As dozens gather on the steps of Georgia Capitol each Nov. 20, names are read aloud, each followed by a single chime of a bell ringing out into the cold night.
The gathering is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil, and the names are of transgender people who have died due to violence or discrimination. The bell is a stark reminder that some people want others who are “different” to be forgotten. Forever.
“This is the most emotional part of the vigil to me,” says Tracee McDaniel, founder and executive director of the Juxtaposed Center for Transformation, Inc., and organizer of Atlanta’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“These people are deceased. We memorialize those individuals by reciting their names — their families don’t want to remember them, others don’t want to remember them. We are making sure their names and their memories are remembered,” McDaniel says.
Annual memorial service tonight at Georgia State Capitol
The daughter of Durand Robinson is hosting a "Party for a Purpose" tonight to bring together the friends and loved ones of her father, a Black Gay Pride organizer who was killed Aug. 25 in an apparent carjacking. The Atlanta Police Department continues to seek the killer.
The party, also dubbed "A Reunion for Durand's 'Kids,'" is at Club Moonlite located at 3302 Laventure Drive, Chamblee, GA 30341 off Buford Highway. Doors open at 10 p.m.
Donations of $5 are being asked and will go to help find Durand Robinson's killer, said his daughter, Wynter Robinson.
Saturday is a day of mourning. It is not a day that is on the national calendar. In fact with the exception of a small percentage of people in this country this day of mourning will pass completely unnoticed.
Those who take a moment and remember on this day will find themselves swinging between tears of grief and deep waves of anger not to mention a certain amount of fear of further attacks.
The devastating images of those viciously killed in 2010 for simply trying to be themselves is something we should remember, something that should burn in our souls.
The people we mourn for this day are apart of the community most would just as soon not deal with. Oh we go to watch the drag shows and tell our jokes and we have added a “T” to the GLB_Q but still don’t take seriously enough that folks in the transgender community live in a very dangerous and un-supportive world.
20th annual AIDS Walk Atlanta brings thousands together to raise funds in the fight against the disease
The Atlanta Chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, known as the Order of the Flaming Sugarbakers, believe costumes and extravagance are a way to show their cheer for the queers. But it was a somber moment for the Sisters when they gathered Saturday at Ansley Mall to honor the several teens that have committed suicide allegedly due to anti-gay bullying.
Durand Robinson, an organizer for Atlanta’s Black Gay Pride celebration and co-owner of Traxx Atlanta, was found shot to death on Wednesday, Aug. 25.
Friends and family gathered at Traxx on Saturday, Aug. 28, to memorialize Robinson. Those in attendance remembered him as a caring, loving person who worked tirelessly as a family man as well as in business.
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