What to Know About Transgender Day of Remembrance and Violence Against Trans People

Wednesday is Transgender Day of Remembrance, which focuses on trans people who have lost ir lives because of violence. Here is what to know.

What is Transgender Day of Remembrance?

Transgender Day of Remembrance is marked every Nov. 20 and began in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in Massachusetts.

day marks end of Transgender Awareness Week, which is used to raise public knowledge about transgender community and issues y face.

Williams Institute at UCLA Law estimates re are more than a million and a half transgender people in U.S. ages 13 and older. And it says transgender people are over four times more likely than ors to be victims of violence.

Candlelight vigils, memorials and or events are held to mark day. Human Rights Campaign also released its annual report on deaths of transgender people in conjunction with day.

International Transgender Day of Visibility, which is designed to bring attention to transgender people, is commemorated in March.

How many transgender people have lost ir lives to violence?

At least 36 transgender people have died from violence in past 12 months since last Day of Remembrance, Human Rights Campaign said in its annual report. Since 2013, organization has recorded deaths from violence of 372 victims who were transgender and gender-expansive — which refers to someone with a more flexible range of gender identity or expression than typically associated with binary gender system.

number of victims is likely higher because many deaths often aren't reported or are misreported, or misgendering of victims les to delays in ir identification.

Human Rights Campaign said re was a slight increase from previous year, when it identified at least 33 transgender victims of violence.

A large number of victims tracked over past year were young or people of color, with Black transgender women making up half of 36 identified. youngest victim identified was 14-year-old Pauly Likens of Pennsylvania.

Two-thirds of fatalities involved a firearm, organization said. Nearly a third of victims with a known killer were killed by an intimate partner, a friend or a family member.

What is at stake politically?

This year’s remembrance follows an election where vocates say victories by President-elect Donald Trump and or Republican candidates who focused on issues like transgender athletes dealt a setback to trans people’s rights.

It also follows a wave of measures enacted in Republican states this year restricting rights of transgender people, especially youth.

Half states have banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next month in a lawsuit challenging Tennessee's ban.

vocates say legislation and rhetoric is creating fewer safe spaces for transgender people, and y worry it could spur more violence against trans people.