Centering Love in November (#TransLoveNov)

Since 1999, November 20th has been the day we remember and mourn the trans and gender nonconforming people we have lost - that we know of - since the previous Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR).  In many places, including college campuses, TDOR is the only time when trans people seem to matter or even exist, ultimately reminding us - especially trans women of color - that we only seem to rise to people's consciousness AFTER our demise. Some have resisted this by moving towards a trans awareness week or even month to engage with us in a different way.

Today, I'm making a choice to engage with my trans peoples in a different way for the month of November. Each day during this month I will share a different post that is centered in love. I'm starting it off with the picture above, which I took about a week ago. The button in the center - gifted to me from someone very special - reminds me/us that there is no revolution without love and to thus do revolutionary work with and for love. Around the button are prayer beads that my sister gave me, made up of 21 evil eye ornaments, meant to ward off evil. So I surround revolutionary love with my ancestors' protection, connecting them in our connected and ongoing work of liberation.

The posts in November will be broken into a series of four weeks. The first week will celebrate and honor trans activists, the second will highlight various trans cultural producers, followed by a week of personal shout outs to kin, and wrapping up with a week of trans contributions/works. There are way more people and contributions than any single month could possibly contain, but I wanted to start somewhere.

Feel free to join me using the hashtag: #TransLoveNov

With love and in solidarity.

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