Transgender Day of Remembrance in San Francisco, 11-20-2007

After speaking briefly at nearly every San Francisco TDOR event since its inception, last year I was invited to speak at the San Jose, CA event with Sylvia Guerrero, which was very sweet. This year I was asked back to San Francisco, and instead the typical "couple of minutes-worth" most speakers have, I was given about 15 minutes, which I considered a great honor. JoAnne Keatley and Yavante M. Thomas-Guess were the chief organizers, and they wanted me to do double duty, first speaking about the history of the event, and then (after some other speakers) setting the tone for the reading of the names. I decided to write out my remarks, and afterward Robert Haaland asked if I could email a copy of the speech to him, which I did. Imagine my surprise yesterday when Helen Boyd asked me to post the link to the speech on this blog! I had no idea it had been published by The Sentinel, with photos from the event and the candlelight march that followed the ceremony at the San Francisco LGBT Center. I had to ask Helen to send me the link first! So here it is, if you want to take a look: http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=7230 You can tell where the second part comes in, where I stop talking about political implications and start talking about the experience of death. Right after that they read the names. It was very moving. I can't actually say I hope you enjoy reading this piece, but I did want to share it with you.