We will be hanging a Banner in honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance during the month of November
November 18 is Transgender Day of Remembrance. The week before, and the month of November generally, have come to be periods for increasing awareness of transgender people and a time for solidarity with the community. First Parish will be flying our “We Love our TRANS Neighbors” flag from Nov 1st through Nov 30th this year.
The Welcoming Congregation Committee has been holding a vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance for over ten years, where the names of those known to have been killed during the past year due to transphobia are read. It is our way of bearing witness and bringing more awareness. These remembrances started in the cities (at first the only city in Massachusetts was Boston). But people who are different are often targeted and transphobia is a problem in all countries and all states and all towns. We hold our vigil because we believe that the problem will not diminish until all the towns, not just the big cities, acknowledge and understand.
Especially in COVID times, when in-person events are not wise and it is hard to attract new people to online events, the WCC believes that a banner is a way to proclaim that we stand with transgender people at this time. We chose to use the transgender pride flag for our banner.
Per Wikipedia:
The transgender pride flag is a light blue, pink and white striped flag, designed by American trans woman Monica Helms in 1999, and is a symbol of the transgender community, organizations, and individuals.
Similar to the worldwide adoption of a number of identity-specific flags by the LGBT community around the world, including the Rainbow flag, the transgender pride flag is used throughout the world to represent the transgender community.
