Highland Pride committee member Roz White speaks on the importance of Trans Day of Remembrance at the 2023 vigil outside Eden Court in Inverness.
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00:00 Regardless of where the community is, the importance of the day is to remind people
00:06 that all around the world people are still being murdered, murdered for simply trying
00:15 to sort out their own lives and live the way they feel that they absolutely have to.
00:22 Nobody in their right mind would choose to be trans.
00:26 No one would do it if there was any other option other than being miserable, lonely,
00:34 suicidal, unable to function in the wider society without putting yourself through this.
00:42 Because it's not easy, it's not quick, it's certainly not any sort of lifestyle choice
00:46 per se, it's a lifestyle necessity.
00:49 And I think whether it's in Inverness or the middle of India or New York or anywhere else
00:55 it's important that people realise this and that people are reminded that all over the
01:01 world this year, this last year, more than one person a day on average, somewhere in
01:07 the world has been murdered simply for trying to be themselves.
01:13 Not harming anyone else, not affecting anyone else, not doing anything illegal or intrusive,
01:23 just trying to live their lives and somebody else took it upon themselves to say that they
01:29 didn't like that and that person had to die.
01:33 I mean come on world, really, seriously, have we not got past this yet?
01:39 And that was a really powerful moment at the vigil tonight to read out the list of all
01:44 those names of people who have been killed.
01:47 Obviously you hope it's not going to be as long next year.
01:49 Well absolutely, we read out 392 names this year.
01:54 We always hope it will be less next year.
01:56 We always hope, as I said earlier, that it will be not even necessary to have this day
02:03 at some point in the future.
02:07 But we come here year after year, we read out the names year after year and the fact
02:13 that Trans Day of Remembrance has been going for a number of years now suggests that the
02:19 trans issue as some people see it is not going away.
02:25 You can't kill us all off and suddenly we won't be here anymore.
02:29 Trans people have always been there.
02:30 You only have to look back through unfiltered history to see that there have always been
02:36 trans people.
02:37 There always will be trans people.
02:40 They're killing us and we can fade quite happily into society, go to work, pay our
02:46 taxes, be useful, beneficial members of the society, wherever that may be.
02:53 And it's no skin off anybody else's nose.
02:56 We're not hurting anyone.
02:59 I fail to see what the problem is that requires 392 people to lose their lives over the last
03:05 12 months.
03:07 It just baffles me completely.
03:08 It really does.
03:09 I don't understand it at all but I will continue to read these names out every year.
03:15 I'm not going to bring it here anywhere.
03:18 My trans friends aren't going anywhere.
03:20 Deal with us.
03:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]