“We mourn the people who lost their lives to transphobia and anti-transgender violence this year and remember what those people meant to their loved ones and their communities,” Admiral Rachel Levine (R, seen in 2023 next to Becerra), the 17th U.S. assistant secretary for health, said Wednesday. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI |
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Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Top U.S. government officials took time to honor Transgender Day of Remembrance in the United States amid a sizable political shift pending in Washington that includes the addition of the first transgender person ever elected to Congress.
On Wednesday, America's highest-ranking transgender government official said, "in a nation that prides itself on freedom, every individual deserves the right to live authentically and without fear."
Transgender Day of Remembrance was created in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation organization, otherwise known as GLAAD.
"We mourn the people who lost their lives to transphobia and anti-transgender violence this year and remember what those people meant to their loved ones and their communities," Admiral Rachel Levine, the 17th U.S. assistant secretary for Health & Human Services, wrote in a statement.
The day first began as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a Black transgender woman killed in 1998 in Boston, Mass., in a still unsolved murder case.
A recent report by Transgender Europe and Central Asia shows 350 trans people were killed across the globe from October 2023 to September this year, which is up from the prior year's 321.
According to experts, 93% of victims were Black trans people or of other racial backgrounds while 46% were transgender sex workers.
"Let us come together in love and solidarity to honor those we have lost by building a world where everyone can live safely, happily and free of prejudice," Levine, a former Pennsylvania secretary of Health prior to her appointment by President Joe Biden, said.
A transgender remembrance vigil will typically involve the reading of a list of names of those persons lost in the year. Vigils hosted by local transgender advocates or LGBTQ organizations are commonly held at community centers, parks, places of worship or other venues.
Earlier this year, Biden signed a proclamation declaring March 31, 2024 as "Transgender Day of Visibility."
In the afternoon on Wednesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's HIV Division posted on social media to also recognize the day.
"We stand in solidarity with trans people to #StopTransphobia," the CDC's HIV division wrote.
This year's day to remember arrived just weeks after Delaware's Sarah McBride was elected as the nation's first transgender person to serve as a member of Congress beginning in January.
Meanwhile, at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, "we do all we can so that our fellow Americans, young and old, can live who they are, free from discrimination, harassment, and violence," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a statement.
"We fight so that trans Americans can go to the doctor and receive the same treatment as any other patient," he continued, "so that they feel welcomed at school and in their community for who they are." He went on to say at HHS "we fight for the rights of our transgender and non-binary employees" within the HHS workforce in order to have "a safe and inclusive place to work."
However, there's been a "consistent rise" in hate crimes, levels of online and offline hate speech "especially from political actors and religious and faith leaders, public figures," according to a Transgender Europe spokesperson.
For McBride, her election has put her in the spotlight for more than one reason.
This week, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a controversial bill to ban transgender people from using Capitol Hill bathrooms that align with gender identity in a direct target at McBride.
"I'm not here to fight about bathrooms," McBride said Wednesday on X. "I'm here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families."
Her soon-to-be colleague Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said "too many transgender people have been killed just for living as their true, authentic selves," Jayapal wrote on behalf of House Democrats to likewise honor Transgender Day of Remembrance.
But the outgoing HHS secretary requested for the public "to join me in recognizing the many transgender, non-binary, and two-spirit Americans across this country for their extraordinary strength and resilience."
"We see you. We support you. We fight for you," said Becerra.
The Human Rights Campaign offers a list of LGBTQ+ crisis and suicide prevention hotlines and other resources.