| Gravestones set up in front of school a grim reminder of lack of tolerance | | Print | |
| Written by Camille Smyth | |
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On May 15,1995 in Haverhill, Massachusetts Debra Forte was found dead after being beaten about the head and shoulders and stabbed multiple times in the chest. Three years later on Aug. 4, the police humiliated and tortured Luana Junior da Silva Lago in Bahia, Brazil, forcing her to throw herself into the sea where she drowned. Both Luana and Debra were transgendered. Stories such as Forte’s and Lago’s were posted throughout the school in honor of November’s Transgender Remembrance Month, thanks to the Gay-Straight Alliance. Besides dedicating a month to the loss of transgenders, there is also a day dedicated to their remembrance. “Transgender Remembrance Day (Nov. 20) was first observed in memory of Rita Hester, murdered on November 28, 1998 because she was transgender,” GSA co-president senior Sandra Chen said. “The day now serves to memorialize those who have been killed due to anti-transgender violence, and to educate the public about these crimes.” This year GSA decided to honor these remembrances by placing paper gravestones in front of the school. Members of GSA and one of their sponsors, social studies teacher Barbara Blinick, came to school early to set up the gravestones, according to Chen. “Grave markers represent and help to visualize the fact that transgender people are killed everyday,” GSA public relations officer junior Maxwell Wallace said. “When you hear about it, it's not as bad as when you see it and the grave markers evoked an extremely powerful message.” GSA members decided to bring more awareness to transgender abuses during a meeting. “Originally we thought of putting the grave markers in the courtyard but it would not have been as appropriate as placing them in front of the school,” Wallace said. Club members voted against putting the grave markers in the courtyard due to the sensitivity of the location. “One of our ideas as far as location of the graveyard was among the memorial stones in one of the courtyard garden beds,” Chen said. “We as a club discussed the possibility, and decided that the message of Transgender Remembrance Day would not be properly recognized if we placed our mock gravestones among those in the courtyard.” However, the gravestones had to be taken down the following day not only because Remembrance Day was over, but also due to the flimsiness of the paper. “GSA does not have enough funding to procure permanent gravestones,” Wallace said. “However, the paper grave markers were enough to transmit the powerful message that these people were being killed due to their gender.” Freshman Gloria Pi agreed with Wallace. “I read some of them when walking by,” Pi said. “They definitely caught my attention because it’s not something you regularly encounter.” Some students however felt that the grave markers evoked more of a creepy message than a powerful one. “I thought they were a bit morbid,” senior Ching Ching Liu said. According to Blinick, hate crimes towards transgenders affect our students. “It's not an issue that doesn't touch us,” she said. “There have been students attending Lowell and there are even people in our midst who are transgenders.” GSA's intention was to bring attention to this newer movement, according to Wallace. “It's GSA's job to highlight the injustices and to draw attention to the prejudice surrounding this movement.” |
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to listen.
