Transgender Day of Remembrance is November 20
November 18, 2021
On November 20 of every year, we honour the memory of transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) for many in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community is a day of mourning and a celebration of the lives that have been lost.
TDOR is held in November to honour Rita Hester, a Black transgender woman who was born on November 30, 1963, and brutally murdered in Allston, Massachusetts, on November 28, 1998.
Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded the first Transgender Day of Remembrance. “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.” – TDOR founder, Gwendolyn Ann Smith. Today, TDOR is held worldwide.
At the Upper Grand District School Board, we stand with transgender communities and support the right to live in a society free from anti-transgender bigotry and violence. See below for references and events:
- GLAAD
- Canadian Mental Health Association
- Rainbow Health Ontario
- Egale
- Egale: Trans Awareness Week & Trans Day of Remembrance
- It Gets Better
Events: