Transgender Day of Remembrance
Transgender Awareness Week took place this year from November 13 to 19. The aim is to increase awareness and visibility of trans people. It is also an opportunity to celebrate and learn about the lives of trans and non-binary people and the many contributions they have made and continue to make.
November 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance. It is a day when we honour the memory of transgender people whose lives were lost due to acts of bigotry and violence. The first Transgender Day of Remembrance was observed in 1998 when trans advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith hosted a vigil in memory of Rita Hester. Rita was a black trans woman who was killed in 1998 in her own apartment. The case remains unsolved. The vigil became a remembrance of all trans lives lost to violence and has since become an annual event.
Facts
- Transgender (often abbreviated as trans) is an umbrella term for a person whose gender identity, gender expression or behaviour does not conform to what is typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.
- Non-binary is an umbrella term used to describe individuals who may experience a gender identity that is neither exclusively female or male, it can exist between or beyond both genders.
- Two-spirit refers to a person who identifies as having both a masculine and a feminine spirit and is used by some Indigenous people to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual identity. The term is a translation of the Anishinaabemowin term “niizh manidoowag”, which means two spirits.
- Canada is the first country to provide census data on transgender and non-binary people.
- According to the 2021 Canadian census, of the nearly 30.5 million people in Canada aged 15 and older, approximately 59,460 Canadians identified as transgender.
- In the same 2021 Canadian census, 41,355 Canadians identified as non-binary.
Great Canadian Entertainment stands with the transgender community in our fight against transphobia. Everyone deserves to feel safe and to be treated with respect and dignity.
