November 13 2024

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) is observed annually on November 20. The commemorative day began as a vigil for Rita Hester, a 34-year-old Black transgender woman, who was murdered in 1998. Since the initial 1999 vigil, TDoR has grown into a day of remembrance for all the transgender people who have been murdered, and a day of action to raise public awareness of hate crimes against transgender and gender-diverse people.

In their annual Trans Murder Monitoring 2023 Global Update, TGEU (Trans Europe and Central Asia) stated there were 321 reported murders of transgender and gender diverse people between 1 October 2022 and 30 September 2023.

94% of victims were transgender women or trans feminine people. Transgender people affected by racism make up 80% of the reported murders, a 15% increase from the 2022 data. The data continues to indicate concerning trends when it comes to the intersections of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and whorephobia (the fear, stigmatization and/or hatred of sex workers).

As we mourn the lives lost around the world to anti-transgender violence, we must also remain vigilant to legislation and movements that attempts to undermine the rights of transgender people in Canada. Transgender people, particularly transgender people who are Black, Indigenous, or a person of colour, face some of the highest rates of violent crime in Canada.

In the 2015 report, BEING SAFE, BEING ME: Results of the Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey, 70% of participants reported experiencing sexual harassment and 65% reported being discriminated against due to their gender identity. Of the high school aged participants, 36% reported they had been physically threatened or injured in the past year and 9% had been threatened or injured with a weapon.

Legislation and policies that forcibly out transgender children to their parents, that restrict access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy, that require ministry approval of all teaching material on sexuality and gender, and that force athletes to play in sports leagues that don’t match their gender contribute to a climate of fear and stigmatization of transgender people. We cannot allow faulty science, misinformation, and hatred of transgender people to erode the hard-won rights of transgender people in Canada.