A month to promote trans-awareness

As a part of November’s Trans-Awareness Month, the PSU Queer Resource Center will hold informational workshops, movie nights and a candlelight vigil in memory of the individuals who have suffered due to anti-transgender crimes and prejudice.

The candlelight vigil will take place on Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. in the Portland State Park Blocks, as a part of the National Transgender Day of Remembrance. The Athens Boy Choir, a solo-artist named Katz who identifies as a transsexual, will perform a spoken word slam poetry session after the vigil at 7 p.m. in Smith Memorial Student Union, room 228.

“The goal of Trans-Awareness Month is to increase visibility of trans-students on campus,” said Zena Piccolo, external coordinator of the Portland State Queer Resource Center (QRC) and student assistant coordinator of the Woman’s Resource Center. “To educate on what is trans, what it means to be trans, how to support trans and safety issues for trans people.”

A panel of representatives from Portland organizations will lead the “Trans 101” workshop, which will take place on Friday, Nov. 16 at 1 p.m. in room 236 of the Smith Memorial Student Union. The panel will discuss transgender issues, give information on what it means to be transgender and where transgender students and students thinking about gender transition can find resources in the Portland community.

After Trans 101, the PSU student group Queers and Allies, who are helping organize Trans-Awareness Month at PSU, will be holding a movie night in the QRC from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

All of the events circle around National Transgender Day of Remembrance, said C. Morgan, the student coordinator for Queers and Allies and a volunteer for the Queer Resource Center.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance is held in November in memory of transgender individuals who have been killed because of hatred or prejudice, according to a press release from the QRC. The day specifically memorializes Rita Hester, whose death brought about the start of the memorial website www.rememberingourdead.org and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in the late 1990s.

Volunteers for the QRC are also planning to release a pamphlet of information on transgender resources at the Trans 101 workshop, Morgan said, which are specifically available to Portland State students. The pamphlet would include information on how to change your name, health service resources, gender identification on government IDs and other resources for students considering a gender transition.

All events during the month are open to the public and free.