Transgender Day of Remembrance

These are the murdered trans people we remember today:

Keyshia

Blige (33 years old)

Cause of death: Shooting

Location of death: Aurora, Illinois, USA

Date of death: March 7th, 2015

Tamara

Dominguez (36 years old)

Cause of death: repeatedly run over by vehicle

Location of death: Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Date of death: August 15th, 2015

Kandis

Capri (35 years old)

Cause of death: shooting

Location of death: Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Date of death: August 11th, 2015

Amber

Monroe (20 years old)

Cause of death:gunshot

Location of death:Detroit, Michigan, USA

Date of death: August 8th, 2015

Ashton

O'Hara (25 years old)

Cause of death: Stabbed to death, ran over by vehicle

Location of death: Detroit, Michigan, USA

Date of death: July 14th, 2015

Shade

Schuler (22 years old)

Cause of death: unknown, found dead in a field.

Location of death: Dallas, Texas, USA

Date of death: July 29th, 2015

K.

C. Haggard (66 years old)

Cause of death: multiple stab wounds

Location of death: Fresno, California, USA

Date of death: July 24th, 2015

India

Clarke (22 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot to the head and arm

Location of death: Tampa, Florida, USA

Date of death: July 21st, 2015

Mercedes

Williamson (17 years old)

Cause of death: Beaten to death

Location of death: Rocky Creek, Alabama, USA

Date of death: May 30th, 2015

Penny

Proud (21 years old)

Cause of death: shooting

Location of death: Tremé, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Date of death: February 10th, 2015

Taja

Gabrielle DeJesus (36 years old)

Cause of death: multiple stab wounds

Location of death: San Francisco, USA

Date of death: Feburary 8th, 2015

Bri

Golec (22 years old)

Cause of death: stabbed to death

Location of death: Akron, Ohio, USA

Date of death: February 13th, 2015

Lamia

Beard (30 years old)

Cause of death: shooting

Location of death: Norfolk, Virginia, USA

Date of death: January 17th, 2015

Papi

Edwards (20 years old)

Cause of death: shooting

Location of death: Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Date of death: January 9th, 2015

Nephi

Luthers (20 years old)

Cause of death: shooting

Location of death: Georgetown, Guyana

Date of death: July 21st, 2015

Diosvany

Muñoz Robaina (24 years old)

Cause of death: stoning

Location of death: Pinar del Río, Cuba

Date of death: April 26th, 2015

C.

N. Alves de Matos Jr (21 years old)

Cause of death: stabbed and dismembered

Location of death: São Paulo, Brazil

Date of death: September 25th, 2015

Unknown

(41 years old)

Cause of death: severe head and neck trauma

Location of death: Alicante, Spain

Date of death: July 21th, 2015

L.

A. de Souza, (22 years old)

Cause of death: found in landfill with knife in neck

Location of death: Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

Date of death: September 30th, 2015

Waleska

Rayala, (21 years old)

Cause of death: 27 stab wounds

Location of death: Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Date of death: September 2nd, 2015

Paulinha

Cause of death: gunshots to head and chest

Location of death: Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Date of death: September 8th, 2015

Flower,

(39 years old)

Cause of death : beaten to death

Location of death: Parintins, Amazonas, Brazil

Date of death: August 27th, 2015

V.

H.A dos Santos , (25 years old)

Cause of death : multiple gunshot wounds

Location of death: Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Date of death: August 24th, 2015

Patricia,

(29 years old)

Cause of death : unknown cause of death, thrown into bush

Location of death: Santa Terezinha, Piracicaba, Brazil

Date of death: August 3rd, 2015

Unknown,

(45 years old)

Cause of death : Gunshot wound to the head

Location of death: Alta Floresta d'Oeste, Rondônia, Brazil

Date of death: July 25th, 2015

Gabi,

(26 years old)

Cause of death : Beaten to death

Location of death: Valparaíso de Goiás, Brazil

Date of death: July 19th, 2015

Erika

Aguilera, (25 years old)

Cause of death : Gunshot wound to the back

Location of death: Dourados, Brazil

Date of death: July 16th, 2015

India

Nascimento, (29 years old)

Cause of death: Beaten to death

Location of death: Pernambuco, Brazil

Date of death: July 12th, 2015

L.

