Students remember fallen transgender at vigil


As Kay Mick read the names of 58 transgender people killed in hate crimes over the past year, she reflected on the significance of personifying the oppression.

Taking part in a candle-lit vigil outside the Bovee University Center on Thursday as part of the Office of LGBT Service's week of awareness, Mick was shocked by one death in particular – a 13-year-old child.

"The child was the most shocking part," the Clarkston sophomore said. "That that can happen to a kid, I can't even describe how I felt reading the names."

Mick said the list was essential to raising awareness of violence toward the transgender community. Identifying as gender queer, not conforming to either male or female, Mick was wary that violence toward transgenders is often the result of prejudice.

"Each name on here is a person who lived and died mostly because they were trans, because of bigotry," Mick said. "The whole night is for them."

Kai Niezgoda, the president of CMU's transgender student group Transcend, organized the event, which takes place annually on the National Day of Remembrance. He said the event creates needed momentum for the transgender movement.

"This is the most important part of the week, because it puts some urgency behind the activism that we're doing here," Niezgoda said. "It shows the real threatening and negative repercussions these people face."

Niezgoda hopes events like the vigil could help reduce violence upon the transgender community nationwide.

"(The vigil) is both a chance to reflect and honor those we've lost and look forward to the future," he said. "We hope to make that list shorter next year."

Washington D.C. senior Genesis Nunlee spoke before the about 20 people in attendance as they lit their candles.

Nunlee stressed the importance of intersectionality, or the different social layers, such as race, gender and class, that cause people to experience discrimination.

"There are many layers of oppression," Nunlee said. "You have to understand them all to be beneficial. I really want to make both the LGBT community and people of color understand that our struggles are not mutually exclusive. There's a stigma that someone belongs here and someone else belongs there. I want to end that stigma"

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