On Trans Day of Rememberance - 11/24/2024

Hello everyone, and thank you for joining today's community kaddish. Today marks the 412th day of the ongoing genocide in Palestine. 412 days of the Israeli government ruthlessly killing and starving the people in Gaza. 412 days of settler violence, and land seizures in the West Bank and 54 days since the Israeli’s started a ground invasion in Lebanon. We still have no idea the extent of the destruction, or how many have been killed. We do not know their names, their stories, and who they were to those living and dead. For all of these people, I grieve.

November 20th marked Trans Day of Remembrance - a day where we honor trans people who have been murdered for being trans. This is a tradition that started in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, a 28 year old Black trans woman killed in Allston Massachusetts. In 2024, at least 36 transgender people were killed in the United States, which is likely an undercount as many of these deaths are misreported, or the martyrs are misgendered in their deaths. Over half of the martyrs killed this year are Black trans women - which demonstrates not just how transphobic this country is, but also how racist and white supremacist our society is. As this county’s climate becomes even more hostile, I fear for all trans people, and especially trans people of color.

Why am I bringing this up at a kaddish for Palestine? As a kid raised in an extremely Zionist household, I was taught that “Israel” was the only country in the Middle East that was safe for trans people. Of course no one ever told me about Baruch Goldstein, who stabbed queer people at two different “Tel Aviv” pride events, or the fact that gay marriage isn’t legal in the Zionist Entity, but I bought into the Pinkwashing. Now, I see it for what it is, a propagrandic message used to cover up decades of apartheid, Occupation and genocide.

In the past 412 days, the Zionist Entity has most certainly killed trans people, even if we do not know their names and their stories or if they were even out. I tried to find a list of trans people killed since October 7th 2023, and that list does not exist, but given that trans people make up 1% of the world’s population, we can know that trans people are among the martyrs.

I spent my morning digging through the “Queering the Map” project - where queer and trans people around the world can anonymously share their stories and tie them locations around the world, and the stories from Palestine are beautiful and heartbreaking. Though these people are not trans, at least they do not say so in their posts, I want to share a few of their posts as a reminder to all of us that people across the LGBTQIA2S+ spectrum exist everywhere and so long as the Zionist Entity continues to massacre Palestinians in mass, our queer and trans siblings are under threat.

From North Gaza: Idk how long I will live so I just want this to be my memory here before I die. I am not going to leave my home, come what may. My biggest regret is not kissing this one guy. He died two days back. We had told how much we like each other and I was too shy to kiss last time. He died in the bombing. I think a big part of me died too. And soon I will be dead. To younus, i will kiss you in heaven.

For Juhor a-Dik, a place in North Gaza: This is where I first fell for you. It was 2021, the last major Israeli bombardment on Gaza. You never knew you were the reason that I first listened to my favorite bands or watched Portrait of a Lady on Fire. everything comes back to you. now you are a student abroad and Israeli occupation bombs may take everyone and everything you ever loved away. Your mom, your home, your memories. I am so sorry the world failed you. that your mom, sister, best friends, everything is lost in this genocide.

From Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank: They shot him, my heart burned, everyone consoled me for the loss of a friend, they did not know that I lost myself, that bullet killed both of us, they said that you are a martyr that you are in heaven, I will come to you, my love, wherever you are, heaven, hell, or nothingness .... I will come to you.

From Beirut: I saw you again here, after so many years, after we'd both grown and realized there was more to us than either of us could imagine. I was buying a ticket to a show and you insisted on covering me, and the smile you gave me opened the cage to a thousand dormant butterflies within me.

Also from Beirut: Here is where I (a kinda strait man I think) met a bi girl who has never met a lgbt person in lebanon. She was outwardly using her pronouns and people around were accepting her for who she is. That changed my view and I’m so hopeful for all of you lovely lovely folks. There is people just like you and just wait another generation and things will be so beautiful. We are the generation that changes this. I love you all so so much just please be brave and be safe. Whatever you do please don’t give up

These are just a few of the dozens of stories on queering the map across Palestine and Lebanon. Many of the stories were mundane: people falling in love, breaking up, having intense longing for someone - in many ways, stories that are not different from ones I hear from my friends. But of course, the Occupation, genocide and other violence is present in ways that it is not in the US.

As the country providing weapons and technology to the Zionist Entity, our dollars are funding the murder, and violence committed against queer and trans people across Palestine, and Lebanon. 

Though we do not know the names and stories of the trans people killed over the past 412 days or 76 years of Occupation, we do not that there are trans people who deserve remembrance. Just as I am grieving their deaths, I am also grieving that I cannot remember them properly.