Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a time to pause to think about the many transgender people beaten and murdered over the past year, and for many years previously. Close to 350 transgender people around the world were killed because of their gender identity since last year at this time. 25 of those who died were in the United States of America. These are only the cases that are reported to authorities who keep a record of these statistics.
Regardless of what personal, political, or religious beliefs teach you about gender identity, these are horrific statistics which bespeak a disregard for human dignity. Catholics, whose doctrines teach us to respect human dignity, without regard to a person’s state in life, should be outraged. Catholic leaders should be speaking out about this epidemic of disregard for human life.
Last year on this day, Bondings 2.0 posted a page of resources for Catholics to educate themselves and their faith communities about transgender issues and people. You can access that page by clicking here.
More: New Ways Ministry