To mark the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR)on Saturday, Nov. 20some Chicago groups will hold events:
Brave Space Alliance (BSA), Life is Work, Lighthouse Foundation, Christian Community Health Center, the Human Rights Campaign and Healthy Chicago will hold a town hall, community lunch and memorial at Room 43, 1039-41 E. 43rd St., at 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
BSA Director of Communications Jae Rice will facilitate the town hall.
See www.bravespacealliance.org/ and www.eventbrite.com/e/transgender-day-of-remembrance-town-hall-vigil-and-lunch-tickets-207552835117.
The University of Chicago's Center for Identity + Inclusion will hold a virtual vigil at 5 p.m. The center's website stated, "Join us in remembering and honoring the 34 trans and gender non-conforming individuals who lost their lives to transphobic violence in 2020, as well as all the TGNC community members we have lost this year. There will be words of remembrance, as well as a moment of silence and time for community testimonials." Candles will be mailed to participants, should they want to provide their addresses.
RSVP at ucinclusion.wufoo.com/forms/transgender-day-of-remembrance-virtual-vigil/ to receive a Zoom link.
Also, in Springfield (at 413 E. Adams St.), Phoenix Center will hold its seventh annual TDOR event at 5 p.m.. This year's event will be outside and will feature various speakers and the reading of names of those who died in the last year due to transphobia and hate. This will be followed by a short memorial walk (weather permitting). See www.phoenixcenterspringfield.org/ .
On the Transgender Day of Remembrance, through mourning, reflection and activation, people name and remember all the trans people who were murdered during the year around the globe. Transgender Day of Remembrance is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on Nov. 28, 1998, launched the "Remembering Our Dead" web project and a San Francisco vigil the following year, according to the Human Rights Campaign.