Transgender Day of Remembrance 2008
The Transgender Day of Remembrance is held around the 20th of November every year, to commemorate all those who have been killed as a result of anti-trans hatred.
See the invitation
The Day of Remembrance banner
The ceremony
Transgender Day of Remembrance 2008
Over 50 people attended this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance held on Sunday 23rd November at Dragon Hall near Covent Garden. People of all ages came to celebrate and to mourn the lives of trans-people lost to violence and we were particularly pleased to welcome over 10 young people to the event.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, sent a letter of support which was read out at the start of the event, followed by a number of readings, poems and short speeches. We were also privileged to have music from Paula who played and sang two beautiful songs for the gathering.
New names on the ribbon
As in previous years, the core of the event was the reading of the names of trans people who had died violently in the last 12 months and the lighting of a candle for each. This year there were 26 new names, some added to the list only days before the event, extending the overall ribbon listing all those known to have died in the last 10 years to over 400. Recognising that these 26 were only the ones that we knew about, we also lit a candle for those unknown trans people who lost their lives in the last year. The candles surrounded a beautiful bouquet of flowers which had been sent to the event, complementing the amazing and vibrant Day of Remembrance backdrop banner.
Afterwards, most people stayed for tea and cake (two fabulous cakes made especially for the occasion by Janet) then around twenty of us moved on to the nearby First Out café to complete the afternoon.
The ribbon hangs around the room
A collection at the event raised £30 for Press for Change.
We are particularly grateful to Camden LGBT Forum and Camden Council whose help was much appreciated and whose support enabled us to cover the costs of the occasion.
Joe, Erasmo and Simon
Aurora used the same list of names of trans people who had been murdered from November 2007 to November 2008, and displayed them at the International Day Against Homophobia in 2009.