R.O. Dorta, (26 years old)

Cause of death: Decapitated

Location of death: Pernambuco, Brazil

Date of death: July 12th, 2015

Vanessa

Calaça, (27 years old)

Cause of death: Stoned to death

Location of death: Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

Date of death: July 12th, 2015

Unknown

woman

Cause of death: multiple gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen

Location of death: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Date of death: June 30th, 2015

Unknown

woman

Cause of death: stab wound to the neck

Location of death: Cacoal, Rondônia, Brazil

Date of death: July 5th, 2015

Bruna

J. Mendes, (27 years old)

Cause of death: Multiple gunshot wounds

Location of death: Itapebi, Bahia, Brazil

Date of death: June 29th, 2015

Sidney

Araújo Claudino, (19 years old)

Cause of death: Shotgun gunshot wound to the chest

Location of death: Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Date of death: June 23rd, 2015

Laura

Vermont, (18 years old)

Cause of death: Beaten to death by police

Location of death: São Paulo, Brazil

Date of death: June 20th, 2015

Kauane

da Silva, (35 years old)

Cause of death: Gunshot to the head

Location of death: Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Date of death: June 13th, 2015

Unknown

woman

Cause of death: Unknown cause of death, buried in shallow grave

Location of death: Serra, Espírito Santo, Brazil.

Date of death: June 9th, 2015

Kelly

Silva, (31 years old)

Cause of death: stabbed in neck and arm

Location of death: Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Date of death: June 9th, 2015

Andréia

Amado, (29 years old)

Cause of death: Gunshot

Location of death: Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Date of death: June 4th, 2015

Carol

Melo, (30 years old)

Cause of death: strangled to death

Location of death: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Date of death: June 3th, 2015

Priscilla

da Silva, (23 years old)

Cause of death: Gunshot

Location of death: Dois Riachos, Alagoas, Brazil

Date of death: May 30th, 2015

Barbara

Sodre, (29 years old)

Cause of death: Stabbed to death

Location of death: Sergipe, Brazil

Date of death: May 25th, 2015

Jean

Waltrick, (27 years old)

Cause of death: multiple gunshot wounds to the head

Location of death: Lages, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Date of death: May 23rd, 2015

Vandressa

Vinnitt

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Realengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Date of death: May 18th, 2015

Ticiane

Abravanel, (21 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Date of death: May 18th, 2015

La

Monique de Roma, (43 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Butantã, São Paulo, Brazil

Date of death: May 14th, 2015

unidentified

woman

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil

Date of death: May 3rd, 2015

Stefanny

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Caucaia, Ceará, Brazil

Date of death: April 30th, 2015

Job

Rodrigues da Silva, (46 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil

Date of death: April 17th, 2015

unidentified

woman

Cause of death: beaten and strangled to death

Location of death: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Date of death: April 17th, 2015

Bruna,

(47 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil

Date of death: April 16th, 2015

Bruna

Quércia, (15 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Vila Velha, Espírito Santo, Brazil

Date of death: April 15th, 2015

Victória

Camargo, (29 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Venâncio Aires, Brazil

Date of death: April 13th, 2015

Bruna

Michele, (20 years old)

Cause of death: beaten to death

Location of death: Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Date of death: April 13th, 2015

Vanessa

Ganzaroli, (18 years old)

Cause of death: multiple stab wounds

Location of death: Petrolina, Pernambuc, Brazil

Date of death: April 3rd, 2015

Debora

Cause of death: stoned to death

Location of death: Mogi Mirim, São Paulo, Brazil

Date of death: April 2nd, 2015

Lotinha

Cause of death: stabbed

Location of death: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Date of death: March 29th, 2015

Adriana,

(22 years old)

Cause of death: multiple gunshots

Location of death: Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Date of death: March 22th, 2015

Bianca

Araujo, (21 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil

Date of death: March 20th, 2015

Michael

Lucas de Almeida Reginald, (13 years old)

Cause of death: beaten, multiple stab wounds

Location of death: Araraquara, São Paulo, Brazil

Date of death: March 18th, 2015

Natália

Ferraz, (21 years old)

