TextNow honors Transgender Awareness Week

Transgender Awareness Week runs from November 13th to November 19th this year and celebrates the lives, contributions, and history of the trans community. The weeklong celebration concludes on November 20th with Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR).

TDoR is a day to reflect on and remember the lives of trans people lost to transphobic violence. At TextNow, our goal is to ensure all TextNovians are safe, seen, and valued. In honor of TDoR, our LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group, Pride @ TextNow wants to encourage folx to step outside of their own experiences and try to look at the world through another person’s eyes.

‍Reflect on Your Own Gender

‍Many times, it is difficult for us to see past our own lived experiences, especially in terms of gender identity. Gender identity is a social construct that changes based on culture, time, and place. If your gender identity matches your sex assigned at birth, then you have lived what is called a cisgender experience. This means that you were assigned male or female at birth and you identify as male or female in your mind, body, and experiences. For Trans folx, their sex assigned at birth does not fit who they know they are in their gender identity.

Take a moment and reflect on your own gender identity. Think back when have you been corrected for not performing your gender correctly. Have you ever heard “Boys don’t wear pink” or “Girls don’t yell”? These are instances where your gender identity did not match other people’s perceptions of how males or females act. Think about that feeling of being “corrected” and now amplify that feeling and imagine having that communicated to you daily, numerous times.

Gender identity and sex are on a continuum, with a wide variety of identities and experiences that flow in those areas of the human experience. It is important for us to step out of our own worlds and into others as a means to cultivate empathy, allyship, and to protect the trans community.

This post is in honor of the 44 lives lost to anti-transgender violence in 2021.

Dustin Parker

Neulisa Luciano Ruiz

Yampi Méndez Arocho

Scott/ Scottlynn Devore

Monika Diamond

Lexi

Johanna Metzger

Serena Angelique Velázquez Ramos

Layla Pelaez Sánchez

Penélope Díaz Ramírez

Nina Pop

Helle Jae O’Regan

Tony McDade

Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells

Riah Milton

Jayne Thompson

Selena Reyes-Hernandez

Brian “Egypt” Powers

Brayla Stone

Merci Mack

Shaki Peters

Bree Black

Summer Taylor

Marilyn Cazares

Dio H Ova

Queasha D Hardy

Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears

Lea Rayshon Daye

Kee Sam

Aerrion Burnett

Mia Green

Michelle Michellyn Ramos Vargas

Felycya Harris

Brooklyn Deshuna

Sara Blackwood

Angel Unique

Skylar Heath

Yunieski Carey Herrera

Asia Jynae Foster

Chae’Meshia Simms

Kimberly Fial

Jaheim Pugh Jaheim Barbie

Courtney “Eshay” Key

Alexandria Winchester

Learn more about how you can support TDoR and the Trans Community by visiting Out & Equal.And if you want to find out more about how to work for a company that values equity, diversity and inclusion, take a look at our Careers page.