Fri 8 Dec. 2023
Transgender Awareness Week
Jordan Hurst, Deputy Diversity Coordinator, Insurance Institute of Manchester:
- explores the origins of Transgender Awareness Week; and
- explains why it’s important to educate ourselves about this topic, not just during this week but also in our day to day lives.
Yearly between 13th and 19th November, Transgender Awareness Week is held to help raise awareness and educate people about the transgender community.
The week chosen is deliberate, as 20th November is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day that honors the memories and achievements of all transgender people whose lives were lost due to acts of anti-transgender violence in the past year.
Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded by Gwendolyn Ann Smith in 1999 to commemorate the life and death of Rita Hester, a black trans woman, who was murdered in Boston on 28th November 2018, the date was moved to 20th November, apparently, so as not to interfere with Thanksgiving. Days like this are much needed and, to this day, acts of violence against transgender people occurring worldwide each year has risen.
It is very important to educate ourselves and highlight transgender inclusive stories and work place policies, not just in this week, but also in our day to day lives.
Rebecca Mason, for example, was the first openly transgender person at Lloyd’s in London, and has recently spoken about how accepting the insurance industry, in general, has been in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion in an article in the Insurance Business magazine (link below).
Here in Manchester, Link Up North, the LGBTQ+ insurance network, hosted their launch event on 16th November, in transgender awareness week. Hosted by Mark Wells and Amanda Hilton, it highlighted the need that we have to continue to push towards diversity, equality and inclusion for all, and just how important the message that these types of networks spread in terms of education and awareness.
If you are interested in finding out more about the network, please see the link below:
https://www.lgbtinsurancenetwork.com/
Lastly and most importantly, take the time to reflect on Transgender Awareness Week, in addition to the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and keep in mind that we have come so far as a society in relation to these topics but that we also still have a lot more to do.