Today, Nov 20, is the 14th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

I want to remember someone that I have never met but hold a great deal of respect for:

Marsha P Johnson.

The "P" stood for "Pay It No Mind."

Marsha was a character. Marsha was crazy. Marsha lived outside of society. Marsha lived outside of gender norms. Marsha was a sex worker. And it is rumoured that Marsha was the first queen to throw stones/bricks/chairs at the Stonewall riots in 1969.

If you don't know Marsha, check out this video, where her friends tell stories about her.

Marsha is also the namesake of Antony Hegarty's band, The Johnsons.

So today, on this day, I think of Marsha, a person who walked and worked outside of the lines. I think of her as I listen to this song by Hegarty.

On this day, remember the people you know. Remember the people you knew. And remember the people you wish you could have known that are gone.

It's been amazing to see all the support that Pussy Riot has garnered since their arrest.

Canadian electro-punker Peaches got more than 400 people together to protest the group's trial, citing that she wanted PR to know that people support them. Madonna had the words "Pussy Riot" written on her back while in St Petersburg, saying, "I think that these three girls — Masha, Katya, Nadya — I think that they have done something courageous. I know that everyone in this auditorium, if you are here as my fan, feels they have the right to be free." An artist in Russia has sewn his mouth closed as a response to what he feels is the censorship of fellow artists.

- Meanwhile, over in the UK, a former aide to the mayor of London is found not guilty for owning what was originally deemed "extreme pornography." The videos featured images of fisting and sounding, acts that are legal in the UK, but their depiction, apparently, is not. The weirdest part of this case is how the testimony was tweeted by one of the lawyers. 

- The editors of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, a manual used in psychology and psychiatry, have decided to remove the term "gender identity disorder" from the book. Transgender activists state, "The label of mental defectiveness really places a burden on trans people to continually prove our competence in our affirmed roles.” 

- And, if you're looking for something a bit uplifting after all that, check out this video of Antony Hegarty performing "Blind" with Hercules & Love Affair, live, for the first time ever.

Antony Hegarty released a new single last week, entitled "Cut the World," a beautiful and haunting orchestral song. Today, Pitchfork posted the video for the single, which features Willem Dafoe and a cameo by the amazing Marina Abramovic. The song was written for an opera about the performance artist entitled The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic. Dafoe also appears in the opera. Hegarty is curating a festival in London next week, entitled Meltdown, which will feature performances by such musicians and performers as Laurie Anderson, CocoRosie, Hercules and Love Affair and Abramovic.

For those of us who couldn't make it to the opera last July, this single offers an insight into the piece.

What started as a performance/video installation/meditation on gender in 2004, soon became a tour of Europe and is now a documentary.

Turning is the love child of musician Antony Hegarty (Antony & The Johnsons) and filmmaker Charles Atlas. The documentary is more than just a concert film or a behind-the-scenes look into the creation of an artistic oeuvre.

The work in question was a series of performances by Hegarty wherein he would sing while Atlas filmed 13 "beauties" who stood on a revolving podium, the video feed beamed directly onto screens, leaving the audience with a live video portrait. The film also includes interviews with some of the beauties, such as Nomi, known from her work in Jessica 6 and Hercules & Love Affair.

My love of Antony knows no bounds, so to say that I am excited to see this film is putting it mildly.

That voice was Antony Hegarty's, performing "I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy." He asked, "Are you a boy or a girl?"

Here, gender didn't matter. The story, the truth and the voice mattered.

There were bits of Nina Simone and Jimmy Scott, Klaus Nomi and Lou Reed. The voice was glorious, otherworldly and spoke to me like very few voices ever have.

The more I learned about Antony, and the more I listened to his work, the more I fell in love. Here was someone who was unafraid to open himself in song, writing heartbreaking songs mingled with uplifting, almost spiritual tunes about love, rebirth and gender. Antony has spoken publicly about living outside of gender norms, in his dress, his performances, his songs and more. Who else could sing a song titled "For Today I Am a Boy," with lyrics such as "One day I will grow up and be a beautiful woman. One day I'll grow up and feel the power within me." Even the name of his band, "The Johnsons," is a reference to performer Marsha P Johnson. Antony challenges his audience to listen with intent and openness, often performing entire portions of his show in next to complete darkness, the light slowly but surely creeping in as the show goes on.

Hegarty is an accidental champion of sorts, speaking out on everything from environmentalism to finding beauty in the fringes. He has collaborated with everyone from Lou Reed, Björk, CocoRosie, Hercules & Love Affair, Boy George and Rufus Wainwright and has been a proponent and friend of mathematician/performance artist Julia Yasuda. He has even covered Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love," creating what is perhaps the most meta covers of all time.

Last weekend, Antony performed a show in New York at Radio City Music Hall entitled Swanlights. The performance was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art and was touted as “a meditation on light, nature and femininity.” A friend had the opportunity to see the show and described it as a "magical" experience. I would expect nothing less.

Hegarty is an artist for the 21st century, an antidote to the pap of pop, and is asking us to do something very few of us do anymore when it comes to music: to listen to each other intently.