Students to honor transgender remembrance day

Students will simultaneously fall to the ground at noon today in the Pit, symbolizing those who have been killed in the past year because of their gender identity or gender expression.

Today is the 11th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. It concludes a weeklong effort the UNC LGBTQ Center has organized for transgender awareness.

Terri Phoenix, director of the UNC LGBTQ Center, said the organization spent the week leading up to this event educating people about transgender communities and experiences through speeches, panels and service projects.

Today’s event, called a die-in, will memorialize the reported 101 transgender people killed this year. Eleven of these deaths were in the U.S., Phoenix said.

Each person’s name will be read with a brief description of his or her life, and a flower will be placed on a student who has “died.”

Maggie Carlin, a graduate student assistant for the LGBTQ Center, plans to participate and said she expects the die-in to bring up many emotions.

“You’ve got blank minutes where you are doing nothing but thinking about the person you are representing,” she said.

The LGBTQ Center has honored this day of remembrance in the past, but Phoenix said this is the first year it has held a die-in.

She also said she doesn’t expect to be able to represent all 101 deaths with a student volunteer who will “die,” but she said there will still be placards for all the names.

“It is being a voice for those whose voice was taken away and don’t have the opportunity to speak out anymore,” said senior Angel Collie, who is transgender. “You never know when it could happen to you.”

Collie said he recognizes how open-minded Chapel Hill is about the transgender community.

“I can’t forget about my trans siblings who do have to stay in these places that aren’t like Chapel Hill and face transphobia and fear on a daily basis,” he said.

Carlin also said she hopes the week will improve awareness about transgender discrimination.

One way to do this was through a service project called “C’mon, I Just Have to Pee.”

On Thursday, students assisted the campuswide project, which helps document gender-nonspecific bathrooms on campus by plotting the ones around Polk Place and McCorkle Place.

“One of the places on campus that consistently people feel discomfort or harassment is the bathroom,” Phoenix said. “Someone who looks more masculine may encounter strange looks about being in the women’s bathroom.”

Carlin said the end goal is to have a searchable map posted on the University Web site.

“We will get a better estimate of which parts of campus are more comfortable and safe,” she said.

In the town of Chapel Hill, there is no legislation about having to use the bathroom of your legal gender, Phoenix said.

UNC made a commitment in 2006 that any new or refurbished buildings would have at least one gender-nonspecific bathroom added to them, she said.



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