Transgender Day of Remembrance 2018 at St. Pete City Hall. (Photo by Ryan Williams-Jent)
LGBTQ advocates and allies throughout Central Florida and Tampa Bay will mark Transgender Day of Remembrance 2022 with vigils and more this Sunday, Nov. 20.
The annual commemoration honors the lives lost in acts of anti-transgender violence each year. According to the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, at least 32 transgender or gender nonconforming people were murdered in 2022.
“We say ‘at least’ because too often these stories go unreported — or misreported,” the Human Rights Campaign notes. “In previous years, the majority of these people were Black and Latinx transgender women.
“These victims, like all of us, are loving partners, parents, family members, friends and community members,” the organization continues. “They worked, went to school and attended houses of worship. They were real people — people who did not deserve to have their lives taken from them.”
This TDoR and always, Watermark mourns those we have lost. We have gathered information about local vigils below.
CENTRAL FLORIDA
Transgender Day of Remembrance
3 – 4 p.m. | Joy Metropolitan Community Church
Gender Identity in Florida and TransAction Florida present TDoR 2022 at Joy Metropolitan Community Church. Please come together as a community to honor those we’ve lost to anti-transgender violence. Read more here.
Transgender Day of Remembrance
5:30 p.m. | Sunflower Park, DeLand
DeLand Pride will host a memorial at sunset to honor and remember the transgender souls that perished as a result of violence in 2022. Visit DeLand Pride’s event page here.
TAMPA BAY
Trans+ Day of Remembrance March & Vigil – St. Pete
5:30 – 7 p.m. | City Hall, St. Petersburg
The Trans+ Liberation Collective will lead this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance in St. Petersburg, reflecting on lives lost to anti-transgender violence, suicide and other hardships. The candlelit march will begin at the Sunshine Center at 5:30 and lead to City Hall, where speakers will commemorate the event with gifts and read the names of those lost. Learn more here.
FLAG Tampa’s Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil
5:30 – 8:30 p.m. | Joe Chillura Courthouse Square, Tampa
PFLAG Tampa is hosting its annual Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil this Sunday. The event will feature live music, remarks from local activists and leaders, a reading of the 2022 names of trans individuals we’ve lost to violent crimes and a period of reflection. It is open to the public at no cost, but donations to PFLAG Tampa are suggested. Learn more here.
SARASOTA
Transgender Day of Remembrance Service & Memorial Garden Dedication
3 p.m. | MCC Church of the Trinity, Sarasota
MCC Church of the Trinity will dedicate a Trans Memorial Garden on its campus. It will remember those trans people we have lost as well as give voice to the hopes, needs and dreams of the trans community. All are welcome as it is dedicated. Learn more here.
To add an event or vigil to this list, email Managing Editor Ryan Williams-Jent at Ryan@WatermarkOnline.com.
