Volume: 59 Issue: 11
NOVEMBER 18, 2015
driftwood.uno.edu
HONORING THE FALLEN
Unity uses Day of Remembrance to create community of trans allies BY ANDREW LABORDE Driftwood Staff
AND ANNA GOWIN Features Editor Unity, UNO’s campus LGBT+ organization, is using Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) as a way of bringing awareness to the transgender community both here at UNO and on a national scale. TDOR, a national event that takes place on Nov. 20, commemorates all the transgender identified people who have died due to violence because of their transgender identities. It is observed across the country through organizations like Unity, who do events to raise awareness about what it is like to live as a trans person in America. Annually, Unity honors TDOR by creating memorial headstones for every transgender person who died in the past year, including their name, age and how they died. In addition to have the headstones visible on the quad all day, Unity members will be around to talk about TDOR and the life of trans people. Moe Labbe, Vice President of Unity, has been in charge of planning the TDOR event as well as oth-
er campus events over the course of November, transgender awareness month. “I am a part of the transgender community so that means I am directly involved with everything that happens. So when I hear things on the news about some trans person getting murdered or hurt or anything like that, that hits home for me,” said Labbe in regards to why this month is important. Some of the headstones have the names of people as young as 13 listed, making it a very harsh reality for both transgender and cisgender (people who identify as the same gender they were assigned at birth) students here at UNO. “It already hits home for us because we are such a small community,” said Shawn White-Maddox, Unity’s program coordinator and another transgender male. Bringing awareness to the realities of violence against the trans community is just one step in Unity’s month-long road towards creating a community of allies here on campus. Allies to the trans community are those who work to be aware of the living conditions for trans people right now and are willing to advocate for a huge im-
provement in those lives. “The biggest way to be a good ally is to be knowledgeable about things that go on in the community and understand what it means for trans people to openly identify as trans and the struggles they have to go through,” said Labbe. Labbe, White-Maddox and the other executive members of Unity have been using their weekly meetings to create a three-part series about transgender issues and awareness. “I’ve really taken the reigns on
TDOR
Nov. 20th 12 - 6 p.m. in the Quad
November. I’ve had a three part meeting. The first part explains what trans is and the big umbrella and what that means,” said Labbe, who hosted the second part of the meeting on Nov. 13, which featured transgender identified students sharing their stories and experiences. After the meeting, there was a showing of the documentary, “Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story.” The documentary follows former Navy SEAL Kristin Beck as she transitions and lives her life as a transgender woman. “The next meeting is going to be next Friday [Nov. 20] and is going to be a wrap-up meeting that teaches everyone to be good transgender allies,” said Labbe. The meeting is going to take place at 4:30, after the TDOR event in the quad. “Everyone will get their trans ally certification. We’re going to have all these different stations set up, and every station is going to teach you in a fun way different aspects of being a trans ally,” said White-Maddox. Part of becoming an ally is understanding the day-to-day experiences, in addition to things
like hate crimes and violence. White-Maddox said the little things cisgender people take for granted mean a lot to the transgender community. Even something as simple as using the bathroom becomes a herculean task for transgender students. Unity will be tabling in the UC this week and handing out buttons for the “I’ll Go With You” campaign. By joining the campaign and accepting a button, the community offers their assistance to check the restroom for a transgender person. “Sometimes being trans it’s hard to go into the bathroom that you identify with and it’s hard to be comfortable with that. With these buttons these people will have someone to go with,” said Labbe. “We love to see allies and help allies become better allies by educating them on the new terms that come up and the new issues that happen. The queer community is ever-changing. There’s always new terms and new identities. It’s important to stay relevant,” said Labbe. Unity has meetings in the Math building on Fridays at 4:30 in room 102, and the executive board can be reached at unity@uno.edu.