Transgender Day of Remembrance

November 20 is the international Transgender Day of Remembrance, when we take a moment to honor the lives and mourn the deaths of transgender victims of hate crimes.

Last night I attended Shabbat services at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco’s LGBT synagogue. I heard a prayer that was so beautiful that I wanted to share it with you here:

As the sun sinks and the colors of the day turn, we offer a blessing for the twilight, for twilight is neither day nor night, but in-between. We are all twilight people. We can never be fully labeled or defined. We are many identities and loves, many genders and none. We are in between roles, at the intersection of histories, or between place and place. We are crosscrossed paths of memory and destination, streaks of light swirled together. We are neither day nor night. We are both, neither, and all.

May the sacred in-between of this evening suspend our certainties, soften our judgments, and widen our vision. May this in-between light illuminate our way to the God who transcends all categories and definitions. May the in-between people who have come to pray be lifted up into this twilight. We cannot always define; we can always say a blessing. Blessed are You, God of all, who brings on the twilight.

We cannot always define; we can always say a blessing.

There are many gatherings in honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance going on around the country—click here to find one near you.