In her free time, Promise Edwards, a second mother of three, distributes QR codes to local schools, churches, and residents of Laurensville, South Carolina. Record one, and you’ll be taken to an online resource hub with solutions for LGBTQ+ people from all over the express. Edwards plans to add this resource to a list of all states by 2024.
The heart-shaped codes, which are printed on T-shirts, embedded in keychains, and other items, are occasionally embellished with sparkles or owls because, in Edwards ‘ words, they were” Jacob’s favorite thing.”
Jacob Williamson, 18, was kicked out of his house by Edwards, who welcomed him into her apartment as Aunt Lulu.
Edwards, whose mother had been his best friend as a child, said,” I’m transgender, I go by he/him, and I want to be called Jacob. I remarked,” OK.” I adore you,” she said.
” Just for 28 days was he permitted to remain himself.”
Williamson vanished four weeks after moving in with Edwards in June after making his first virtual friends ‘ meeting.
Jacob was skeptical despite Edwards ‘ pleadings and requests for her manager to alter his shift at the Waffle House, where they both worked to make scheduling more difficult. Through an game, he shared his site with Edwards before getting into the car and driving away.
Edwards would not see him dead again after that.
Edwards reported him missing and spent the following four days speaking with law enforcement, posting posters, and desperately looking for Williamson after she was unable to contact him or discover his updated place. She knocked on doors, distributed brochures, and posted online, but to no cost.
Three days before Edwards turned 37, police found his body on the side of a South Carolina path.
Williamson was at least the 14th transgender person to be killed in the United States in 2023, in light of alarming statistics that indicate transgender people are more at risk than previously despite even accounting for 0.5 % of the country’s population.
According to volunteer Transgender Europe, 320 transgender and gender-dividend people were reported murdered between October 2022 and September 2023, though actual numbers may be even higher.
Three-quarters of the victims were younger people, between the ages of 19 and 40, and ninety-four percent were trans romantic people or transgender people, indicating they were not assigned women at birth.
The report, whose Nov. 13 release purposefully coincided with the beginning of Trans Awareness Week, stated that” Most patients were Black and trans women of color, as well as transgender sex workers.”
Every year, the year culminates in Trans Day of Remembrance, which was established on November 20, 1999, by transgender activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith in memory of Rita Hester, a transgender girl who had passed away the previous year. According to GLAAD, the ceremony honored Hester and the deaths of all the other transgender individuals who had perished in violence that time.
It’s a moment to remember and honor those who have passed away, but it also presents an opportunity for us to consider where we should come next. Arielle Sarah, a connections specialist at the Transgender Law Center, said.
They claimed that “every time is the day to suppose of a way ahead.”
The Transgender Law Center’s co-director of legislation and programs, Mariah Moore, concurred and thought about how crucial it is for friends to stand up for transgender people.
She claims that many people are extremely resilient and feeling isolated and alone. ” By basically saying anything, letting them know that they have one… who is also standing beside them, willing to fight for them,” you could alter the course of one’s life.
In addition to her work at the Transgender Law Center, Moore is one of the co-founders of House of Tulip, a group that was founded during the COVID-19 epidemic and works to provide transgender and female non-conforming people in Louisiana, where she is based, with long-term accommodation options.
She adds that the business is a shining example of successful” alliance work” in identifying cycles and working to replace needs by collaborating with others and sharing knowledge and resources.” The goal is to help people build stable foundations so that they can have access to the prospects which come so easily to others.”
In the U.S., 586 anti-trans bills have been introduced in state legislatures only this year. These bills aim to limit or outright forbid access to gender-affirming care, deny trans youth the opportunity to take part in clubs, the arts, and sports. In more extreme cases, they also pose a threat to parents of child abuse for affirming their children’s gender identities.
According to the findings of a national survey by The Trevor Project, which found that 41 % of LGBTQ+ young people had seriously considered suicide in the previous year, the mental health of LGBT+ youth is getting worse in today’s tumultuous political climate. Also, transgender, intersex, and/or people of color youth reported having higher rates of depressive thinking than their White and cisgarender peers.
