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
I tell my children to be themselves, and in a world that throws about "be your authentic self" as the way to self-love, how then can children be murdered for doing just that. A child who had her whole life ahead of her, killed for being her authentic self, I have no words to express how wrong that is.
And murdered by children too. I so much wish we could rest our hopes on a safer, fairer future, but these kinds of events make that seem like a naïve fantasy. I shouldn't feel naïve for wanting and trusting that things can get better - yet so much of the time that is how the world makes it feel.