A vigil will be hosted in both Pullman and Moscow for the Transgender Day of Remembrance at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20. The event will be held at Cougar Plaza in Pullman, and Friendship Square in Moscow.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is an internationally recognized day of opportunity for community members to come together and recognize the violence people in the transgender communities face.
The event was organized by five groups: Indivisible Palouse, Intersectional Advocacy Coalition, PFLAG Moscow and Latah County Community Rights.
This year, PFLAG spearheaded the event. The Argonaut asked the president of the group why there was a need for an event like this.
“This is a community that is constantly targeted. I feel like there is a lot of misinformation about what it means to be trans and their place in our community,” said PFLAG President Sara Thompson in an email interview with The Argonaut.
PFLAG Moscow is the local branch of the national organization which aims to support, educate and advocate for LGBTQ+ communities.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual observance that honors the memory of transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. It began in 1999 to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a black transgender woman who was killed in 1998.
The Human Rights Campaign has been tracking the number of transgender and gender-nonconforming people killed in the U.S. since January 2013. As of 2024, their count numbers 372, with more than 30 victims a year. The Human Rights Campaign reported that over 75% were people of color and half were black trans women.