(Photo Credits: MS Vector Art from Shutterstock)
Every November 20, we mark Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) — a solemn and powerful moment to honor transgender and gender-diverse people lost to violence. The observance began in 1999, founded by activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith to commemorate the murder of Rita Hester, a Black trans woman whose death shook the community and sparked a movement.
The purpose of TDOR is twofold: to memorialize those we’ve lost and to shed light on the ongoing epidemic of anti-trans violence. It’s not just a moment of mourning; it’s an urgent call for accountability, protection, and justice.
🏳️⚧️ TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE 🕯️
— LGBT Network (@NYLGBTNetwork) November 13, 2025
Each year on 11/20, we honor those taken by transphobic violence & stand in solidarity with the trans community.
✨ 2 TDOR events in Long Island & Queens.#TransDayOfRemembrance #TDOR #TransLivesMatter – https://t.co/kveCF4840F pic.twitter.com/dbMmdXMvb9
In 2025, the grief remains all too real. According to a report by Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE), 58 trans and gender-diverse people died this year — from violence, suicide, and other causes. Of those, 27 were victims of violence, while 21 died by suicide, and 8 passed away from natural causes. Among the violent deaths, 63% were Black trans women, highlighting the deeply disproportionate risks faced by marginalized subgroups within the community. For more information, read here.
Meanwhile, Bahari Thomas, Director of Public Education at Advocates for Trans Equality, said in a statement:
“As a national organization led by and for trans people, we carry both the responsibility and the honor of remembering those we’ve lost. As we observe Trans Day of Remembrance, we continue to do the work of advocacy and demand an end to violence against our community. Right-wing extremists are endangering our democracy and our very right to exist. Trans people—especially Black trans women—continue to bear the brunt of discriminatory policies, political scapegoating, and violence. These forces are interconnected and deadly. Trans people deserve more than remembrance; we deserve the chance to live full, joyful, and self-determined lives.”
Globally, the numbers are no less devastating. While reporting is imperfect and many deaths go unrecorded or misgendered, monitoring organizations continue to document hundreds of trans and gender-diverse people killed each year.
So why does TDOR matter today? First, remembering is a radical act. It insists that trans lives — especially trans women of color — are not invisible. It forces us to name their humanity, not just as victims, but as people: parents, artists, students, friends. A4TE said as much in their report, calling for “an end to violence against our community … every name represents a life that mattered.” See Bahari Thomas’s additional statement below:
“This report is not just a record of loss—it is a call to action. Every name represents a life that mattered. They were artists, dancers, writers, computer scientists, students, parents, friends, and much more. The work to end anti-trans violence begins with honoring the truth: that trans people deserve to be seen in their full humanity and live long, safe, and authentic lives.”
Second, remembering fosters accountability. TDOR isn’t just memorials and candlelight vigils; it’s political. It demands that we push for safer laws, better reporting and data collection, and more resources for mental health and crisis intervention.
As allies, here’s how we can honor the day and do more:
- Show up: Attend a candlelight vigil or online memorial if there’s one in your city or community.
- Listen and amplify: Read the names, learn their stories, and amplify organizations like A4TE, which lead advocacy and education.
- Take action: Support policies that protect trans rights — especially at the local, state, and federal level.
- Check in: Reach out to trans friends, coworkers, or community members. Ask how they’re doing, especially around this emotionally heavy date.
TDOR honors those we’ve lost, but it also asks us to commit to the living. Their legacies deserve more than remembrance: they demand change.
Yet, another yearly regurgitation of the same old tripe. Another rotation of the Earth around the Sun. A Total Eclipse would be most welcomed from this Anniversary Proclamations about the misfortunes of the very few by the evils of the very many!
The “community” never, ever voted on the inclusion of trans, q, i or a people in the community. This decision was made by organization boards, not even their members as far as I know. They do not have any mandate to represent the community. Even bi were never voted on for inclusion. In the gay liberation movement, bisexuals were deliberately excluded because they could easily live in the straight world. History is being falsified, like the false claims that it was all started by drag queens/trans whores, which is not true at all.
I recently overheard my young lesbian niece trying to explain the Stonewall Uprising to some friends. In her version the whole thing was a drag queen and Trans movement. I inserted myself into the conversation and told her that there may have been a few trans and drag queens in the club at the time but it definitely was not about them. My niece refused to believe that and just said I was “transphobic”. I just laughed and walked away.
people are getting dummer [intentional misspelling] and dummer…can’t tell left from right, up from down, or in from out anymore
It was, an uprising, rather than capitulating, an “African American” drag queen, was the first to throw a punch back at one of pigs, I say pigs, because they were just that; for being bullies who got their asses kicked.
Doesn’t anyone watch these things on the PBS Ch’s during Gay pride and the history?
But no, it was not about drag queens specifically, it was about gay people period.
I don’t wish harm on anyone, and feel bad that some are victims of violence, but do we have to single out every single group of people for a “Day of Remembrance”?
The tranny agenda has gone way too far. I recently read that the number of youths in school who are declaring themselves as trans has fallen greatly. I guess it was mainly just a fad. It’s no longer the “in” thing.
The LGB have to distance ourselves and disassociate from the TIQblah,blah,blah group.
Or, hear me out. They’ve been made absolutely terrified by a bunch of narrow-minded fucking bigots who are using them for political points and people like yourself who are transphobic and bigoted. You would think people in the gay community would be more understanding of the struggles, but I find just as many transphobes and scumbags here as I find anywhere else.
