Transgender Day of Remembrance: We Are Not Ashamed of Who We Are

The Transgender Day of Remembrance, commemorated each year on November 20th, honors the lives and memory of transgender people murdered in acts of anti-transgender violence from the previous year.

According to GLAAD, the Transgender Day of Remembrance was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender black woman who was brutally murdered in her apartment. It is now an annual event to highlight that those lost are more than just a statistic, give them a face, and share their story. The event also highlights current dangers faced by the transgender community, especially as transgender stories, history, and rights are being erased and repealed in America.?

“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

On today’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, Cloudburst challenges you to attend a local vigil and learn about those local lives lost to make sure these individuals are remembered and their loss isn’t ignored. You can also learn about others lost by reading GLAAD’s list of those lost to violence from 2017-2022, the National Center for Transgender Equality’s 2022 Remembrance Report, or The Advocate’s article on those lost to transgender violence in the first half of 2023. Tomorrow and every day, Cloudburst challenges you to honor those murdered by educating yourself about the violence the transgender community faces, the struggles to maintain basic human rights and protections, and ways you and your community can ensure transgender people are safe and accepted.

We here at Cloudburst work toward improving the health, housing, and safety of transgender people by helping unearth root causes and structural and institutional barriers to help communities and governments address challenges for marginalized people. We look for opportunities and investments that can best meet needs or drive changes where innovation can advance the social and economic resilience of transgender people. You can review some of Cloudburst’s previous work supporting transgender people and communities in our LGBTQIA+ Equity Actions Checklist or our Supporting and Housing Transgender and GNC People In Your HOPWA Program national webinar. You can also reach out to Cloudburst if you need assistance making your community, workplace, or program safer and more protective of transgender people.

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????????“We have to be visible. We are not ashamed of who we are.” — Sylvia Rivera