This year, 22 transwomen of color have been murdered in the United States. Enough is enough!!! The growing violence against transwomen of color is a serious concern that we must address collectively as a community. We can no longer watch on the sidelines, year after year, as the number of transwomen of color victimized by violence continues to increase.
The Transgender, Gender Non-confirming, and Non-binary (TGNCB) Constituent Advisory Panel in partnership with NMAC and the Trans Latina Coalition will hold a memorial during the Biomedical Prevention HIV Prevention Summit this year in Houston, TX. The memorial will honor and remember the transgender women of color who have been murdered this year as well as our other transgender family members who perished too soon.
If you are attending the Biomedical Summit this year, we invite you to participate in our memorial. As part of honoring those we have lost, we will erect an altar of remembrance that will remain on display throughout the Summit. Altars of remembrance derive from the Mexican tradition known as Day of the Dead, or Dias De Los Muertos, where loved ones remember those they have lost by placing photos, candles, and other items on an altar that reminds them of their loved ones. If you have lost transgender people in your personal life, we invite you to bring item(s) to the Biomedical Summit. We ask that you only bring an item(s) to the altar that you do not wish to keep.
NMAC’s ultimate goal is to erect a standing altar that we can add to annually and possibly take on tour in the future!
We know that an altar will not bring back those we have lost or ease the pain of grief; however, we hope this memorial truly serves as a vehicle to honor and remember our loved ones. We also hope this altar will serve as a visual reminder of the danger trans people face on different fronts, and the work we still need to do to address the challenges that threaten the life expectancy of trans people across the country.
The Transgender Altar of Remembrance will be located in the exhibit hall through the duration of the Summit. For more information, contact us at conferences@nmac.org.
Yours in the Struggle,
The TGNCB Constituent Advisory Panel