Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual observance on November 20th that honours the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost as a result of anti-transgender violence.
It was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honour the memory of Rita Hester a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester’s death, and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice.”
– Transgender Day of Remembrance founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith
The below attachments (click the buttons below) contain the stories of Trans people who have been lost in the last year. The redacted version is better if you are not feeling in a good place to read the full details, however, none include any images of crime scenes from news reports etc. – the only images are of the faces of the individuals lost.
