Once again, the community will gather to remember and celebrate the transgender friends and loved ones who were lost to violent attacks, and to raise awareness of continuing violence against transgender people.
This year’s International Transgender Day of Remembrance will take place 7 p.m. Nov. 20 at the William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St.
The ceremony will begin with a reading of the names of those who have been lost to violence. Remarks will be made by community leaders including Deputy Commissioner Kevin Bethel, the police department’s LGBT liaison.
Deja Alvarez, a peer outreach coordinator at Mazzoni Center and one of the organizers for the ceremony, said it is important to keep attention on and conversation about the discrimination and violence many trans people face.
“We must make sure we acknowledge the life loss. We must remind ourselves of the issues we are facing so nobody forgets our struggle,” she said.
Yet Alvarez is proud of what has been accomplished in the past year in Philadelphia, especially within the police department.
“We were able to work with the police department, including Commissioner Ramsey and Deputy Commissioner Bethel, to get the transgender directive in place,” she said, referring to the policy released at the beginning of the year that provides a blueprint for how transgender and gender-nonconforming people should be treated by individual officers and the department. “That was a big step forward for us and we are so grateful.”
Just last month, Alvarez met again with Ramsey.
“The meeting was more or less just an acknowledgement. He wanted to know how we felt, were things progressing like we had hoped and was there anything else we needed from him,” she said.
“There is always progress to be made,” Alvarez added. “But we are extremely grateful that the police department has made themselves so available. And that they are working so hard to make sure this happens and recognizing that it was a definite need in the community.”
The event is free and open to the public, and is made possible by the collaborative effort of community organizations like the LGBT Elder Initiative, TPAC, Mazzoni Center and the JFK Behavioral Health Center. Entertainment and light refreshments will conclude the program.
For more information, contact Alvarez at 770-685-5581 or [email protected].
