- During my time as a cross-dresser,
I endured a lot of violence.
And I've even recently, earlier this year, endured violence.
- Murv: For two hours in November.
- I'm just happy that I'm still alive.
- Murv: The battle for transgender awareness and equality.
- Our justice will come from us and by us.
- Murv: Is center stage at the steps of the state capitol.
- This isn't something that happens in other states.
This is happening right here.
- I've been through hell and back.
- We need our lawmakers to support
and champion transgender and gender-expansive justice now.
- It's not a huge community.
It's getting bigger as people step out of the closet.
Since we've had this boom in awareness,
the violence against us has been skyrocketing.
- Murv: Trans Day of Remembrance Rally
is one of many held across the state
and the country every November 20th.
- Amira: I'll share the story of Rita Hester.
And that's story we all should know.
- Hester was killed on November 28th, 1998 in Boston.
- Murv: The brutal unsolved murder of Rita Hester
has been the inspiration for this special day since 1999.
- Two decades after Hester's death,
the U.S. is facing what advocates are calling
an epidemic of anti-trans violence.
- As I heard my sister tell the story of Rita Hester,
it just made me think to myself
how close I came to being her. [chuckles sadly]
- This year is on pace
to be the deadliest year for trans people
since advocacy organizations like the Human Rights Campaign
started tracking transgender homicides.
- We wanted to put on an event
that would address the epidemic of anti-trans violence.
- Murv: They do so by saying the names
of all 50 transgender murder victims in 2021.
- Elle: Say her name, Mylasia Booker.
- The Trans Day of Remembrance gives us an opportunity
to reflect and mourn the loss of life as a larger community
of what many trans folks face all year.
- The Trans Day of Remembrance
is not only a day to mourn,
but it's a day for allies to take action, call for justice,
make sure that their workplaces are trans-inclusive,
that we're calling out friends and family members
who continue to be transphobic.
There are so many Black trans women and girls
who have been assaulted.
- Murv: Hours after the emotional rally
at the state capitol.
- Tim: I would describe this
as a pretty traditional space in which we worship.
- Murv: About three miles away
inside the walls of First Baptist Church of Madison.
- Tim: That we sometimes use in a pretty untraditional way.
- Murv: The efforts to raise transgender awareness
continues as history is being made here.
- Tim: My sexuality is a big deal and isn't a big deal.
'Cause you don't find openly gay pastors
in a lot of churches.
- Murv: Pastor Tim Schaefer, who prefers you call him Tim,
speaks to his congregation and his community.
- Tim: I was, in a way, called to this church
despite my sexuality, not because of.
- Murv: He is the first openly gay pastor of this church
in its almost 175-year history.
- John: I hope that we can continue to do
on a yearly basis with the Trans Day of Remembrance.
- Tim: The way that we raise awareness
is by sharing stories.
- Murv: On this November weekend,
he too helps share the stories and struggles
of transgender people.
- Whether it's my own story
or whether it's someone else's story.
Jesus teaches in parables, in stories.
These are human beings, just like you and me.
Too often, they're overlooked,
very misunderstood, and targeted.
It is important for us to be political.
We are here in this neighborhood.
If we are not talking about the concerns of the city,
we're not talking about things like racism and xenophobia
and homophobia and transphobia,
if we just stay silent on those issues
because we don't wanna upset people,
then we become irrelevant.
- Vica: We will hear the names
of those who have died from violence.
- Murv: On day one, First Baptist
hosts the first ever transgender remembrance vigil
inside its sanctuary,
while just outside its doors, providing access
to community-based transgender resources
for those who need it.
- Transgender means someone whose gender identity
is different than the sex they were assigned at birth.
- Murv: Back inside this place of worship
on the very next day.
- Growing up, I hated myself.
- Being transgender, in and of itself,
it's not a mental illness.
- Murv: A panel discussion to educate.
- Barry: The first kind of feelings
that I had when I was five
were just that I'm uncomfortable with my name.
- Murv: On all things transgender.
- Suppressing my true self and my true nature
was making me depressed and making me miserable.
- It began to dawn on me that I was self-destructing.
I'm very happy that I was not successful
in taking my own life.
- Tim: When you are trans,
you're opening yourself up for potential violence.
- There's an estimated 1.4 to 2 million transgender people
in the United States.
- Tim: We have trans people.
We have LGBTQ people in our pews.
Even those congregations who think they don't, they do.
- I guarantee you that at least one
of the people you've been attracted to in your life
was not born the biological sex
that you maybe assumed they were.
We're a part of this world like anyone else.
We're not aliens.
We're not visitors from another planet.
We're your brothers and sisters
and your moms and dads and your kids.
