Transgender Day Of Remembrance

 

Yesterday, 11/20/22, there was a church service at First Universalist Church of Rochester, NY about the Transgender Day Of Remembrance.

Rev. Lane Mairead- Campbell lead the adult service as Rev. Michelle Yates lead the children's service reading the children’s book, Sam Is My Sister by Ashley Rhodes-Courter.

Rev. Lane then read a list of about 40 people who are transgendered who have died in the last 25 years by suicide, domestic violence, and other forms of violence.

Rev. Lane then stated that the annual Transgender Day Of Remberence began in Massachusetts in the late 1990s after Rita Hester died in 1998.

As part of her sermon Rev. Lane said, “We hold life to be sacred in this church and not in the ways where we feel we must defend birth at the cost of another's livelihood, but in the way that we know that life is precious that each person's life is a gift to the world, and to their community that access to a healthy and happy life is worth defending for all of us even those we have conflict with, or even anger towards, their lives, are still sacred.”

After the service ended the news broke about the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, CO. in which at least 5 people were killed and 18 injured by a 22 year old gunman.

In the coffee hour after the service, a person pointed out that Unitarian Universalists join together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person, the first of the seven UU principles upon which the UU faith is based.