Cause of death: multiple gunshots

Location of death: Caçapava, São Paulo, Brazil

Date of death: February 27th, 2015

Ygor

Fernando Oliveira Santos, (20 years old)

Cause of death: multiple gunshots

Location of death: Marechal Deodoro, Alagoas, Brazil

Date of death: February 27th, 2015

Keity,

(23 years old)

Cause of death: multiple stab wounds (10)

Location of death: Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Date of death: February 24th, 2015

Lara,

(16 years old)

Cause of death: stoned to death

Location of death: Parauapebas, Pará, Brazil

Date of death: February 22nd, 2015

unidentified

woman

Cause of death: multiple gunshot wounds

Location of death: Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Date of death: February 20th, 2015

Raíssa,

(19 years old)

Cause of death: multiple stab wounds to neck and chest

Location of death: Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil

Date of death: February 16th, 2015

Capitú

Santos, (31 years old)

Cause of death: stabbing

Location of death: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Date of death: February 16th, 2015

Joyce

Akira, (teen)

Cause of death: multiple gunshot wounds

Location of death: Mangabeira, Joao Pessoa, Brazil

Date of death: February 8th, 2015

Pata,

(35 years old)

Cause of death: strangled to death

Location of death: Macapá, Amapá, Brazil

Date of death: February 7th, 2015

Didinha,

(18 years old)

Cause of death: multiple gunshot wounds

Location of death: Vitória de Santo Antão, Pernambuco, Brazil

Date of death: February 1st, 2015

unidentified

woman

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Lorena, São Paulo, Brazil

Date of death: March 17th, 2015

LÉO,

(26 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot

Location of death: Vitoria da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil

Date of death: January 26th, 2015

Piu

da Silva, (25 years old)

Cause of death: beaten, multiple gunshot wounds

Location of death: Nilópolis, Rio de Janeiroa, Brazil Date of death: January 22nd, 2015

unidentified

woman

Cause of death: gunshot wound

Location of death: Peshawar, Pakistan

Date of death: April 6th, 2015

unidentified

woman

Cause of death: gunshot wound

Location of death: Peshawar, Pakistan

Date of death: April 6th, 2015

Diana

Sacayán, (39 years old)

Cause of death: multiple stab wounds

Location of death: Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Date of death: October 11th, 2015

Marcela

Chocobar, (26 years old)

Cause of death: dismembered and burned

Location of death: Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Argentina

Date of death: September 4th, 2015

Francela

Méndez

Cause of death: stab wounds

Location of death: Las Palmeras, Sonsonate, El Salvador.

Date of death: May 31st, 2015

Fernanda

"Coty" Olmos (59 years old)

Cause of death: stab wounds, suffocated with bag over head

Location of death: Santa Fe, Argentina

Date of death: September 25th, 2015

Yoshi

Tsuchida (38 years old)

Cause of death: face cut off, bag around head

Location of death: Tokyo, Japan

Date of death: November 13th, 2015

Leticya

Santos Ignácio (21 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot to the forehead

Location of death: São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil

Date of death: October 12th, 2015

unidentified

woman (19 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot to the face

Location of death: Taguatinga, Brazil

Date of death: October 7th, 2015

Miscilene

(25 years old)

Cause of death: blunt force trauma to the head

Location of death: Bahia, Brazil

Date of death: October 12th, 2015

Miscilene

(20 years old)

Cause of death: gunshots

Location of death: Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Date of death: October 20th, 2015

Tiffany

Latifah (24 years old)

Cause of death: stab wound to the neck

Location of death: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Date of death: October 30th, 2015

unidentified

woman

Cause of death: gunshot wounds to head and abdomen

Location of death: Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Pernambuco, Brazil

Date of death: October 28th, 2015

Tiffany

Latifah (17 years old)

Cause of death: gunshot wounds to face and back

Location of death: Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Date of death: November 2nd, 2015

Anusha

Cause of death: murdered and burned

Location of death: Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India

Date of death: September 24th, 2015

Pravalika

(24 years old)

Cause of death: bludgeoned to death

Location of death: Telangany, India

Date of death: January 16th, 2015

Religious Head-Covering for Men in Pachomius's Rule

I have rarely seen religious proscriptions for men to cover their head, so it's always noteworthy to find a new one . . .

