembrance here. But just as spirituality cannot be contained within the walls of a church — even one as welcoming and wonderful as this one — our task is to take the spirit of remembrance from this sanctuary out to every city and town on Long Island and beyond. In remembrance of all those we have lost to violence and hate, let us join together in re-committing ourselves to that task. Thank you.

Pauline Park is chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA).

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…gathering on the steps of the Iowa state capitol in Des Moines
to commemorate the first Transgender Day of Remembrance in Iowa…

Iowa Transgender Day of Remembrance
20 November 2009
Pauline Park
Chair, New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA)

Today, we come together here on the steps of the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines to commemorate the very first Transgender Day of Remembrance in the history of the state of Iowa. And so I would like to thank all of those who came out tonight to take part in this historic occasion.

I would especially like to thank the two people who made this event possible: Sandy Vopalka, the executive director of Equality Iowa; and Jayden McCurnin, the  co-coordinator of Transformations Iowa, which meets at The Center here in Des Moines. Their leadership here in Iowa is an inspiration to people across the state as well as to me and to their colleagues in the Equality Federation — formerly, the Federation of Statewide LGBT Advocacy Organizations — of which Equality Iowa and NYAGRA (the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy) are member organizations.

I would also like to thank Gwen Smith, a transgender activist in San Francisco who originated the Transgender Day of Remembrance to mark the death of Rita Hester, a transgendered woman murdered in Boston on the 28th of November 1998. Gwen and a number of other transgender activists organized the very first TDOR on the 20th of February 1999, marching down Castro Street in San Francisco to demand an end to hate crimes against transgendered people.  Now, nearly eleven years later, the Transgender Day of Remembrance is observed in hundreds of cities and towns around the country  — from Albany to Atlanta, from Albuquerque to Anchorage, from Chicago to Seattle, from Boston to Billings, from Bloomington to Baton Rouge. And so when you stand here on the steps of the state capitol in Des Moines, you join a national movement calling for the end to hate crimes against people based on their gender identity or expression.

And TDORs are being held this week in Canada, from Halifax to Toronto to Vancouver.  In fact, this is a movement that has now gone global, with candlelight vigils and commemorations marking the Transgender Day of Remembrance around the world, from Milwaukee to Milan, and from Providence to Perugia; from Princeton to Perth; from Kalamazoo to Calgary, and from Coventry to Kuala Lumpur; from San Antonio to Sydney to Saskatoon, from Burlington to Brussels to Berlin, from Tacoma to Tulsa to Tel Aviv.

And so when you stand here on the steps of the state capitol in Des Moines, you participate in an international movement calling for the end to hate crimes against transgendered and gender-variant people. I come to you from New York, which unlike Iowa, has yet to enact a state discrimination law protecting people from discrimination based on gender identity or expression. On that score, the Hawkeye State is ahead of the Empire State. Iowa is also ahead of New York in enshrining marriage equality in state law, and I want to especially acknowledge the leadership of One Iowa and Equality Iowa in making that great victory possible.

But on this solemn occasion, our thoughts naturally turn to the daily struggle for survival that many transgendered people face across the country and around the world. I live in the Borough of Queens, and there have been three violent attacks on members of our community in the County of Queens just this year. First, there was the attack on Leslie Mora, a transgendered Latina woman assaulted as she was coming out of a gay bar in Jackson Heights only about 8 blocks from my apartment building. Then there was Carmella Etienne, a transgendered Afro-Caribbean woman who was born in Haiti, who was assaulted in St. Albans, the neighborhood in southeastern Queens where she lives. And then there was Jack Price, a gay white man who was attacked coming out of the corner store just a few blocks from his apartment; the beating he endured at the hands of two young men was so severe that there was initially some doubt as to whether he would survive. I’m happy to say that Leslie and Carmella are fully recovered and Jack is now on his way to a complete recovery. But all three continue to suffer the psychological wounds that come with such hate crimes.

Sadly enough, Lateisha Green did not survive her attack in upstate New York in November 1998. On November 14, just over a year ago, Lateisha, a transgendered African American woman, was with her gay brother and a transgendered friend of hers at a party in Syracuse, the city she was born and raised in. Leaving the party, the three were pulling out of the driveway when another partygoer came out of the house where the party was held, wielding a shotgun. Dwight DeLee wounded Lateisha’s brother, Mark, who is now thankfully recovered from his injuries. DeLee also shot Lateisha, who died only a few hours later in the hospital; she was only 22.