That’s total b.s. Anyone who doesn’t believe their lies and claptrap is labeled “transphobic,” which is totally inappropriate. A phobia is a fear. Trans has no relevance to gay. Trans have gender dysphoria, a mental disorder. It is not their emotional/sexual orientation at all. It’s all appearances. They are deluded. They think they are something they are not, and cannot know what it is to be the other they want to be. Some of us are old enough to remember when they kept such things to themselves. Do we have to accommodate the delusions of Schizophrenics and Psychotics? NO. It… Read more »
You sound like a truly awful example of humanity….
You just can’t handle the truth like most “liberals.”
Everything that you have written here about trans people having a psychological affliction has been said about gays. In fact, many people still believe that. It is sad when gays have gotten so comfortable that they forget what it was like when they were, in fact, considered freaks of society. If we don’t have compassion for others who don’t fit into society, we will find ourselves put back in the closet. Pay attention, gays are not accepted. That is still a mirage. Gays are tolerated, mostly. When we get to a place in society where being gay truly doesn’t matter… Read more »
And, because of the backlash of their excessive demands, and the excessive and offensive behavior of “drag queens,” we could still lose our hard-won equal rights.
Bullshit. Utter total fucking bullshit from you. Just keep trying to convince yourself. You’re not a hate-filled person who is doing to other people exactly what so many straight people did to you. And it’s repulsive
No, you’re the one hating everyone who doesn’t agree with you. And by the way, straight people do rule the world.
They’re NOT going to “rule” it alone baby, hell no!
Thank you. Since I don’t like seeing fat bearded ladies strutting there stuff, I’m a bigot. So be it, and your Alex are a fucking tool with his balls in a jar
This is a gay site, as far as I’m concerned, and “transgender” has absolutely nothing to do with being gay! I refuse any association between the two.
“honestly I’m very grateful that I got involved in queer community organizing basically as soon as I turned 18, because that’s how I was exposed to other queer people saying things like “I just wouldn’t trust a bisexual” and “I don’t believe in that privilege stuff” and “I don’t like when people act like you have to be a feminist if you’re gay,” all of which taught me at a very young age the crucial truth that queer people can be very stupid and very wrong.
Same thing with gay men being transphobic
Any gay who calls anyone “queer” is toxic, using hate speech, totally brainwashed and indoctrinated into all kinds of false beliefs. Learn from your elders, idiot child.
Queer is a term that used to be a derogatory term for gays, which was later reclaimed and empowered by the sexual and gender diverse community. For a lot of old gays, this is still a toxic word, very much like how young black people try to reclaim the “N” word. If you experienced the negative history behind the word, queer, it is never going to be accepted. But many use it. It would be nice if there were a better word to describe the diverse sexual community.
I, for one hear what you’re sayin’. It reminds me of a commercial with a woman who was disabled, she said “the only problem the disabled have, is your attitude about our disablement.” I’m not sayin’ they’re disabled; what I’m sayin’ is, I just don’t know what the answer is, but the reactions/extreme disdain, is not working for these human beings. I know there’s a decent way though.
The LGB needs to disassociate with the rest of that insanity
I’m pretty shocked. Whether trans men or women, gender queer, these people are part of our community and terribly vulnerable. Many are beaten as gay men were and still are. They’re shunned because people don’t take the time to understand them and their differing needs. I’m a man and need dick. These are people that aren’t the gender that their chromosomes dictated. Many become depressed, and some kill themselves because society can’t adapt to them. They need love, as we all do.
The disenfranchisement is more of the disproportionate Media Coverage and its disruptions than the disownments that Transsexuals are not Humans and Part of the Gay Community. The Media exposes the extremes –
of Transsexualism – instead of the day to day realities of living as a Transsexual. This, I believe, is the core of discontentment that we gay men have with it?
People and society have their own lives to live, issues to face, and challenges to overcome. They reject being told to understand and adapt to the needs of a small, but loud and intrusive, segment of society. These frictions are compounded when too many Trans individuals present themselves in public garishly-dressed with excessive makeup, high hair, and disruptive attention-grabbing behaviors.
You lost me when you said, “I’m a man who needs dick” What in the world does that have to do with trans being marginalized??? Just totally ruining an otherwise sympathetic diatribe…
How about GLB without the T. Remember when the G used to cum first in the acronym? #TheGoodOldDaze
Provincetown in 1982 when I first turned 18! Truly, TheGoodOldDaze”!
Okay, so this is an organization that chooses to show solidarity by remembering 248 people, worldwide, who were the victims of violence and killed because of their sexual ideology. I would think their efforts would be better spent on getting professional help for their followers as they have an astronomically high suicide and attempted suicide rate. Many more lose their lives to their own hands as opposed to being the victims of violence.
Perhaps it’s time for some definitions: Transgender This is an all-inclusive term used by people who feel their assigned sex does not match up to their gender identity, behavior, expression, or general sense of self, including non-binary individuals. Transgender and transsexual should not be used interchangeably, since they do not mean the same. While transsexual people transition from one sex to the other, transgender people only associate with their identity. Transsexual This term is used to refer to individuals who refuse to accept the gender they were assigned at birth and even take medical steps to change different aspects of… Read more »
You mean they don’t get a freakin’ month!
Gay people ‘almost’ period, seem to be as thoughtless about others in their immediate communities, sharing/under the same burden/s of hate as gay men/others, but separating themselves in this regard is just ill-fated stupidity, as we’ve seen “divide and conquer.” It’s just that I can, separate myself/sexual orientation/masculine-maleness, from my quest of dick/ass, to see the bigger pic facing us all. Those of us, that are not the sexually traditional hetero. I don’t know any/not sexually drawn to drag queens or trans, but they too, are fighting for freedoms to simply exist freely to be themselves. However, within our communities,… Read more »