Candlelight Vigil Set for Nov. 20

Women’s Resource Center is hosting a Transgender Day of Remembrance: Candlelight Vigil at 6 p.m. Nov. 20 on the Kirk Memorial stairs. Tabling for the event will take place from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Nov. 13, 18 and 19 at the Student Union Building.

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on Nov. 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. TDOR was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Hester’s death, and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The candlelight vigil allows Truman students to participate to honor all those transgender people whose lives were lost to anti-transgender violence that year, and learn about the violence affecting the transgender community. Transgender Awareness Week takes place the week before Transgender Day of Remembrance and brings attention to the transgender community. Transgender people and their allies educate about who transgender people are, share their stories, and advocate about issues of prejudice, discrimination and violence that affect the transgender community.