From a speech given at King Ave Church on 11/20/22 for Transgender Day of Remembrance–event hosts T Talks and Columbus Trans Pride March.
Hi, my name is Densil and I use he/they pronouns.
I often like to start off by acknowledging that public moments like these make me anxious. I much prefer being behind the scenes just doing the work. However, I also understand that there is an important need for representation and so I show-up…and will always speak up.
My relevance here this evening, I believe, is because I have the pleasure of serving as executive director of Stonewall Columbus and the CEO of Pride Fund 1. These roles, I believe, have me serving as a professional gay—someone who is actively paid to be an out and proud gay/queer identity.
As a queer person I have an odd privilege of going to work and being my full self each and every day. And I believe the work I do is centered in the idea, in the belief, that we should all be happy, without causing harm to others of course, and I believe we should all strive to do that for each other—after all, we are each trying to figure this thing we call life out…as we go along.
I am my deceased mother’s youngest child, I have three older biological sisters, a menagerie of adopted-siblings (some queer-some trans) and spiritual parents who love me as if I were their own. I am a naturalized American citizen—I was born in Jamaica, West Indies. I am a first-generation college graduate—my mother earned her GED once here in America.
Tonight, I had some notes about how this community, my LGBTQIA+ community, my queer community helped me become the queerest most beautiful intersectional representation of me…but I’ve been consumed today.
The news coming out of Colorado of the shooting at Club Q is saddening and deeply troubling—it was a direct attack on community. A community which I believe many of us are a part of and it sickens me that the queer community only must flash back six years ago when we were learning reports of the Pulse Night Club shooting that took 49 lives, left 53 wounded, and changed countless lives.
Gun violence has taken an enormous toll on the LGBTQIA community—but this moment is not only a queer community issue–it is a U.S. public health crisis.
One thing we know about our community, our intersectional community, is that we understand what it takes to make it through a crisis—it takes us; each other…our community coming together for each other.
Today the LGBTQIA community continues to fight for acceptance, equality, for some of us equity, and as we were reminded again overnight our lives. In 2022 we have seen at least 32 transgender people fatally shot or killed by other violent means. However, I know this may not be an accurate because so much violence goes unreported — or misreported. In 2022 we have seen 240 pieces of anti-LGBTQIA legislation proposed across our country targeting LGBTQIA youth and Transgender identities.
For years our community has suffered terribly because of our nation’s imperfect laws and now our transgender community sits in a middle of a political battle—one that is literally costing them their lives.
This is a crisis.
But we know what it takes to make it through crisis—it takes us; each other…our community coming together.
The Stonewall Uprisings. The AIDS crisis. The fight for marriage.
During those moments we saw that when more of us came together to fight for most of us we could make great strides.
This evening we are gathered to remember those we have lost in the transgender community to senseless acts of violence—of transphobia. Last night in Colorado our community experienced a senseless act of violence.
Transgender Day of Remembrance, I hope will be something we never stop uplifting…but it is my hope that in the future the gap has grown between those whom we have lost to senseless acts of violence from days to decades.
Let’s not say hindsight is 20/20 when we talk about our transgender community and the fight, we are seeing now…let’s truly learn from our past and come together to fight this crisis in our community, in our country…this attack on transgender identities. Let us be inspired to shape a future that we create together that includes intentional acts of grace, accountability, and inclusion.
This fight for transgender lives is about all of us…not some of us.
Let us show that we are stronger together, and that we can beat a crisis, not just make it through a crisis—when we come together and fight for all of us…not just some of us.
So that in the future we aren’t saying they could have; we are saying we did.
This is a crisis.
