Members of Nashville’s trans community gathered Wednesday night to grieve and ready themselves for anticipated adverse legislation and executive action at the federal and state level.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance honored members of the trans community who died in the past year around the world, especially those who died by suicide or violence.
“Each year, we gather with an uncomfortable mixture of gratitude and sorrow and trepidation, … uncertain and worried of where we will fall within this day’s ceremony next Nov. 20,” Dahron Johnson, one of the speakers, told the dozens gathered at a Nashville hotel.
But much of the event focused on the political environment facing the trans community, with references to Republican efforts to block the first transgender member of Congress, Sarah McBride of Delaware, from using the women’s bathroom; looming U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments over Tennessee’s law banning trans health care for minors; and the election at the federal and state level of Republican legislative majorities who campaigned on restricting trans rights.
“I fear that things are about to get worse,” said Marisa Richmond, after highlighting a series of suicides in the transgender community.
Alexandria Danner, representing mutual aid group Trans Aid Nashville, warned the crowd not to trust governmental or other institutions and instead to rally around one another. Danner urged the cisgender people in the room to more forcefully support the trans community.
“No one is coming to save us,” Danner said. “I say all of those things not to scare you to put your head in the sand, not to scare you into despair, but to scare you into action.”
Metro Councilmember Olivia Hill, celebrated as the first trans elected official in Tennessee, joined members of the council’s LGBTQ caucus to present a resolution commemorating Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“There are people that are packing up and moving,” Hill told the Banner. “It’s a scary time for the trans community.
“I can only imagine what’s coming our way in this state,” she continued. “I’m trying to stand tall and be, hopefully, a source of strength for a lot of people that reach out to me, try to not be ‘the sky is falling’ right now and just wait and see, and fight every battle that comes before us.”
One attendee declined to share her name out of fear of harassment. She said she brought her 11-year-old trans son to the event because “we’re in a city that’s very supportive, he’s in a school that’s very supportive, he’s in a community that’s very supportive. He’s almost like the 1 percent of 1 percent of transgender people who have been supported, to such a degree he doesn’t understand all this.”
The mother of a trans son said members of their local support group have fled the state due in particular to the law banning trans care for minors. That hasn’t been an issue for them, as her son has not sought medical care covered by the law.
“A lot of them just want acceptance and support,” she said. “We want our kids to be able to get older and not commit suicide or hurt themselves. It’s important to have those procedures.”