TDOR
Today is the 11th annual Transgender Day of Rememberence. This year, 163 transgender individuals were tortured, shot, and killed simply for being who they are.
Normally this time of year I take the site down for several days, replacing it with a honorary comic and a somber list of names. This year, as you might have noticed, all of this has been curiously absent.
I have little to offer in the way of an excuse, and yet the circumstances of my lapse are in their own ways significant. I am recovering from surgery -- a goal I set myself to at a very young age when I barely grasped the challenges that lay before me. This year I can say, "I made it. Somehow I survived."
And far too many did not.
I am not one for marches. Nor am I one for rallies or even argument. Even my typical annual contribution lies absent this year. The question remains, What can I do? How can I help? How can I help to put a stop to all of this? Is there anything such a inwardly and private person such as myself can do?
I can start with this; quietly, uncertainly, and fearfully. I can refuse to line the background and stand, knowing that this puts me in the crosshairs of an unknown gun.
I can start with this.