In August, Dwight DeLee was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. But the conviction was for manslaughter, not murder. The only reason that Lateisha Green’s murderer was sentenced to 25 years for her murder was because the district attorney chose to prosecute the crime as a hate crime. But the New York state legislature actually passed the state’s hate crimes bill without gender identity or expression, because the New York State Hate Crimes Bill Coalition refused to support NYAGRA’s call for inclusion of gender identity and expression in the bill before its passage. The simple fact was that the leaders of the coalition — two gay white men — refused to support transgender inclusion in that legislation. And so in the very first prosecution of a transgender hate crime under New York state law, Dwight DeLee was prosecuted under the rubric of ‘actual or perceived sexual orientation.’

We’ve come a long way since 2000, and last month, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law — the federal hate crimes bill that includes gender identity as well as sexual orientation.

But if law is an important and necessary tool of social change, it is a weak tool. Ultimately, it is a battle for the hearts and minds of our fellow human beings that we must wage – in conversations with family members, friends, colleagues, and neighbors, and fellow human beings as well as through events such as this one.

I’m happy to report that there are events being held this week to commemorate the Transgender Day of Remembrance over our northern border in Canada, from Halifax to Toronto to Vancouver.  In fact, this is an event that has now gone global, with candlelight vigils and commemorations marking the Transgender Day of Remembrance around the world, from Milwaukee to Milan, and from Providence to Perugia; from Princeton to Perth; from Kalamazoo to Calgary, and from Coventry to Kuala Lumpur; from Burlington to Brussels to Berlin, from San Antonio to Sydney to Saskatoon, from Tacoma to Tulsa to Tel Aviv.

Let us come together, then, as a global community of human beings committed to the protection of those most vulnerable to violence. Let us work toward that day when no one will have to fear discrimination, harassment, abuse or violence because of their gender identity or expression or for any other reason. Let us renew our commitment here and now to the paramount principle of non-violence and a national and a global order of justice for all.  Thank you.

The post Iowa Transgender Day of Remembrance 2009: Speech Text appeared first on Pauline Park.

On Friday, November 20, Iowa will commemorate the first Transgender Day of Remembrance in the history of the state. I am honored to have been invited to speak at a number of events that have been organized as part of that commemoration.

On Wednesday, November 18, there will be a welcoming reception at The Center, followed by a private meeting with TransformationsIOWA, the transgender support group at the LGBT community center.  On Thursday, Nov. 19, from 8:30–9:30 p.m., there will be a  screening of “Envisioning Justice: The Journey of a Transgendered Woman” at The Center.

Friday (Nov. 20) will include the key events commemorating the Transgender Day of Remembrance:

12–1 p.m.:  Iowa State University (ISU) TDOR event in Ames
2–3:30 p.m. Grandview University TDOR event in Des Moines
5:15–6 p.m.:  Iowa State Capitol (west side)
6:30–8 p.m.:  potluck at The Center

The events have been organized by Equality Iowa‘s executive director, Sandy Vopalka and Jayden McCurnin, the Transgender Outreach Coordinator at The Center, where the potluck dinner and the screening of the documentary about my life and work will be held. There will be a second screening of the film on Saturday:

10 a.m.-12 p.m.: screening of “Envisioning Justice: The Journey of a Transgendered Woman” at The Center; coffee & donuts

And on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 21), I will be participating in Iowa’s First Annual Summit of LGBT Families & Allies, organized by Lambda Legal:

1-2:10 p.m.: Transracial Adoption in LGBTQ Families:  The Challenges of Traversing Boundaries: workshop with Sandra Patton-Imani, Associate Professor of American Studies at Drake University and author of “BirthMarks:  Transracial Adoption in Contemporary America”

On Sunday (Nov. 22), I will be speaking at a forum and lunch:

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.:  forum and lunch at the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines

As a member of All Souls Unitarian in Manhattan, I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak with fellow UUs, including members of the Interweave (LGBT affinity group) chapter at First Unitarian.

This will be only my third trip to the Hawkeye State, and I’m excited to be participating in all of these events. I am especially gratified to have the honor to speak at events commemorating the first Transgender Day of Remembrance in the history of the state.

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