On Friday, November 15, 2024, at 6:00PM, the City of West Hollywood will host an in-person Transgender Day of Remembrance Ceremony at the City’s Council Chambers/Public Meeting Room, located at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard. The event will also be live streamed at www.youtube.com/wehotv if you cannot attend in-person. 

The event will have a small reception with light snacks and soft drinks at 6PM. At 6:30PM, the ceremony will begin. 

The Ceremony will be hosted by Sabel Samone-Loreca of the Minority AIDS Project, and will feature speakers Mallery Jenna Robinson, and musical performances by the Trans Chorus of LA and Sunkee Angel. The Ceremony will also feature a reading of names to memorialize people who have been murdered because of anti-transgender violence.

Transgender Day of Remembrance is part of the City’s annual recognition of Transgender Awareness Month, recognized throughout the United States each November. Transgender Day of Remembrance is an opportunity to look forward to the future and recommit to ending discrimination and transphobia by amplifying the visibility and voices of the transgender community. 

This event is free, and will also be livestreamed at www.youtube.com/wehotv if you can’t make it in person! 

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 vigil commemorates transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester’s death and has become an important annual tradition.