Today: 9th Annual Transgender Day Of Remembrance

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgendered — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgendered people.

Tonight there will be a candlelight vigil and march. Staging begins at the NYC LGBT Community Center at 6pm. A few blocks away, there will be another rally tonight at 6pm at Sheridan Square on Christopher Street. Across the street at the Stonewall Inn, the HRC is coincidentally staging a networking party where transgender activists intend to protest HRC's recent tactics in supporting a trans-less ENDA. This week the New York Blade published an editorial calling for the resignation of HRC head Joe Solmonese.
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