TDOR

Today at St. Olaf, we celebrated Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The MN GLBTA Campus Alliance came to Olaf to give a workshop called (trans)gender 101.

It was very good. It was one of the better workshops we've had. We learned about gender systems, what makes up identity, about different genders and sexual orientations. Our facilitators were Mike and Anna. Mike is has a really long job title at Augsberg. Anna also has a shorter job title at Metrostate. Both are GLBTQA coordinators at their colleges, basically.

We also had a display throughout the day. We had a tall kiosk. On one side we had information about TDOR, resources to be involved with orgs that work with the trans community, a few stories of some of people who have been murdered in the past year.

On the other side was a list of all 354 people who have died as the result of transphobia. Most were stabbed, shot or strangled. One three year old boy was beaten to death by his father because he wasn't acting tough enough a few years ago. A 19 year old gay man was decapitated, dismembered and then burned in Puerto Rico earlier this year. One person died of AIDS because the hospital wouldn't treat her because she was transgender.

We also had a large pile of shoes to represent all the people who have died. We covered it with chicken wire (mainly for symbolism, but also to prevent shoe theft).

It is so good that we had that pile of shoes. So many more people looked at our kiosk just because they had no idea why the pile of shoes was there.

I normally don't have much patience for making displays like that. Luckily, I didn't have to do anything to make it. I'm not so good with that sort of thing. I'm more of an organizer, not an artist. I put the kiosk together while Matt and Willa put the shoes together.

Very good day, imo. Nothing huge, but it was successful.