Commemorating the Transgender Day of Remembrance

Nov. 20 marks the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, commemorating those lost to anti-transgender violence over the past year. For more information on the Transgender Day of Remembrance and a list of related events around the world, many of which are held this week, visit http://www.transgenderdor.org.

The Task Force honors the memory of transgender people killed both in the U.S. and abroad during 2010 and will continue to work for full LGBT equality. Preliminary data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, a forthcoming joint study from the Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality, found more than one quarter of transgender people surveyed have lost a job for being transgender and discovered that members of the transgender community have double the rate of poverty as the general population. And, alarming though not surprising, the survey also indicates that transgender people are very vulnerable to physical violence because of bias. Read more preliminary findings from the survey here and here.

The Task Force is proud of its work to change the federal hate crimes law to include anti-transgender crimes. In 2009, violent hate crimes committed on the basis of gender identity, along with sexual orientation, became federal crimes under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in October of that year.