The Davis Phoenix Coalition organized a community event honoring trans victims of hate crimes
By SONJA WOOLEY — city@theaggie.org
The Davis Phoenix Coalition (DPC), a local social justice organization that leads anti-bullying campaigns, LGBTQ+ advocacy and community organizing for Latinx families, recently held a community memorial in recognition of Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 21 in Central Park. Transgender Day of Remembrance is an international annual event first organized in 1999, meant to draw attention to and memorialize transgender people who have been killed because of transphobic violence.
The community organizers constructed an ofrenda with electric candles, a trans flag and small photos of those who had passed away in order to honor the transgender individuals who have been killed in the United States in the past year. The memorial included a choral performance and sing-along by the Davis chapter of the Raging Grannies, a group of peaceful protestors that advocate for human rights through music.
Jeanette Vance, a longtime Davis resident and member of the Raging Grannies, spoke about the organization’s work.
“[The Raging Grannies group is] for women of a certain age who [want] to change the circumstances of the world and work towards social justice, climate concerns and fairness for all people,” Vance said. “We always regret […] that the things we started out singing in 2017 are still concerns today. But change happens in small increments, and we hope that by doing our part, we can make things better over time.”
During the event, the DPC organizers read aloud the names and short biographies of the 32 transgender and gender-expansive people who had been killed in the U.S. in the past year, 56% of which were Black transgender women.
Among those killed were: Cameron Thompon, an 18-year-old from Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Ra’Laisa Wright, a 25-year-old from Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Santonio Coleman, a 48-year-old from Athens, Georgia.
Sandre Henriquez Nelson, a DPC board member, added that there are more names they may be unaware of.
“Some of these people may also be from 2023 or 2021,” Henriquez Nelson said. “But [DPC] are just now finding their names because the traditional media misgenders them. There’s a lot more names out there that, unfortunately, we don’t know about.”
DPC Chair Anoosh Jorjorian also reported on the state of trans youth in Davis.
“People think of Davis as generally liberal, and that can be true in that people have stated liberal values,” Jorjorian said. “Whether that manifests in day-to-day life depends. [Trans youth] are still facing a lot of homophobia and transphobia in schools from elementary school on. It may also be surprising to find out that there are kids who are being kicked out of their houses for being trans. But the difference is that for every one person who is openly discriminating against our trans kids, we have five people who stand up and say ‘No, it’s not okay.’”
Amanda Oyao, the outreach specialist for Elevate Queer Yolo, an organization that supports LGBTQ+ youth ages 12-26 in Yolo County by giving them access to basic needs, spoke to the crowd.
“It’s beautiful in this day-and-age to get to do things in person,” Oyao said. “It’s great to share information on Instagram, but it’s great to get that physical presence to see the people who are here to support Davis youth and, honestly, each other and just the queer community as a whole.”
The Transgender Day of Remembrance event in Davis was held three weeks after an alleged hate crime occurred in Sacramento against Alvin Prasad, who was attacked at Bandlands, a popular LGBTQ+ club in the Lavender Heights district, and remains in a coma.
Nelson reflected on the incident and his interactions with Prasad.
“I have met the gentleman,” Nelson said. “[He is a] sweet guy [who] gives you the shirt off his back [and] just loves the community. Unfortunately, he was attacked similarly to the attack that started the Davis Phoenix Coalition.”
The attack Nelson mentioned referred to a violent incident in 2013, when the son of Gloria Partida, Davis city council-member and co-founder of DPC, was attacked because of his sexual orientation.
Liam Lunberg, a Davis resident who helped organize the event, spoke about the emotions he felt present within the community.
“Everybody’s scared,” Lunberg said. “Everybody’s angry too, but just mostly scared, and some people are so much to the point that they’re not even wanting to come out. But we’re at least showing people that you’re not getting rid of us, we’re not going anywhere. [We’ve] been here a long, long, long, long time.”
Written by: Sonja Wooley — city@theaggie.org
