The International Trans Day of Remembrance is next week, on November 20th. It is an annual observance that honors the memory of Trans, Two-Spirit, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming community members whose lives were taken from acts of violence.
As you may know, the Trans community has been put under a microscope by many government administrations across the world, including Canada. Because of this, many members of the Canadian Trans community have felt an increase in pressure, oppression, and violence.
- Transgender communities, and in particular Trans People of Colour, face some of the highest rates of violent crime – with 70% of Trans Youth in Canada experiencing some form of sexual harassment or violence.
- Transgender and Non-Binary Youth are more than twice as likely to have thought of self-harm in their lifetime compared to those who are cisgender (a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex registered for them at birth)
- Stats recently released from Vancouver show an increase of 83 per cent in hate incidents targeting those who are Trans, Non-Binary, Agender or Intersex between December 2022 & December 2023.
Some things that you can do include:
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Normalize not assuming someone’s pronouns – try wearing pronoun pins or get in the habit of adding pronouns to your introductions
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Review this quick overview of Trans Community-based knowledge and vocabulary: https://www.queerevents.ca/education/transgender
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Read this quick interview which looks at the TDoR from a student point-of-view: https://www.glsen.org/blog/conversation-about-transgender-day-remembrance
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Take some time to get to know the Trans community members we have lost this year: https://tdor.translivesmatter.info/reports/tdor2025?
