United Front’s Trans Justice Campaign is hosting an event to observe the Trans Day of Remembrance at 6 pm today with “food, an altar, and space to grieve and come together.”

Event organizers say, “We are remembering those we have lost to anti-trans violence and prejudice from November 20th, 2017 to November 19th, 2018. Anti-trans violence is an ongoing and increasing problem here and around the world.”

According to the TDOR website, “The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998, kicked off the ‘Remembering Our Dead’ web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.”

The TDOR pages attempt to list all those who were lost to anti-trans violence over the past year, saying, “Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgender — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgender people.”

At the Eugene event United Front organizers say on their event post:

“The Trump administration pushing anti-trans policies has emboldened transphobic bigots. This is an important time to come together as a community. We will particularly be centering amab (assigned male at birth) trans people of color and indigenous two spirit people, as they are violently targeted disproportionately. We also acknowledge that we are on Kalapuya land. It is white European colonization that brought transphobia to this land, and the gender and sexual oppression that indigenous people now face is a result of colonization. Decolonization is essential in fighting transphobic violence. Our fight for justice and freedom can never be complete without intersectionality and decolonization.”

United Front adds that they will have ASL interpreters and Spanish interpreters, childcare and crisis counselors available. Bathrooms will be made gender neutral and organizers  “ask that people refrain from wearing perfumes and colognes to allow people with medical sensitivities to attend.” The location is wheelchair accessible.

Trans Day of Remembrance 2018, hosted by United Front: Families Resisting & Organizing Nonviolently Together, is 6 pm, Nov. 20, at The Atrium Building, 99 W. Tenth Avenue. The Facebook event page is here. 

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