Kindred Connections Collective
…
When the living thing surrounding you dies, all that is left to hold you are the dead.
And, I don’t know what it’s like to not consider what it might be like to lose someone.
What it is like not to prepare myself for this unmooring.
And so, this is how I carry my grief:
All stunning and large,
All wood and metal fused together,
All hull and stern, heavy,
A magnificent ship, Traversing the Black sea of myself.
I carry my grief with me,
But I also carry my joy.
….
“I Carry My Grief With Me”
by Justin D. Wright (full text here)
2024
Our Kin
We honor our trans, 2 Spirit, non-binary, and gender diverse siblings and uplift their names. They are nestled within and closely held by our hearts, minds, and souls.
Although they have been stolen from us, they will never be forgotten. Their spirits and power continue to flow into and through us across time and space.
Below are the names and images of our stolen siblings. Those listed are the 63 siblings whose lives were stolen on Turtle Island and publicly recorded from October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024.
As with all previous years, Black trans women are disproportionately represented.
This year claimed the lives of 12 persons under the age of 21.
This list contains too many names, yet it does not bear witness to all of our stolen kin.
Trans Live Matters reports that globally, at least 403 trans siblings were stolen October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024.
At least 11 more beautiful kin were stolen in the October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024, reporting period than the previous one.
And while the weight of this number is immense, we know this is not all. Many of our kin are misgendered and thus never counted. Many of our trans sibs’ murders are hidden or misconstrued by and under patriarchy, white supremacy, and political agendas- agendas that invisibilize and revictimize our communities, siblings, elders, and friends time and again.
Try as they might to force us to disappear quietly, to separate us, to make us small, invisible, forgotten —
We Will Not Go.
We will carry our grief and joy like our kin in our hearts and souls.
We will carry our grief and joy like webs and tools, building connections, safety, and strength- firing our collective holdings into the finest vessels to carry our truths.
We will carry our grief and joy through joy and grief through survival into abundance.
We will carry our grief and joy and each other- together.
We Remember
Oct 1, 2023 – Sept 30, 2024
2023
We are in gratitude to Trans Lives Matters for their continual labor of love.
To learn more about any of the individuals stolen, TLM’s work, and to access reports and downloads, please visit Remembering Our Dead at https://tdor.translivesmatter.info/.