Trans Day of Remembrance - 2025

there was a girl named Claire

in some of my classes back when i was in my first year of high school, she had only just come out as trans in the end of the previous semester of the year, before i even really understood what being trans even meant. Claire was a very smart, kind, and really funny girl, but unfortunately i didn't really get to know her. these two boys in our french class harassed her, called her the t-slur, and pushed her out of her chair and i was too scared to stand up and do anything. i felt frozen and and to do anything and i still feel guilty about it. the school administration tried to put her into the same boys' gym class that i was in at the time but she switched schools pretty soon after that. Claire was also deadnamed in the yearbook.

    around four years later, after graduating high school and figuring out that i'm trans myself, i was hanging out with some people i considered friends at the time and we were gossiping about other people we went to high school with. one of them mentioned that a trans girl who was her coworker at a local summer camp committed suicide. It was Claire. it took me a while to process what was said but once i did, i started crying uncontrollably and ran out of the room. it felt like i was the only one there who cared. i didn't even really know Claire but i still missed her so much, i couldn't imagine how horrible her friends and family felt. the rest of my so called "friends" at the time seemed to have just thought of her as just another trans girl who killed herself. just a fucking statistic.

    sometimes i feel like i'm crazy for caring so much about this girl who i didn't even know, like to her i was just the kid who played 3ds games in the back of the class. but so what if i'm crazy. i still care. and will continue to care.

    we don't need visibility. we need liberation. we can't lose any more of our trans sisters.