Elon to celebrate Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience

Transgender Day of Visibility is an annual observance that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.

Elon University will host its annual vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 4 p.m. in the Numen Lumen Sacred Space. During the vigil, names will be read of trans people who were killed this year as a result of anti-trans violence. This time and space allow for individuals to reflect on their collective responsibility to reduce anti-trans violence. 

“The event provides space for processing and being in community with one another,” said Kate Campbell, graduate apprentice for the Gender & LGBTQIA Center.  

Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience 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. Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience now serves to honor the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost. This international initiative, held on Nov. 20 each year, memorializes transgender, genderqueer and nonbinary people who have been killed due to anti-transgender violence.  

Elon first celebrated Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience in November 2011. There was a vigil held in front of Moseley Center where remarks were read and statistics on the national rate of suicide attempts in the transgendered community.   

Past Elon events, through The Gender & LGBTQIA Center (GLC), have included reading of names, an educational panel on trans lives (with Elon alumni and Greensboro’s Triad Gender Association) and illuminating administrative buildings in blue, pink and white, the colors of the transgender flag.