Trans Day of Remembrance Live Stream

November 13-19th is Transgender Awareness Week, culminating in Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on Friday, November 20. Unfortunately, 2020 has been the deadliest year on record for transgender Americans. As of October 25, 34 trans American’s were victims of fatal violence.

This violence disproportionately affects trans women; of the 34 killed this year, two were male. This violence also affects people of color more often than not. The Trevor Project reports that 25 percent of Black transgender and nonbinary youth reported that they had been physically threatened or harmed in their lifetime due to their gender identity.

Black transgender and nonbinary youth reported twice the rate of police victimization (6 percent) compared to cisgender Black LGBQ youth (3 percent). Black LGBTQ youth who were involved with police victimization due to their LGBTQ identity reported rates of suicide attempts (32 percent) that were nearly double that of youth who were not (17 percent). Among Latinx LGBTQ youth, those who are transgender or nonbinary were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide.

In honor of those we’ve lost this year, the Denver Chapter of Transgender Day of Remembrance will be hosting a live stream, on Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. MST. The stream will feature speakers and advocates from within the trans community to discuss the issues and hardships transgender Americans continue to face daily.

“The Trans Day of Remembrance is important for us to honor the lives lost to violence. With everything going on in 2020, the members of the Denver Transgender Day of Remembrance committee wanted to make sure this day, and these lives, did not pass unnoticed.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to honor those who have passed and to the community members who have made this event possible. We hope someday soon we can see an end to the violence which takes the lives of so many amazing and wonderful people.” Sable Schultz, Manager of Transgender Services at the Center on Folfax told OUT FRONT.

Maya Rothlien, who also sits on the Denver TDOR committee provided the following statement,

“Being able to bring Trans Day of Remembrance to our community is such an important part of our lives. With 2020 bringing some of the highest aggression towards people in my community I feel the stories of those we have lost are important. We need to remember those who have lost their lives to unnecessary violence.

“Our community is strong and resilient and we need to be here for each other more than ever. This makes this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance so important with so many of us feeling isolated due to Covid we need to be able to feel like there’s a sense of community out there for us more than ever.”