Transgender rights have been on the chopping block since the Trump 2.0 administration took office. Pushback, however, has been equally fierce across the country in Trump’s attempt to erase our trans and nonbinary communities from the social fabric of American life. Our communities have clapped back in political and artistic ways.
I honor two black transwomen: Rita Hester and Giselle Kristina Byrd. On the 25th Anniversary of Transgender Day of Remembrance, The Theater Offensive (TTO) received a special citation from the Boston City Council.
The proclamation said, “The Theater Offensive in recognition of uplifting LGBTQ+ voices and fostering inclusion through the power of art since 1989, creating liberating works by, for, and about queer and trans people of color, dismantling oppression, and inspiring communities…the Boston City Council extends its best wishes for continued success.”
“This is historic,” I told Byrd at the event, “The Theater Offensive receiving this on Transgender Day of Remembrance.” The award, however, came as a total surprise to Byrd. “It was overwhelming, to be honest,” said Byrd. “To receive this recognition is a reminder that queer and trans artists are not only a highly valuable reflection of society, but we can help create the world that we wish to inhabit.”
The new girl on the block
In the community, Byrd is considered a “baddie,” a complimentary colloquialism referring to an attractive and confident woman. Byrd, a soft-spoken and statuesque native of Augusta, Georgia, is a fashionista who captivates people’s attention when she walks down the street. And she loves the color pink, Barbie Pink! When asked what she wanted to look like, Byrd said, “A black glam Barbie. It’s an aesthetic that has not escaped me in my transition.”
Under Byrd’s leadership, TTO is entering a new era of LGBTQ theater, emphasizing people of color, and her lived experiences shape the mission. “While traditionally marginalized voices are being silenced, and trans women of color, like myself, suffer an epidemic of violence, TTO centers those creative voices 365 days a year.”
Byrd has been the arts organization’s executive director in Boston and is the first black trans woman to head a major regional theater company in the country. As a trans woman, Byrd recognizes the torch that is passed on to her, and the black and brown transcestors’ shoulders past and present, like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and those whose lives have been cut short due to violence, like Rita Hester.
“With my appointment, I was becoming the first black trans woman to lead a significant American theatre company, something my ancestors and transcestors fought for in their lifetimes, but did not get the chance to see their dream fulfilled,” she wrote in Out magazine. “I now carry their torch.”
Byrd brings a unique perspective critical to social justice, inclusion, and storytelling as a black Southern trans woman. She encourages artists to explore outside the box and flip the script on white queer cis-gendered conventions that both straight and LGBTQ theatergoers have come to expect. Trans representation is essential to Byrd. She wants TTO to be a welcoming space for trans and nonbinary artists to explore their stories — a diversity of realistic portrayals.
Hester’s story, meanwhile, is a one-dimensional narrative that fits the dominant trope about black trans women. Byrd is working to change that through art. Hester’s story shows the politics of memory, what gets remembered, told, and canonized for what and whose purpose as an international icon.
Hester’s family is retraumatized each year at the anniversary of her murder. They are grateful her death isn’t going unnoticed like so many trans murders, but they do wish the media would tell a fuller story about Hester. The tragedy is cemented in our public understanding of Hester, such as original news coverage — in both straight and LGBTQ media — misgendering and using her birth name. In telling her story, however, we cannot skip over her death and its significance.
Cold case
After 25 years, Hester’s murder is still an unsolved cold case, like most transgender murders. On Nov. 28, 1998, Hester was found dead in her first-floor apartment with 20 stab wounds to her chest, just two days before her 35th birthday. Hester’s murder kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project that became the catalyst for the annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance. Her murder occurred six weeks after Matthew Shepard’s in Laramie, Wyoming, which became an internationally known homophobic hate crime in October 1998.
In June 1998, James Byrd Jr., a black male, was murdered by three white supremacists in Jasper, Texas. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law.
The words of Rita’s mother, Kathleen Hester, haunt me to this day.
Hester’s murder occurred in an era when the “trans panic defense” — a defendant melodramatically pleads temporary insanity for killing — was a legal strategy. Friends of Rita told NBC.com their suspicion about her murder. “A man (or men) who couldn’t face his attraction to a trans woman came home with Hester and killed her in a fit of shame.”
Hester lived large and loved big; her death meant so much to many. The words of Rita’s mother, Kathleen Hester, haunt me to this day. When she spoke at the vigil at the Model Cafe, where Rita was known, she brought most of us to tears, myself included.
I would have gladly died for you, Rita. I would have taken the stabs and told you to run. I loved you!” After her remarks, Rita’s mother collapsed in a grief-induced faint. Later on, the crowd moved outside with lit candles and Rita’s mother again brought me to tears as she and her surviving children knelt in front of the doorway of Rita’s apartment building and recited The Lord’s Prayer.
According to Trans Murder Monitoring, which tracks the murders of trans and gender-diverse people globally, 320 trans people were murdered, beaten, or shot between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023. They were predominantly black trans women.
Violence against black trans women has been depicted as “a pandemic within a pandemic.” They are killed disproportionately because of socioeconomic factors due to “transmisogynoir” — the intersections of anti-black violence, cis-sexism, and transphobia. Transmisogynoir contributes to black trans women disproportionately battling unemployment, poverty, housing insecurity, suicide, HIV/AIDS, health care disparities, sexual assault, police brutality, incarceration, and a life expectancy of 33-35 years.
Sadly, in 2025 Trans Murder Monitoring revealed little has changed, particularly for black trans women.
“Please rest assured that while this incoming administration may fight to take away all of our basic human rights, they will not EVER take away our ability to create art.
Honoring Herstory
In 2024, TTO honored TDOR in community with Hester’s family, sharing reflections on her life and artistry, and posthumously awarded Hester their Legends Award. Hester’s nephew, Taufiqul Chowdhury, received the award on her behalf. He imagined Hester becoming a famous poet or TV star. He told The Advocate in 2023, “I wish that she could have lived long enough for me to see her perform. She was educated, and she loved to write. So who knows, maybe she’d [have written] something and could have gotten published.”
A week before her death, Hester wrote her last poem. Her nephew showed me the original copy. “It’s a little foreboding and not out of pain or sorrow. You come to understand there is some sense she needed to get this out and put on paper. And I am super thankful that she did because the words I now have hanging up in my home like a shrine.” The poem “Look to me, my family” is on Hester’s mural.
Trans rising
I asked Byrd what the importance is of TTO and LGBTQ artistic creativity in light of Trump. “Please rest assured that while this incoming administration may fight to take away all of our basic human rights, they will not EVER take away our ability to create art. We will not cower in the face of what’s to come,” she said. “Instead, we will stand even more boldly on our promise to present liberating art by, for, and about Queer and Trans People of Color.”