We're not really asking for a seat at the table.
We're just trying to take up space
at a table we've already been at.
We're just trying to say, "Hey, we're here.
"We've been here, and we deserve a voice."
- Barry: Some people see me and they just decide
that they think that I'm a woman,
that I use she/her pronouns.
- Now that I am able to dress as I want
and express myself the way I want to,
I am a whole lot happier than I ever was.
- I knew I was trans,
but I was pretending to be somebody I wasn't.
I was pretending to be a straight dude.
Of course. [chuckles]
- When you come out, to people on the outside,
it can appear very, very sudden.
Because to them, it's all new.
But for most of us,
we've been thinking about this for years,
if not our whole life.
I struggled to fit in as a child.
I wasn't saying I'm transgender, you know, as a baby.
I knew something was up,
but I really realized what it meant
when I was about 10 years old.
Coming to face with my own mortality
made me reconsider my identity in a way I hadn't previously.
To anyone watching who is trans,
I understand the reasons to stay in the closet.
I do.
But I promise anyone watching
that when you feel safe to come out,
if you can, your life will get infinitely better.
Infinitely better.
And every day after coming out will be easier,
because that is the hardest thing that you ever do.
- But I'm Black, I'm queer, I'm trans, and I'm a woman.
- Murv: The conversations here intersect with race.
- I felt like religion hated me, so I hated religion.
- Murv: And religion.
- Morgen: Traditionally, the Bible has been leveraged
against people like us.
- In some ways, my faith complicates my trans journey.
There's a whole large segment of the Christian community
that sort of uses Christianity
as a pretext to condemn folks
in the LGBT and especially to the trans community.
[soft rock music] ? Rhiannon ?
I'm devoutly Christian.
I know that God loves we.
I know that God sees me for who I am.
And I know that God values me deeply.
I often come here during the week, during the day alone,
and sit in the sanctuary, and I'll pray, and I'll meditate.
And just coming here, I calm down,
and I feel God's presence in a very immediate, powerful way.
- I used to sit in these exact pews that you are in now
[exhales deeply]
and pray to God to make me a woman.
I would sit there ashamed, sure that if anyone knew,
they would think that I was a pervert or a freak.
- For a lot of us, life looks bleak.
But that sun will come up the next day.
[wind rushing]
There's always new opportunities.
- The moment that I started loving myself
was the moment my life changed.
- It's about you, and it's about how you feel.
And it's about what makes you love yourself most.
- Madison is one of the best places in Wisconsin
to live as a trans or gender-expansive person.
There's a lot more awareness.
There are just so many more gender neutral bathrooms,
like just as a baseline of fulfilling basic necessities.
- In my lifetime, gay marriage has gone
from not being accepted really at all
to gaining wide acceptance.
And one of the things that that activists will tell you
is they did this by strategically telling stories,
by saying, "Hey, these gay couples and lesbian couples,
"they want the same things you want.
"They want love.
"They want companionship."
There are more elected officials than ever before
that are LGBTQ and especially trans.
- Shepherd: I went into the classroom,
and no less than three kids said
their pronouns are they/them/theirs.
Mine too.
- Murv: That's Shepherd Janeway
speaking at the state capitol.
Shepherd is non-binary, and they're now campaigning
for a seat on the Madison school board.
- I'm hoping that I can diversify the board.
I'm hoping that I can help bring voice
to some of the underrepresented
and under-listened-to communities.
- If you don't have women at the table,
if you don't have people of color at the table,
if you don't have gay and lesbian people at the table
or trans people at the table,
the concerns of those communities just don't get addressed
because they're not in the forefront of the minds
of those who are at the table.
- I never want another child to ever, ever go through.
- Murv: If you can't understand the emotional passion.
- What I went through again.
- Murv: It's because some of their lives could be at stake.
- Educate yourself,
get to learn more about trans and gender-expansive people.
And then see what the need is in your community.
Are there organizations that are asking for volunteers?
And then you can sign up for that.
If you have extra funds, donate to organizations,
especially Black and Brown trans organizations
that receive less support than white-led trans organization.
- I don't have any illusions
that I'm going to really see the world I want
within my lifetime.
My dream is for calm and normality.
I just want the same things that everyone else wants.
And it's the fact that basic things feel impossible.
I'm tired of being depressed about being trans.
I wanna be depressed about paying bills.
I wanna be depressed about aging.
People out there who are transphobic, you know,
like to say things like, "God doesn't make mistakes."
I agree God doesn't make mistakes.
I actually feel like I'm living
exactly the way I was created.
- Murv: Reporting for "Here & Now."
- Hopefully one day we won't need
a Trans Day of Remembrance.
- Murv: I'm Murv Seymour.