Trans Remembrance Day, the French version of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), takes place on November 20 around the world, to commemorate the memory of trans people murdered for transphobic motives, i.e. hatred of trans people, and to draw attention to the violence suffered by trans communities. Trans Memorial Day is held on November 20 each year in honor of Rita Hester, who was killed on November 28, 1998, in Allston, Massachusetts, in a transphobic hate crime. It was founded in 1998 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, a graphic designer, columnist and trans activist.

It was, initially in 1999, a project organized to fight against racism by the international Transgender Day of Remembrance which organized an all-night candlelight vigil in San Francisco. Then the project gradually evolved into an international day of action.

The objectives :

They are of two orders. First of all, the general objectives of this day :

1. commemorate all those who have been victims of hate crimes and prejudice.

2. raise awareness of hate crimes against the trans community,

3. pay tribute to all those who have died, whether they were murdered, committed suicide or died naturally, as well as to their loved ones.

But there are also political objectives :

If this day marks the solidarity of the LGBT community with regard to the victims and testifies to its indignation, it also wants to recall that transphobia is not recognized as discrimination or aggravating circumstance for crimes by the State.

As a result, no official statistics are available. In 2020, 388 cases of murdered trans people were recorded by trans associations. This represents 16 more victims than in 2019. But the deadliest year was 2018 during which the trans community had to count 422 victims, or 63 more victims than in 2017. These numbers do not do not represent the reality since counting is carried out locally by a small number of organizations and in few countries. In addition, most crimes remain ignored since the transphobic character is not retained by the authorities. The TDoR has become the culmination of a whole week of action, the “Transgender Awareness Week” during which various events are organized in honor of transgender people. This ranges from a TDoR Memorial during which all the names of the victims of the year are read but can include other actions, such as candlelight vigils, art exhibitions, food drives, screenings films and marches.

Webcomics Transgender Day of Remembrance

The Transgender Day of Remembrance Webcomics Project is an online event created by Jenn Dolari and Erin Lindsey for Transgender Day of Remembrance: creators of various online comics draw a page dedicated to the November 20th anniversary.

Originally, the project was a comedy crossover between Venus Envy and Closetspace for Remembrance Day Six (2004), but participation grew to include nine comics in total in the first year. The event has continued to run ever since: a permanent gallery of pages is hosted on Jenn Dolari's website.

International celebration :

In 2010, the TDoR was monitored in 185 cities in more than 20 countries.

But the nation that has done the most for this day is Canada. (As usual I should say!).

On December 12, 2017, the Canadian province of Ontario unanimously passed the Trans Day of Remembrance Act of December 12, 2017 recognizing TDoR and requiring the Legislative Assembly to hold a moment of silence annually on November 20. The Legislative Building flies the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag in the province of Saskatchewan in 2015, followed by Ontario in 2016, Alberta in 2018, and British Columbia in 2019. A long minute of silence is observed by a hundred people.

As soon as our association is officially recognised, each year on November 20, we will ask each town and municipality in the Walloon Region to display the transgender pride flag on the facade of their town hall and town hall. And if we come across truly transfriendly administrations, we will ask them to fly this flag throughout the week of November 13 to 20, ie throughout the week of awareness of the realities of life for transgender people.