For a group only representing a small percentage of the population, one day each year to honor and mourn our dead might seem pointless. Beginning with a website meant to educate the trans community and inform the cisgender world, the holiday and the list were born of necessity. 

This is the 25th year of Trans Day of Remembrance. In that time, 759 names have been listed among the lost in the United States, with 580 victims of violence. Not everyone was trans; cis men, little children and even an intersex infant have fallen, though trans people make up the majority. The reasons for the loss include fear, misinformation, bigotry and shame. 

More than just education and community, remembrance brings public attention to the issue of transphobic violence. We don’t mourn in private places, nor should we; we’re people, as valid in our public lives as our private ones. 

Cisgender friends, lovers and family gather with us to hear the names of that year’s loss. We implore the wider cis world to help us solve the issues contributing to our deaths. Trans dying is not new, but we will no longer do so quietly for the comfort of those who don’t approve. 

Unlike any other minority in the world, LGBTQIA+ people cannot be ‘wiped out;’ we are born into families of every persuasion. What abuses the community faces in the future will be in part due to public indifference to our harm. Forget how people could ‘raise their kids differently;’ the next generation to be harmed will be born to some of you reading this. 

Not speaking out now, when it’s vital, ensures that future Trans Days of Remembrance will have a lot more names to read off – even if there’s none of us there to do it. 

Christy-Lynne Lapine