TODAY! Trans Day of Remebrance; FRIDAY! Trans Day of Action

Trans Day of Remembrance

Today is the annual Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR), observed each year on November 20 to honor the memories of those we have lost to violence and oppression. DC’s TDOR service is tonight at 6:00p.m. at the Metropolitan Community Church, located at 474 Ridge Street NW (Metro: Mt. Vernon Square). Doors open at 5:30.

DC Mayor Vince Gray and other city officials, along with members of local victims’ families, will be in attendance. There will be a special recognition of the advocates behind the Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Amendment Act. For more information, contact Earline Budd at 202.388.8251.

RSVP for TDOR on Facebook.

Trans Day of Action

Casa Ruby is hosting this year’s Trans Day of Action (TDOA) is this Friday from 6:00-9:00p.m., at Next Step Public Charter School, located at 3047 15th Street NW (Metro: Columbia Heights).

The event features a community conversation on trans unemployment and homelessness, and the launch of Casa Ruby’s new “Work It” employment program. There will also be a special showcase of the new documentary TRANS. For more information, contact Ruby Corado at corado (at) casaruby.org.

RSVP for TDOA on Facebook.

We hope to see you at both events! 

 

We’re coming closer to you!

We wanted to make sure you were aware that we’re making a bit of a change to our regular meeting pattern. Hearkening back to our guiding principles, we want to increase our accountability to the communities we serve, expand people’s access to our advocacy, and empower new super-awesome activist volunteers. To do that, we’re moving our meetings.

We will continue to meet on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 7:30pm, but now we’re bringing the meeting to you! On the first Tuesday, we’ll meet at Casa Ruby, located at 2822 Georgia Avenue NW. On the third Tuesday, we’ll be at Transgender Health Empowerment, 1414 North Capitol Street NW. And if you need a reminder, just keep your eye on the info bar to your right.

In addition to meeting you where you’re at, we’ll be regularly engaging in activist lunches on Fridays at both Transgender Health Empowerment and Casa Ruby to help people new to grassroots organizing build and share their skills. And from time to time we’ll have new volunteer orientation alongside our regular meetings.

We hope to see so many more of your beautiful faces at one of our upcoming meetings!

Now for a few updates:

• You can still participate in our Needs Assessment! Click here to learn how to take the survey or to donate generously of your time or treasure.
• We’re continuing our work to keep the Metropolitan Police Department accountable. You can make your voice heard at an open house for MPD’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit on Thursday, September 27 from 5-9pm, right off of Dupont Circle.
• It’s time to start planning for the Transgender Day of Remembrance! If you’d like to get involved, there’s a meeting tonight at Transgender Health Empowerment at 6:00pm (conveniently right before our first meeting at THE!).

See you soon!

Trans Awareness Week 2011

This week we’re raising awareness about trans rights, demanding justice for all trans people, and remembering those we’ve lost to anti-trans violence. Here’s how you can take part:

Tuesday, November 15
DCTC will host its bi-monthly meeting at 7:30pm in the Austin Center at Whitman-Walker Health, 14th & R Streets NW. Get updates on our needs assessment project, our work regarding the police and jails, and help us create our upcoming community forum on December 3 (stay tuned for details). Plus much, much more! Anyone who wants to fight for justice is welcome to attend.

Thursday, November 17
We’ve teamed up with TLGB Police Watch and a number of other local organizations for Trans Day of Action. Join us at 1:00pm for a rally in front of Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters, 300 Indiana Avenue NW. We’ll proceed from there to the US Attorney’s Office, at 555 4th Street NW. Check out our goals and demands for the mayor, the police chief, and the US Attorney, and feel free to share details with your friends on Facebook.

Sunday, November 20
Please join us for the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance service, organized by Transgender Health Empowerment, at 5:00pm at the Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge Street NW. We’ve lost at least two members of our community to violence this year, and many more have been injured. Help us to honor their memories.

