Join the New York Transgender Advocacy Group (NYTAG) & Gays Against Guns (GAG) and allies, as they come together to honor the Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, & Non-binary folx lost to violence this year.
The gathering begins by the fountain at The Christopher Street Pier on Wednesday, November 20th at 6:00 pm. At 7:00 pm, attendees will hold a candlelight vigil and march to The Stonewall Monument at Christopher Park. Later that night, The Stonewall Inn will host a special edition of their monthly variety show FREAK OUT with an all trans cast of live musicians, poets, performance artists and entertainers. Learn more about upcoming events for Transgender Awareness Week at Stonewall here.
RSVP to the TDOR event on Facebook here
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith in 1999, as a vigil to honor Rita Hester, a transgender woman murdered the year before in Massachusetts.
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20th that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. Additionally, during the week before TDOR, people and organizations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week to help raise visibility for transgender people and address issues the community faces.
From Human Rights Campaign’s Violence Against the Transgender Community:
In 2018, advocates tracked at least 26 deaths of transgender or gender non-conforming people in the U.S. due to fatal violence, the majority of whom were Black transgender women. These victims were killed by acquaintances, partners, and strangers, some of whom have been arrested and charged, while others have yet to be identified. Some of these cases involve clear anti-transgender bias. In others, the victim’s transgender status may have put them at risk in other ways, such as forcing them into unemployment, poverty, homelessness and/or survival sex work. Read more…
“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
Check out this video from Transgender Europe
If interested in helping to spread the word about the event, please save and share the promotional flyer below
