Years of oppression, discrimination and violence have targeted the transgender community worldwide leaving many to suffer to the extreme. Each year on November 20, thousands celebrate the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) to honor the lives lost to violent transphobia.

“People are lost, and this is our way of giving them the honor that they deserve,” Melanie Davis, TDOR organizer said. “Seeing these names and these faces…and seeing the people who have been taken from us in such senseless violence.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, in 2017 there were 29 transgender people killed from violence, some involving clear transphobic intentions while others are unknown. So far in 2018, the report says 24 transgender deaths have occurred.

Hosted by the Trans & Allies Support Community (TASC) in Bloomington, the event was celebrated on Friday, November 30 at Artisan Alley to allow students and faculty to attend who are not from the area. Community members gathered to hear the names of transgender individuals who lost their lives in the United States and worldwide. Melanie Davis, Bloomington TDoR organizer, read the names, ages, and place of death along with a photo of each individual. Attendees were silent with bowed heads as the names added up.

The national Transgender Day of Remembrance began in 1999 by transgender advocate, Gwen Smith , as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman killed in 1998. As a highly visible advocate of transgender rights, Hester was killed on November 28 after being stabbed 20 times in her apartment. Hester’s killer has still not been found. Cities across the world honor the lives lost since Hester’s death and the event has began a tradition of honor and remembrance.

“The 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

TDoR offers a list of names of all reported deaths of transgender individuals worldwide, adding up to 330 lives lost. They also provide a database of the names, ages, date and cause of death in order to understand the scope of the violence it says. The website also features a video created by people and organizations around the country participating in Transgender Awareness Week to help raise knowledge and visibility of the issues in the transgender community.

“Our society does not value women of color, and trans women of color just adds one more thing onto that,” Davis says the issue is almost unknown even though trans women of color are the most killed minority group globally.

The Bloomington TDoR event also offered time for people to tell their stories or express their emotions about the issue. The last portion of the evening was spent as a moment for community members to support each other followed by food and drinks.

“This is a time we come together for ourselves, and we invite the public in and really it’s also a chance for the public to see what’s going on,” Davis said. “If I can help people come to understand what transgender means, what our life is like. Then maybe it will help us come together.”

For more information about the Transgender Day of Remembrance visit the national organization’s website. For resources in the community for LGBTQ and support, visit the Bloomington Pride.