Collections By Michelle Brown

During the month of November services are held for Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR),  memorializing victims of transphobic violence. Unfortunately As of the end of October 2017, 23 trans people have been reported killed by violence in the U.S. Often after being discriminated against and  targeted for violence in life, trans women and men continue to be victimized in death where they are misgendered in police and media reports even by family members and are not identified immediately as transgender. Although nothing can take away the pain of the loss of these trans women and women, this year has been historic for the TLGB community with the election of several openly transgender candidates in Virginia, in California, in Pennsylvania, and in Georgia on November 8th. Perhaps the greatest win of all was in the city of Minneapolis where Andrea Jenkins became the first openly trans woman of color elected to a major city’s city council.  Earlier this year we spent time with Andrea talking about her poetry,