TDOR

Friday November 20th,  a crowd of LGBT folks gathered on the steps of the state capitol to honor the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). Trans-activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded the day of rememberance in 1998 after the murder of Rita Hester. Since that time Gwen has kept a website with the names of those who have been victims of hate crimes. http://www.gender.org/remember/about/core.html

This was the first year that the local community has publically recognized the event. We had two very special guests to help us make it a special night. Our guest speaker was Pauline Park. Pauline is a noted trans-activist from New York.  She has more than ten years experience in community building and helped found NYAGRA, New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy. http://www.nyagra.com/

The other guest was Preston Daniels, former Des Moines mayor and current director of the states Department of Human Rights. Mr. Daniels read a proclamation signed by the governer recognizing Nov. 20th as Iowa’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.

 Pauline gave a short speech on the steps of the capitol and then graced us with her presence at the Center afterwards for a potluck, a viewing of her documentary and a question and answer session. She was an informative and interesting speaker, and I learned a great deal from her.

Many people worked hard to make this event happen. All of them deserve our thanks. In particular I would like to thank Jayden for all his hard work on this event, Sandy from the center, Pauline, and Preston Daniels.

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