Today is the annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance. Its the day set apart to remember those people who have been murdered simply because they have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from the sex that they were assigned at birth. All violence against transgender people is evil.
I join all who remember and lament the loss of these beautiful image bearers of the Divine who have been killed.
I include this painting of Joan of Arc, as Joan may well be the patron saint of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Joan is remembered as one who had courage to act on Divine visions delivered by God’s angels to help lead the French to recover independence from the English in the 14th century. While Joan is seen as a Saint today, Joan was burned at the stake for heresy. For what heresy was Joan of Arc sentenced to death by the church?
Cross-dressing… Joan repeatedly wore the clothing of a “man.” The church executed Joan of Arc for wearing pants. Tragically, this kind of mind-numbing violence continues into our day. And it must stop.
In 2020 there have been 36 transgender or gender non-conforming people murdered, in the United States alone. And the majority of those people were Black and Latinx transgender women. To honor their memory, to lament, and with resolve to work toward the end of fear and hatred, I encourage you to read their names, to voice a prayer, and to set an intention.
Truthfully, I sometimes struggle to know what it looks like to love God and love my neighbor as myself, but this I do know… it doesn’t look like murder or any act of violence.
Peace, dwight