"When coming from the sinaxis, the brothers, who are leaving one by one, to their cells or to the refectory, will meditate about any passage of Scripture and no one will have their heads covered when they meditate.
      And when they had come to the refectory, they will sit by order of the places that have been given and will cover 
their head."

Interesting bit from the Cenobitic Rule of St. Pachomius the Great

"Do not stay sitting without doing anything during the sinaxis, but prepare with a watching hand the rushes that will serve to weave the strings of the dorm mats. Nevertheless, avoid being tired, he who has a weak body, will be given a permission to interrupt his duty from time to time."

Quotes from _The Flower and the Scorpion_ #56

"Take the example of the goddess of water and floods, Chalchiuhtlicue. In the Codex Tonalamatl Aubin we find an extraordinary and obscure image that signifies the relationship of Chalchiuhtlicue and Tlazolteotl with tlazolli (figure 27). There we see Chalchiuhtlicue with Tlazolteotl's head emanating from between her legs like an outstretched penis. The image may represent Chalchiuhtlicue giving birth to Tlazolteotl, but at the same time, the goddess of tlazolli's long neck has become Chalchiuhtlicue's phallus. In Chalchiuhtlicue's more standard image, like that of the Codex Borbonicus (figure 28), we see her unleashing the floods from beneath her throne, and we witness people caught in the torrents of water." Her nose ornament serves to present her as a fertility goddess, and one of the images across from her is Tlazolteotl's headdress. Here the people caught in the stream may be a man and a woman sacrificed to the goddess, although they may also symbolize men and women born to the cleansing effects of Chalchiuhtlicue's water. (When midwives bathed newborns, they would call upon Chalchiuhtlicue.)
Chalchiuhtlicue controls the water and bathes the newborn child, ridding her/him of dirt. The important ceremony, bringing the child into the world, was partially controlled by this goddess, and, by implication, by Tlazolteotl as well. The two were paired, as the art historian Eloise Quinones-Keber maintains, because of the association between dirt and cleanliness. Tlazolteotl's "dual association with generation and filth is recognized; the latter is part of her name.... Thus the pairing of Tlaztolteotl teotl and Chalchiuhtlicue ... may have been intended for contrasting purposes, one representing filth, the other the cleansing with water that followed"

Quotes from _The Flower and the Scorpion_ #55

"Tezcatlipoca, both in and outside of Toxcatl, both before and after the conquest, existed as a complex figure that moved beyond both Spanish conceptions of gender and Catholic moral frameworks in which sex equaled sin: Nahuas imagined him as a woman giving birth (just as they imagined the woman as a warrior), a man playing a masculine role, a trickster disappearing into the smoky mirror to alter his body into a body that appeared feminine, and a masculine warrior figure; he promoted sexual trickery and seduction, engaged in sexual activity as a woman and as a man, and seduced and even raped Xochiquetzal. This imaginary framework confounds contemporary analysts perhaps even more than it disturbed Spanish priests. Such deified sexuality shows us that the phallic warrior god can be a goddess too and a woman giving birth."

