Published on 12, July, 2020
A trigger warning that I'm about to describe (briefly, not in detail) a recent transphobic hate crime to give context ,for this post. If you don't want to read about this, please skip the following paragraph.
On Saturday afternoon at around 3:30, the body of a 16-year old trans girl, Brianna Ghey, was found. She was murdered by two cis-gender 15-year olds. Vigils have been happening across the country in Brianna's honour, and very sadly I was unable to attend the one held this evening in my city.
I'm thinking about opening up a regular online vigil space in which the queer community can share our griefs, fears, hopes, support and solidarity. For all sorts of reasons vigils held outside our homes or in noisy, crowded spaces may not be accessible to everyone who wants to attend. And I also think that a space in which more people from a wider diversity of geographical locations could be meaningful. If you're a member of the queer community, I would really value hearing how you would feel about this.
More generally, if anyone needs solidarity as a queer person in this harsh world or more specifically thi space, perhaps this thread could become a written space to share that.
Take care, all
It was so painful, in retrospect, to see the photograph of Brianna smiling and looking happy.
I can't imagine what it must have been like to see that. I don't have an image of her in my mind, which means I guess that I see her as symbolic. And she is, of course, but she's also real and I need to remember that. We all do. We need to keep her real.