November is Transgender Awareness Month

Several events are planned as part of Transgender Awareness Month in Utah. Transgender advocate Dallas Rivas says that over 400 lives were lost worldwide to violence so far in 2021.

Project Rainbow will again hold a memorial starting November 13th at the Salt Lake City County Building. Flags with the names of victims of violence will be displayed on the State Street side of the building. Candles will be lit at 6pm November 20th in memory of the lives lost.

Transgender Education Advocates of Utah is hosting a Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Utah State Capitol on Saturday, Nov. 20 from 2 to 4 p.m. They will participate in the annual reading of the names of transgender people who were lost to violence and memorialize the lives they’ve lived.

The event will be live-streamed. Details to be announced.

Masks are required for those not vaccinated and recommended for those that

are. Inside space will require masks for all unless the person is eating or drinking. A reception will follow. Transgender Day of Remembrance 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 Rita Hester’s death, and began an important tradition that has become the annual 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,” said Smith.