JASMYN to commemorate Transgender Day of Remembrance

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – JASMYN, Jacksonville’s LGBTQ Youth Center, will host a week of events for the first time virtually to honor the lives of transgender people lost to violence.

The virtual event will begin Nov. 17 and end on Nov. 20.

Graciela Cain, JASMYN Youth Program Coordinator and local TDOR organizer exclaims: “We at JASMYN try to use this week to highlight TRANS youth in our community who are making a huge impact and honoring these folx while they are still here. Trans folx are resilient! There will be a Trans 101 training as part of the activities, and we will have a day to Honor Trans Folx who have transitioned out of this world due to targeted violence.”

JASMYN plans four days of activities online including Trans101 Training, How to be a Trans Ally in the South, Honor Space for Trans Solidarity, and a Remembrance.

The program focuses on learning about the violence affecting the transgender community and the vigil will include a reading of the list of names of those lost this year to violence, to hold up their memory and their light. This type of violence disproportionately affects trans people of color, especially in the south.

JASMYN serves trans people as well as the rest of the rainbow of LGBTQ youth in Northeast Florida.

In order to participate, you can register for each separately here.

“We hope this full week of TDOR will invite folx to stand up stronger in their allyship and have more language and deeper understanding of how to support trans people in their communities,” Cain, also known in the community as DJ GeeXella, offered.

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual national observance on November 20th that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. JASMYN is leading a movement to rename the day Transgender Day of Resilience, honoring the trans community’s ability to find their way forward against tremendous odds especially from aggression based on appearance.