Today is the 9th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. It’s purpose is to honor and remember those people who have lost their lives due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. We live during a very complicated time, which seems more sensitive than ever to hatred based violence. Yet even now, the deaths of those people who have lost their lives because of anti-transgender hatred or prejudice, are largely ignored by the general public, and even by the gay community. In the last ten years, at least one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice, with no sign of this trend slowing.
Today raises the public’s awareness of hate crimes against transgendered people, and it publicly honors the lives of those who might otherwise be forgotten. Day of Remembrance gives the allies of transgender people the opportunity to stand in vigil, memorializing those who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.