Transgender Remembrance Day in Washington
Square, West Village
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
GAY CITY NEWS
Activists bowed their heads and
closed their eyes during the
interfaith prayer service. Others
screamed out the names of slain trans
people who were murdered this year,
and some stood by in the cold with tears
streaming down their faces.
Dozens of people gathered at the Christopher
Street Pier on Nov. 20, 2020 — a
known haven for the city’s homeless LGBTQ
population. That night, Greenwich
Village was the grounds for activists and
mourners alike for Transgender Day of
Remembrance, a yearly ceremony on Nov.
20 honoring the lives lost from transphobic
violence.
With 37 trans and gender-non-conforming
people murdered to date, the advocacy
group the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
reports that it is seeing a record number
of trans deaths since it began tracking this
data in 2013.
Despite COVID-19 restrictions, Trans-
NewYork, an advocacy group, led one of
the evening’s only in-person ceremonies. As
vigil-goers held candles to honor the dead,
the group required people to wear masks
and adhere to the state’s social distancing
guidelines.
“We could gather for this as long as
we have safety protocols,” said Kelvin O.
Howell, Jr., the group’s deputy executive
director and chief of staff. “We lost many
of our sisters and brothers here.”
For Howell, these killings hit close to
home. All too often, he sees trans people
facing stigma in life and death.
“We’re constantly at funerals for trans
people,” Howell said. “Families are misgendering
our sisters and brothers in death,
putting them in the wrong garments…
People do what they want to do with you
after you pass away.”
Transgender and gender-non-conforming
victims are killed by partners, acquaintances,
or strangers, reports HRC.
While HRC’s report highlights that killings
disproportionately affect Black trans
women, studies show that transgender
men and non-binary people face significant
risks, as well. A study published last
year by the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ
policy-focused think tank at UCLA, shows
high suicide rates among trans men and
non-binary people.
A tribute at Washington Square Park on Transgender Day of Remembrance,
Nov. 20.
Experts say homelessness, unemployment,
survival sex work, and widespread
anti-trans stigma across healthcare institutions,
workplaces, and school systems
appear to increase risks for violence.
These factors can make it even harder
for trans and non-binary people to feel
safe.
Jennifer Louise Lopez, a transgender
woman, said she often fears being outed
when applying for housing.
PHOTO BY DONNA ACETO
“When I look for an apartment, which
I’m doing right now, I’m scared that someone
will find out that I’m a transgender
woman and kill me because of it,” said
Lopez, an event speaker, who touted a
trans-flag inspired face mask.
New York is home to more than 70,000
trans people, according to another study
from the Williams Institute, giving the state
one of the largest transgender populations
in the nation.
Maloney pushes for small biz help in East
Village, fearful of a second Great Depression
BY MARK HALLUM
For businesses such as the iconic
Strand Book Store in the East Village,
which has been serving New
Yorkers with a steady supply of books
for just short of a century, Congresswoman
Carolyn Maloney would like
pandemic insurance to be a thing for
future epidemics.
But the message at a press conference
on Sunday was not only for her bill, the
Pandemic Risk Insurance Act (PRIA).
The congresswoman also called on Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to do his
part by bringing the Heroes Act the floor
for a vote on Capitol Hill for approval of a
second COVID-19 stimulus.
This would replenish the Paycheck
Protection Program, provide rent relief
to businesses and deliver funding to the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority as
well, Maloney said.
“We are here sending a message to the
federal government that we need another
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney at a Nov. 22 press conference in front of
The Strand Bookstore.
COVID relief package for our small businesses
and for our people,” Maloney said.
“I think we’re heading into another Great
Depression. I’m not kidding, I think it’s
serious. I think when we go back to Washington
there has to be some agreement
from both sides of the aisle, a willingness
to work together.”
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
PRIA, or HR 7011, would create a system
of public and private compensation for businesses
from future health crises that may push
commerce to a similar brink, which could slow
the nation’s economic recovery. The House
Committee on Financial has held a hearing on
the bill within the past week and from there it
could go to Congress for a full vote.
Nancy Bass Wyden, the owner of The
Strand, told reporters that if a spike in
COVID-19 cases forces a closure like was
seen in the spring, the age-old purveyor of
reading material with 30,000 square feet
of space may not survive.
“We’d like to be considered a small business
and we’ve reached out to everybody for
help on a local level… We’ve been trying
everything and so far nobody has reached
out to let us operate with the proper PPE,
whatever they dictate to us so at least we
can keep our web orders and some kind of
income going in a very safe environment,”
said Wyden. “To be honest, I’m exhausted.
I’ve been working the shipping department
nonstop and just, we have to have help.
We’re taking it day-by-day.”
Wyden, who is the wife of Oregon
Senator Ron Wyden, says she hopes that
New York City will continue to be a place
of small businesses that contribute to the
tapestry of life, but noted that many have
already gone under in the eight months
since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
4 November 26, 2020 Schneps Media