LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — International Transgender Day of Remembrance is Monday, Nov. 20. It’s a day set aside to remember those who died because of anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.
Advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith started TDOR in 1999 to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice,” founder Gwendolyn Smith said.
Mid-Michigan communities observing International Transgender Day of Remembrance include East Lansing and Jackson. An event on Michigan State University’s campus will take place at 6:30 p.m., with doors opening at 6 p.m. The community in-person event takes place in the Life Sciences Building Room A-133, at 1355 Bogue in East Lansing.
To attend online, register for the webinar at this link.
In Jackson, the city will raise the pride flag at Horace Blackman Park, 212 W. Michigan Avenue, at 4 p.m. There will be a reading of the names of transgender people from Michigan who have died from violence in the past day.
