The City of West Hollywood and its Transgender Advisory Board along with the Unique Women’s Coalition will host a Transgender Day of Remembrance Ceremony featuring speakers and a reading of names to memorialize people who have been murdered as a result of anti-transgender violence. A march will take place immediately follow the ceremony. Transgender Day of Remembrance is part of the City of West Hollywood’s recognition of Transgender Awareness Month, which is recognized throughout the United States each November.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance event will begin at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 20, 2019 at The Center for Early Education, located at 563 N. Alfred Street. Attendance is free and open to the public. Limited parking will be available on-site at the Center for Early Education; validated overflow parking will be available at the West Hollywood Park five-story public parking structure, located at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard.

Throughout the month of November, a Transgender Pride Flag will be flown atop West Hollywood City Hall, located at 8300 Santa Monica Boulevard. On Transgender Day of Remembrance, the flags will be flown at half-staff in remembrance of people killed as a result of anti-transgender violence.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) tracks annual statistics of violence against the people in the transgender community. HRC has reported that, to date in 2019, there have been at least 22 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means in the United States. A disproportionately high number of victims are Black transgender women. This year’s report follows reports of 26 deaths in 2018; 29 deaths in 2017; and 23 deaths in 2016. According to HRC: “it is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color, and that the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and unchecked access to guns conspire to deprive them of employment, housing, healthcare, and other necessities, barriers that make them vulnerable.” This wave of violence has been declared an epidemic by the American Medical Association. Rates of actual violence or deaths may, in fact, be higher but anti-transgender violence can be difficult to accurately measure, as victims are sometimes misgendered in reports, which can delay awareness of deadly incidents.

The City of West Hollywood has been one of the most outspoken cities in the nation in advocating for the legal rights of LGBT people. More than 40 percent of residents in the City of West Hollywood identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The City of West Hollywood is one of the first municipalities to form a Transgender Advisory Board, which addresses matters of advocacy on behalf of transgender people in the areas of education, community awareness, and empowerment, and makes recommendations to the West Hollywood City Council. Through its Transgender Advisory Board, the City of West Hollywood regularly co-sponsors programming and recognizes Transgender Awareness Month and Transgender Day of Remembrance each November. For more information about the City of West Hollywood’s Transgender Awareness Month events, visit www.weho.org/tam.

As part of its support of the transgender community, the City of West Hollywood has a Transgender Resource Guide available on the City’s website, which provides information about a variety of resources including legal, health, and social services, available in the Greater Los Angeles area to enhance and improve the well-being of transgender people.

For more information, please contact Bonnie Smith at the City of West Hollywood at bsmith@weho.org or (323) 848-6371. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496. For up-to-date news and events, follow the City of West Hollywood on social media @WeHoCity and sign up for news updates at www.weho.org/email.