Rita Hester

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Rita Hester (born 1964 - November 28, 1998 in Allston , Massachusetts ) was a transsexual , African-American woman who was murdered. The international Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in her honor .

Life

Rita Hester was considered a glamorous and popular personality who appeared as a performer in cabarets and bars in downtown Boston . On November 28, 1998, she was murdered with multiple knife wounds in her Allston apartment. Although the murder was never solved, it was widely believed that she had been the victim of transphobic violence. The American media reported very little about it, but a vigil in memory of Rita Hester was held on Friday, December 4, 1998, attended by over 250 people. As a result, the author, transgender activist and graphic designer Gwendolyn Anne Smith from San Francisco founded the Internet project “Remembering Our Dead”, which later became the international Transgender Day of Remembrance in honor of Rita Hester . Every November 20th, the deaths of Rita Hester and other transgender people who were killed out of gender intolerance and discrimination are commemorated.

literature

  • Gordene McKenzie, Mary Marcel: Media Coverage of the Murder of US Transwoman in color . In: Lisa M. Cuklanz, Sujata Moorti (Ed.): Local Violence, Global Media. Feminist Analyzes of Gendered Representations . Verlag Peter Lang, New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-4331-0277-6 , therein the media discourse on the death of Rita Hester, p. 79 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Human Rights Campaign, Transgender Day of Remembrance
  2. ↑ Jeremy C. Fox: Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor Rita Hester, other victims of violence . boston.com, November 16, 2012
  3. ↑ 'Remembering Rita Hester' Nov. 15, 2008, Edge Boston
  4. ^ Gwendolyn Ann Smith, The Huffington Post
  5. ↑ About Transgender Day of Remembrance
  6. ↑ Kate Bornstein, S. Bear Bergman: Gender Outlaws. The Next Generation , Seal Press (Perseus Books Group); Reprint edition, New York 2010, ISBN 978-1-58005-308-2 , p. 291
  7. ↑ Irene Monroe: Remembering Trans Heroine Rita Hester . In: Huffington Post . November 9, 2013 ( huffingtonpost.com ).
  8. ^ Joan Ferrante: Sociology. A Global Perspective , Northern Kentucky University, 2013, ISBN 978-1-111-83390-9 , p. 254
  9. ↑ Susanne Scholz (Ed.): God Loves Diversity and Justice. Progressive Scholars Speak about Faith, Politics, and the World , Lexington Books 2013, ISBN 978-0-7391-7318-3 , pp. 210f.
  10. ^ Eve Shapiro: Gender Circuits. Bodies and Identities in a Technological Age , Routledge 2010, ISBN 978-0-415-99696-9 , p. 133
personal data
SURNAME Hester, Rita
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American transsexuals
DATE OF BIRTH 1964
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1998
Place of death Allston , Massachusetts