Gender Diversity Awareness Week starts now!

With International Transgender Day of Remembrance coming up Thursday, Nov. 20, several local orgs and businesses (ASUO Women’s Center, LCC Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Eugene Office of Equity and Human Rights, UO LGBTESSP, The Redoux Parlour, Community Alliance of Lane County, and Lane Independent Living Alliance) have teamed up to celebrate with Gender Diversity Awareness Week.

The kick-off event is a panel, “Insight Into Self,” about the “journal of self-discovery and what it means to live beyond the gender binary,” from 6:30 to 8:30 pm tonight at Lane Independent Living (LILA), 990 Oak St.

Another panel on the transition of gender identity will be at LILA at the same time Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, the UO will screen the documentary American Transgender 6:30 to 8:30 pm, followed by a discussion, in 185 Lillis Hall.

Thursday, Nov. 20, is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, which was started to memorialize Rita Hester, a transgender African-American woman who was murdered in her apartment in November 1998 — the murder remains unsolved. According to the Trans* Violence Tracking Portal, transgender people are “400 times more likely to be assaulted or murdered than the rest of the population.” A vigil will be held in honor of International Transgender Day of Remembrance 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Atrium Building, 99 W. 10 Ave.

Find out more about Gender Diversity Awareness Week in our Nov. 20 issue and at the Facebook event page.