{"id":278037,"date":"2025-11-19T14:28:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T19:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/?p=278037"},"modified":"2025-11-19T16:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:28:09","slug":"what-is-trans-day-of-remembrance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/video\/what-is-trans-day-of-remembrance-278037","title":{"rendered":"What is Trans Day of Remembrance?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-article-kik\">Trans Day of Remembrance is a time to honour lost lives\u2014and a stark reminder of how much work there is to be done<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What is Trans Day of Remembrance? | Xtra Magazine\" width=\"540\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FDpUOFlD4L0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The first Trans Day of Remembrance was held on November 20, 1999, following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/the-trans-murder-that-started-a-movement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the murder of Rita Hester,<\/a> a 34-year-old Black trans woman from Boston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hester\u2019s friends and family were deeply unsatisfied with the media\u2019s coverage of her murder\u2014which, based on the police report, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masstpc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rita-Hesters-Murder-and-the-Language-of-Respect.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">misgendered and deadnamed her<\/a>. In response, trans activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith held the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/this-day-in-history\/november-20\/first-transgender-day-of-remembrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first Trans Day of Remembrance<\/a> in Boston and San Francisco on the first anniversary of Hester\u2019s murder.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, Nov. 20 serves as a day to remember the lives lost to transphobic violence. It\u2019s also a reminder that trans and gender nonconforming people are still being murdered <a href=\"https:\/\/williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu\/press\/ncvs-trans-press-release\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at higher rates than the U.S. national average,<\/a> with the majority of victims being Black trans women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end\">The Human Rights Campaign reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrc.org\/resources\/fatal-violence-against-the-transgender-and-gender-expansive-community-in-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">of the at least 32 trans and gender nonconforming people<\/a> who lost their lives to violence in 2024, 78 percent were people of colour and 56 percent were Black trans women. And 38 percent of those victims were misgendered or deadnamed by the police or media\u2014just like Hester was in 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trans Day of Remembrance is a time to honour lost lives\u2014and a stark reminder of how much work there is to be done<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1224,"featured_media":278039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"editorial_slug":"103","_editorial_slug":"103","exclude_from_latest_block":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,3,4,5],"contributors":[3053],"topic":[103,141,144],"clients":[],"series":[],"timeliness":[],"editorial_format":[2088],"type-of-work":[2584],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278037"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278048,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278037\/revisions\/278048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278037"},{"taxonomy":"contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributors?post=278037"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=278037"},{"taxonomy":"clients","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/clients?post=278037"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=278037"},{"taxonomy":"timeliness","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/timeliness?post=278037"},{"taxonomy":"editorial_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial_format?post=278037"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-work","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-work?post=278037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}