Celebrating the resilience and power of trans and gender-expansive people.
Trans Day of Remembrance: Wednesday, Nov 19, 2025
Transgender Awareness Week & Transgender Day of Remembrance
Transgender Awareness Week, observed from November 13th to November 19th is an annual, one-week celebration leading up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th.
Transgender Awareness Week: A week that celebrates the reslience and power of transgender people. It brings attention to the community by educating the public about transgender and gender-expansive people through storytelling and actions to advance advocacy around the issues of predudice, discrimination, and violence impacting the transgender community.
Transgender Day of Rememberance: ‘‘Transgender Day of Rememberance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence…[w]ith so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are rememebred, and that we continye to fight for justice.’’ - Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded Transgender day of Rememberance (TDOR) as a vigil to honor her memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigiI commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence that year ands began an annual observance that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
2022 Transgender Day of Remembrance Event
2022 Transgender Day of Remembrance VigilIn November 2022, Caribbean Equality Project, in partnership with The Blasian March, proudly presented “Transgender Day of Remembrance: Centering Trans Joy, Resilience, and Power” at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center- Crown Heights. Community members joined us for an afternoon of storytelling and performances to honor trans community members lost to transphobic violence and to celebrate the trans lives around us. Our observance of Transgender Day of Remembrance centered the joys, achievements, and contributions of trans people to the fabric of our community and collective liberation movement.
“Today and every day, we remember all our transgender and non-binary siblings taken from us due to transphobia, police brutality, gun violence, suicide, and systemic oppression. The list of trans futures, talent, beauty, and possibilities robbed continues to grow longer and longer with no end in sight. The violence and deaths must be stopped; we deserve to live and thrive. This Trans Day of Remembrance, we unite in unity to celebrate our love, strength, resilience, and power,” said Tiffany Jade Munroe, Caribbean Equality Project’s Trans Justice Unit Coordinator.
The event honored the work of pioneering Puerto Rican Trans Icon Victoria Cruz, an advocate and retired Intimate Partner Violence, Counselor. In 2022, Cruz made history as the first transgender Grand Marshal of the annual West Indian American Day Parade. The program featured inspirational affirmations by Black and Brown trans and nonbinary community leaders and performance art to pay tribute to those lost to anti-transgender violence.
Brandy Rodriguez Memorial
2021 Transgender Day of Remembrance VigilIn November 2021 Caribbean Equality Project mourned the loss of Brandy Rodriguez during Transgender Awareness Week. Brandy Rodriguez was a Trinidadian transwoman and a pioneering voice for the trans community, advancing LGBTQ+ rights in Trinidad and Tobago for over 20 years. The outspoken transgender and LGBTQ+ activist passed away on October 28, 2021.
Rodriguez was the president of the Trinidad and Tobago Transgender Coalition, a human rights and trans rights organization based in Trinidad and Tobago. Rodriguez’s work with the organization included advocating for affirming and accessible health care services for the LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV and AIDS. She regularly facilitated training and workshops in the private and public sectors across the country to reduce stigma, discrimination, and violence impacting the transgender community.