Letter Sent to DC Council on Anti-Trans Violence, Hearing Next Week

Next Wednesday, November 2, the DC Council’s Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing on hate crimes, with an emphasis on looking at violence committed against trans folks this summer. In preparation for the hearing, yesterday we sent a letter to Councilmember Phil Mendelson, chair of the Judiciary committee, with questions we would like to see him ask Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier, and U.S. Attorney Ron Machen. We’ve raised the issues in our letter with both MPD and U.S. Attorney representatives in meetings this summer (and for years, really), and have thus far gotten unsatisfactory answers. Our hope is that by raising our questions in advance, we might actually get something resembling real answers.

We’ll of course be testifying at the hearing next week. If you’ve been a victim of violent crime in DC and are willing to speak publicly about your experience, please feel free to get in touch with us over the weekend to learn how to participate. You can email us or call 202.681.3282. Check back here next Wednesday for a copy of our testimony.

Finally, be sure to save the date for the following super important events:

• Thursday, November 17, 1pm: Transgender Day of Action — Rally Against Violence. Outside MPD Headquarters, 300 Indiana Avenue NW.
• Sunday, November 20, 5pm: Transgender Day of Remembrance. Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge Street NW.

Stay tuned for many more details, and be sure to get involved!

Finally, Some Good News: Trans Employment Program Success! (Plus More Updates)

After a brutal summer, we are excited to share some positive results from our collective struggle to improve the lives of trans folks in the District. After talks between trans advocates and D.C. Mayor Gray, 21 trans individuals are participating in Project Empowerment’s pilot program to combat transphobic discrimination. NPR has an in-depth look.

DCTC is doing all we can to support the participants and make it a success. We are very excited to be part of this ground-breaking effort to address unemployment in our communities, and we hope the District will continue to fund similar potentially life-saving resources.

In response to the recent string of violence, we’ve received an unprecedented amount of letters of support in the past few weeks. We are looking forward to a busy fall, so if you’re thinking about getting involved now is a great time! We are gearing up for our next semi-annual Community Forum, tentatively scheduled for October 23rd. Here is a bit more news from our active campaigns…

Needs Assessment

• We just passed a major hurdle toward receiving funding so that we can begin Phase Two. Our Needs Assessment Working Group is in the process of designing the paper survey that will soon be distributed. If you’d like to help out, they meet on the second and third Tuesdays of the month. Click here to learn more.
• In case you missed it, be sure to check out the critically important results from our community roundtable discussions at the Phase One Summary Report.

Jails

• DCTC members recently attended the first ever meeting of the D.C. Department of Corrections Transgender Advisory Council, a new body meant to increase transparency and community oversight into how the DOC is handling trans inmates. We will have more updates shortly!
• A Corrections officer is currently being investigated for issuing death threats against two trans women. We are following this case closely.

Responding to Violence and Hate Crimes

• DCTC is continuing to work with community members in response to the many recent instances of violence involving trans women and/or motivated by transphobia. Click here,  here and here to see media interviews with DCTC members.
• Adding to our fears that the string of murders was motivated by bias, the makeshift memorial to Lashai Mcclean that was left at the site she was murdered (and near where two other trans women were shot weeks later) has been burned.
• The death of Gaurav Gopalan was recently ruled a homicide.
• An arrest was made in the shooting of a trans woman in Southeast.
• We are working with our allies at Transgender Health Empowerment and elsewhere to organize this year’s Trans Day of Remembrance and other events around November 20th. If you’d like to help, watch for an announcement about the next TDOR Planning Meeting.

Police

• Members of DCTC have recently attended early meetings with other community organizations who are working to create a new coalition called TLGB Police Watch.
• We maintain regular communication with the Metropolitan Police Department to express our concern about transphobia in MPD. We want to make sure that officers are being properly trained, and we want MPD to take the recent crimes against trans people seriously.
• We are preparing to conduct another round of training for the Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit.
• We continue to monitor the legal case against Officer Furr, who recently shot at a group of trans people and their friends while off-duty.