After a new resolution passed unanimously among those present, the Metro Council is asking Nashvillians to observe the “Transgender Day of Remembrance” on November 20.
Olivia Hill, Nashville’s first transgender council member and the state’s first transgender elected official, introduced the resolution that passed this week, according to a News Channel 5 report.
“Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence,” according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
“Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence,” said Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the day of observance. “I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice.”
Hill told News Channel 5 that she has recently been the target of anti-transgender bigotry.
“I’m not distant from the hate that’s been received,” Hill reportedly said. “Two weeks ago, I was named woman of the year by Davidson County Democratic Women. On my Twitter account, I have received 380,000 hateful comments. I ask you all to stand with me to show the entire trans community that we may not always agree on everything, but any loss of life in that way is bad loss of life. I ask you all to stand with me.”
The Tennessee Star attempted to locate the tweet Hill referred to on X, formerly Twitter, but was unable to locate the post on either of the council member’s accounts. The Star checked Hill’s Instagram and two Facebook accounts, but could find no posts that fit Hill’s description – to the contrary, the newly-elected councilwoman seems to enjoy broad support from social media commenters.
Hill celebrated the milestone of becoming the state’s first transgender elected official upon winning the council seat in September.
“It feels like every horrible thing that people have said about trans folks has just washed away,” Hill said. “This is a great step in the right direction to hopefully educate some people about how valid trans folks are and that we’re here and that we’re not going away.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, 41 transgender people were murdered in America last year. The organization does not say whether those people were murdered because of their sexuality.
A 2017 study cataloged in the National Library of Medicine concluded that the rate of homicide among transgender people is about half that of straight people.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
