HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Holland’s second Transgender Day of Remembrance is set for 7-8 p.m. today, Nov. 20,2019, at Herrick District Library, 300 S. River Ave., in Holland.
The event honors the lives of those lost to anti-transgender violence in 2019, and offers public education for those who want to understand what a transgender person faces in daily living.
The 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 Human Rights Campaign documented the murders of 26 transgender or gender diverse people in 2018.
So far this year, according to the campaign, at least 21 transgender people have been fatally shot, or killed by other violent means, in anti-transgender discrimination cases.
Gender S.A.F.E. (Supporting All For Equality) is sponsoring Holland’s Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil which will include education for anyone who wants to understand how transgender people’s lives are made vulnerable when discrimation causes them to lose housing, jobs and health insurance, among other needs.