According to Edwards,” I feel that Jacob was hardly targeted because he was transgender, but nonetheless, that was the case.” ” These persons preyed on the fact that Jacob was half up, that he was shunned from his family, and that his only home was mine and my home.”
While some people in her career, including close friends and family, have turned their backs on her since Williamson’s death, according to Edwards, the transgender area has welcomed her with empty hands as she continues to defend Jacob.
She remarked,” I actually just wish we could have had this assistance while Jacob was still alive.” And it’s likely that we would n’t even be speaking at this time.
However, additional information from The Trevor Project offers a glimmer of hope for others in the trans and gender non-conforming community: youth who reported gender-affirming school and home environments reported substantially lower rates of suicidal ideation, with actions as insignificant as being addressed by their proper pronouns, having access to gender balanced bathrooms, or being able to use sex- affirming clothing being noticeably different.
” Yet in the face of this murder, we are thriving,” says Sarah.
Yes, we could get under attack, Moore continues. But what do you think? We have retaliated as well. We’re succeeding, too.
Younger people are increasingly identifying as transgender and seeing themselves reflected in society, including in film, television, and literature, despite the fact that crime against the society rises every month. Yet today, the White House recognizes Transgender Day of Visibility.
YouTuber Eden Estrada, even known by her net alias Eden the Doll, says,” My life is great.” Despite having a blip, my life is good.
A violent assault on Estrada and two of her companions was the subject of a film that was posted online in August 2020. The video went viral and became over national media.
Estrada claims that the group was beaten and robbed while they were waiting for an Uber in Los Angeles, with one of her companions being knocked unconscious in the melee. Eventually, the LAPD looked into the affair as a hate crime.
Estrada says,” I’m grateful to be alive.” ” I’ve been through a traumatic experience, but I came out of it very, very firmly.”
Estrada claims that she is “over” what happened to her and is now happily married with a successful profession. She realizes that this could have been a unique history after reflecting on Trans Day of Remembrance.
Estrada says,” This time, it could be about me.” ” That day, things worse could have happened to me.”
Estrada added that she also uses this day to think back on earlier editions of herself. She said she uses it to reflect on reduction as well as the LGBTQ+ figures who helped shape the way for trans people today, including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Erica Andrews.
She remarked,” I believe it’s remembering your beginning, current location, and current course.”
Sarah shares their sentiments regarding the Trans Day of Remembrance, which they view as a chance to highlight triumphant and joyful transgender reports.
” People need to see that transgender people are changemakers, leaders, and powerful in all spheres of life, across all business.”
Moore responds,” I need to take time for myself as a Black trans person… recognize myself and the work that I’m doing,” when asked how she will be spending Trans Day of Remembrance. She adds that she needs to “take time to actually grieve some of the folks that he’s lost late.”
” I believe I need some time for myself this time.”
Almost five months have passed since Williamson’s body was found.
Edwards is not satisfied with the fact that the two persons he went to meet that day were both detained and charged in his death. She remarked,” These people still get to speak with their families on Christmas.”
” And we do n’t,” too.
On Trans Day of Remembrance, she plans to hang Christmas decorations at the location where Williamson’s body was discovered and to communicate at a celebration of the day at University of South Carolina Upstate.
On Trans Day of Remembrance, Williamson and at least 319 other victims of violence this year will be in people’s hearts and minds, but Moore points out that many trans people have even perished due to a lack of basic necessities like housing, medical, and foods.
She continues,” To let people know that transgender individuals are loved and have people fighting for them, it’s important that we uplift those reports and use Trans Day of Remembrance.” ” Do n’t keep quiet when you see injustice taking place.”
According to Edwards, the Day of Remembrance is a chance to offer assistance in dying for transgender loved ones who they may not have had in life and to draw attention to the fact that no one is immune to decline.
She says,” It means awareness that this actually occurs to people we know and love.”
But more than anything, Edwards wishes Dawson peace wherever he is right now, on this day and every day.
She claims that” He had a career full of circumstances.” I sincerely hope he feels enjoy wherever she is. absolute like