Quotes from _The Flower and the Scorpion_ #54

"We know from a wide variety of texts that Nahuas viewed cihuateteo as dangerous warriors. And indeed this suggests the importance of the connection between Tezcatlipoca and Xochiquetzal as well as something of Tezcatlipoca's gender ambiguity. He signified a woman giving birth to a child at least partly because Nahua mythology represented the woman in childbirth birth as a warrior; in this, she is a reverse image of Tezcatlipoca, the warrior god who became a woman giving birth to a child.
I also note the awesome power of cihuateteo in warfare. For, when a woman died in childbirth, her body was believed to confer great strength on warriors, such that the midwives would try to protect the woman's body. When the entourage carried the body away, warriors attacked them, and the midwives protected themselves and the dead woman with shields. The warriors sought to break off the middle finger or a lock of hair from the dead woman.  If successful they would insert the hair or finger into their shields to make them fiercer in war. Further, we may note at least one key similarity between the image of Tezcatlipoca and preconquest images of cihuateteo (see figures 2 and 23): cihuateteo too have sexual excess emanating from their mouths. As I noted earlier, Nahua thought promoted a discourse that equated much feminine sexuality with excess. Cihuateteo, key feared signifiers of this excess, promoted the same erotic orality as we witnessed in Tezcatlipoca. In figure 2, we see that the cihuateotl has a centipede coming out of her mouth; in figure 23, we see a serpentine figure emanating from the mouth. In each case, the elements signify sexual excess, both through the figures coming out of the mouths and through the exposed breasts of the cihuateteo. We further witness that the cihuateteo wear both skirts and loincloths.
The eyes hanging from their sockets, and the skirt in figure 23 (with the crossbones) intend to signify the appropriate fear that the population would have for these individuals. In another image from the same text (figure 24), the cihuateotl had backward-pointing feet, signifying her as a figure walking backward, thus representing disorder."

Quotes from _The Flower and the Scorpion_ #53

"Perhaps most important here, the text pictures Tezcatlipoca opposite Xochiquetzal. As the tlacuilo arranges the codex in couplets, he viewed Tezcatlipoca as Xochiquetzal's partner. In the image of Xochiquetzal (figure 22), three animals emanate from beneath her: a snake, a centipede, and an unknown feline. The snake and centipede, most often associated with Tlazolteotl, signified sexual excess. As animals of the dirt, they formed part of the tlazolli complex, the snake associated with the phallus and the earth, and the centipede associated also with the earth and with women who have died in childbirth. The batten Xochiquetzal holds signifies her role as a goddess of weaving, and that plus her headdress and facial paint would identify her to any Nahua familiar with her images."

Quotes from _The Flower and the Scorpion_ #52

"We discover at the end of this chapter of the Florentine Codex that another man had lived the entire year with the Tezcatlipoca ixiptla. This man appears to have been an ixiptla of Huitzilopochtli. Klein suggests a sexual relationship between the two men, an interpretation that seems entirely plausible."

Quotes from _The Flower and the Scorpion_ #51

"This positioning of the ixiptla suggests the ambiguous sexual comportment and obscure gender of Tezcatlipoca. If this god gives birth to sexual excess, then he would seem to take the female position not just in sexual intercourse, but also in the entire panoply of activities required to give birth to a child. At the same time he remains a highly ranked warrior fighting battles; he sustains his position as a masculine man. Again we must consult figure 16, where he possesses a decorated shield, arrows, spears, and several club-like items and the center of his chest is decorated with a flint knife. This figure is far from androgynous, but rather signifies a hypermasculine ideal even while it asserts feminine sexuality."

Quotes from _The Flower and the Scorpion_ #50

"As we will see, Tezcatlipoca could use both masculine and feminine notions of sexuality to control all. An example occurs in a book of prognostications. On a day that he controlled, known as One Death (ce miquiztli), people honored Tezcatlipoca by giving pleasure to their slaves. Here one must pay attention to Tezcatlipoca's alter ego, Titlacauan (which literally translates as "we are his/her slaves"). On One Death, Titlacauan forces masters to treat their slaves well, and slaves during the day in essence become the masters. This day, then, reverses the social order in a temporary manner, thus befitting a day possessed by Titlacauan. If, however, on this day an individual mistreats his or her slave, Tezcatlipoca mocks and curses that person, then sacrifices and eats him or her. To prevent such a sacrifice, the person thus threatened calls Tezcatlipoca/ Titlacauan a cuiloni, a word that has been translated as puto, "faggot;' meaning the male penetrated during sex with another man. The individual uses Tezcatlipoca/Titlacauan's sexuality as an insult, but Tezcatlipoca does not take this as an insult and simply follows through on his original intent (by sacrificing the individual). Perhaps more important, the narrative pursues Titlacauan as the specific attribute of Tezcatlipoca to be criticized as a cuiloni. This suggests not that Tezcatlipoca had a specific sexual identity, but rather that one aspect of him, Titlacauan, the enslaved aspect of Tezcatlipoca, relates to a passive sexual construct linked to sacrificial discourse."